The Walvis Bay community has called on the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to take over the affairs of the town.
The community led by businessman Cobus van Schalkwyk invited the Deputy Minister Evelyn Nawases-Taeyele and Swapo Party Secretary General Sophia Shaningwa.
In his opening remarks, Cobus van Schalkwyk said the meeting, which was also attended by other Swapo national leaders, was not a political meeting.
Van Schalkwyk said Swapo Party Secretary General Shaningwa was invited to seek answers about the deteriorating service delivery to residents, saying that the Swapo government is often accused of withholding funds because the town is opposition-controlled.
"When we enquire why the roads have been neglected to such an extent for four years, we always hear that Swapo is withholding the budget because the town is under the majority of opposition councillors. Madam Shaningwa, if Swapo has the capacity to sabotage and withhold the budget of this municipality, why does Swapo allow our councillors to have the budget to travel around the world while the development of our town is stagnant? Since we are tired of hearing "Swapo this" and "Swapo that", we decided to get direct answers from Swapo leadership, and we cannot be treated differently from the rest of the country."
Shaningwa said the Walvis Bay Municipality is a Tier 1 local authority which runs its own financial affairs and is not controlled by central government.
"They receive money every God's day, there is no day that a municipality will say to them, 'Nobody came to pay for their rates and taxes.' It's a business. Why are you a business? You are a business to make sure that you bill those people, those citizens in your town. You bill them to enable you to run the services and to provide the services to the particular citizens of that town. Is there any financial prudence? Is there any financial prudence in our municipalities?"
Denouncing the meeting, the Independent Patriots for Change issued a statement saying the event was allegedly held to undermine the mandate of the democratically elected IPC leadership in the municipality. The IPC described the meeting led by the business community at Walvis Bay as an undercover power grab by the Swapo Party.
The IPC statement accused Swapo of justifying an illegal takeover of a municipality it lost in 2020 and described the alleged move as shocking.
According to the statement, the meeting shows Swapo's desperation ahead of the November elections.