Residents of Otavi are accusing the council of sidelining them in terms of development and basic services meant to ease their daily lives.

They raised these concerns during the municipality's budget consultation.

Residents complained about lack of public toilets at the open market, street lighting and water points, among others.

Some complained about a lack of high masts on the streets.

Otavi Municipality's acting Chief Executive Officer, Heita Shikeenga, explained that some of the capital projects are funded through stakeholder agreements.

"Our developmental partner, which is B2 Gold, wants to construct an open market for the town this year. OK, there's an area that has been identified; they want to construct it. We are just going to sign that memorandum of understanding. If it is signed, we will know exactly how much the market will cost and all those nitty gritties, so that is why we did not put it in our budget because the memorandum is not signed."

For the 2026/2027 financial budget, the council proposed a capital and developmental budget of N$88 million.

It also proposed zero tariff increases.