The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) in the Otjozondjupa Region has condemned the Grootfontein municipality's decision to appoint a debt collector.

The council appointed Red Force Debt Management to trace businesses and residents with outstanding accounts.

In a media release, the Otjozondjupa SPYL Regional Secretary, Alfeus Kamati, says Red Force disregards the welfare of residents and only considers the interests of those who hired it. 

Street vendors in Grootfontein are calling on their municipality to fast-track the construction of an open market to allow them to flourish in their businesses.

The vendors of Grootfontein have been in desperate need of an open market for years, as selling on the streets is not conducive.

From time to time, the municipality would move them from the CBD but have stopped doing so and rather charges the vendors for selling at undesignated places around town.

Vendors were also asked to move to a fenced-off municipal place for the town to look organised.

The 2024 Rugby season kicked off with wins for Unam, Grootfontein, Kudus, and Rehoboth in their Premier League matches.

The UNAM stadium hosted one of the opening games for the season as UNAM took on Wanderers.

Wanderers started the match strongly with flyhalf Jaques Theron scoring their first try.

Unam, however, gradually found their stride and began to dominate the game, scoring two tries through center Keiron Diergaardt and speedy winger Shareave Titus, leading at halftime with a score of 14-5.

Plans to improve the Otavi Magistrate's Court are on the recommendation cards following a visit by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Capital Projects and Legal Affairs, which found the building not conducive to court sessions.

This was confirmed by committee chairperson Tjekero Tweya during a courtesy call to the Otjozondjupa Governors Office, represented by Regional Council Chairperson Marlene Mbakera.

The towns of Otjiwarongo and Grootfontein in the Otjozondjupa Region and Outjo in the Kunene Region are still without Chief Executive Officers (CEOs).

CEOs are the accounting officers at town councils and are charged with overall oversight of council operations.

These local authorities, however, had been without substantive CEOs for a considerable period, and as Faith Sankwasa from Otjozondjupa reports, little or nothing is being done to appoint CEOs.

The three councils have not had substantive heads for months, with the council making use of acting CEOs.

Grootfontein Mayor Talitha Garises has warned parents to always ensure that they know the whereabouts of their children, as many are said to be flocking to the town's sewer ponds to swim.

Garises cautioned that the children risk contracting waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera from swimming in the ponds.

There have been cases of children drowning in sewer ponds, such as the recently reported incident at Otavi, where a nine-year-old boy died in a sewer pond.

The Otjozondjupa Regional Police have received three brand new police vehicles from the Road Fund Administration (RFA) for the police stations of Okakarara, Grootfontein, and Otjiwarongo.

One of the vehicles has been mounted with the jaws of life equipment.

It will be temporarily stationed at Farm Sukses, south of Otjiwarongo, to assist until the emergency centre has been set up to cut response time between Otjiwarongo and Okahandja.

With the envisioned Grootfontein-Tsumkwe-Dobe tar road in the pipeline at Otjozondjupa Region, civil servants stationed at Dobe Border Post in Botswana want development in the area for the sake of better living and working conditions.

Former employees of the Metro Cash & Carry store in Grootfontein and residents of the town held a demonstration against the management of the wholesalers for allegedly dismissing employees unfairly.

Although the current employees of the retailer did not attend the demonstration as they were allegedly not allowed to go on a lunch break, those that were dismissed, together with the community at large, demonstrated to stop management from further dismissing employees unfairly.

Farm workers who have been camping along the corridors of the Okahandja and Grootfontein Districts since 2022 are calling on the government to relocate them as a matter of urgency.

The group, which was evicted from commercial farms in the area, says they are losing livestock due to a lack of grazing land and fodder.

Some of the group were born on the farms from which they have now been evicted when their parents had previously worked there.

However, when their employer died, the farm changed ownership, and they were left stranded.