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General News City council in controversial water disconnection
General News City council in controversial water disconnection
| City council in controversial water disconnection |
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| Written by The Editor | |||
| Friday, 13 March 2009 08:54 | |||
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Well-known retired Maths teacher Cecilia Cummings and her husband Brian, who is confined to a wheelchair, found themselves without water this week, as the uncanny hand of the City of Windhoek’s clampdown on alleged rate delinquency descended. What is strange about the city’s latest target is that water at the couple’s Klein Windhoek residence was disconnected in the absence of a bill. The invoice from the city council, which the Economist has in its possession, indicates a very suspicious development in the municipality’s accounting system. Instead of figures on water and electricity consumption, as is the norm with statements Windhoek residents receive every month, the Cummings’ bill shows a minus-N$450. There is no “carried forward” balance on the invoice. “A piece of paper with two figures, one typed in about N$12 000, but cancelled and handwritten N$24 000 was just waved under my nose by the municipality man who showed up to disconnect my water on Monday,” the retired Maths teacher told the Economist this week. “He did not even wait for me to prove that there was nothing wrong with our accounts. I told him to wait while I went indoors to retrieve my statements, but when I returned a moment later, water had been disconnected and he had left, she added. The venue of the meeting with the Economist, this week, was a restaurant in Klein Windhoek. After spending hours seeking an explanation from the city council, the elderly couple had retired to the restaurant to have lunch. “We can’t at home. All the people I met to the city offices today showed no sympathy, even with the fact that I have a paralysed husband,” Cummings said. Besides cooking and general household use, the disconnection has left Brian’s already fragile health in jeopardy. Prostrate cancer blocked his urinary system, such that he relieves himself by aid of a tube. The equipment used for self-catheterisation, he told the Economist, should always be kept “meticulously” clean. “If it’s not cleaned, it causes infection,” Brian said. The Cummings moved into the residence in January this year. They said an agent handled the procedures, including making arrangements on changing the account from the previous tenant. “He (agent) paid the N$450 that is indicated on the invoice. If the account was really in arrears, we could have known at the time when he went to change the account details,” Cecilia said. By the time of going to press, the City of Windhoek had not responded to questions e-mailed to its spokesperson Elizabeth Sibindi, who had confirmed receipt.
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