Eba Kandovazu
LANDLESS People’s Movement (LPM) councilor Sade Gawanas was this afternoon elected the new Mayor of the Windhoek Municipal Council.
Gawanas replaces Job Amupanda, Chief Activist of the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) Movement. She is deputised by Nudo’s Joseph Uapingene.
AR and the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) jointly declined to vote or nominate candidates. Gawanas was nominated by Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) councillors. Gawanas, who accepted the symbolical mayoral chain, which her predecessor rejected to wear, is calling on the City’s leadership to fight against corruption, fraud, nepotism and irregularities. She reiterates the importance of service delivery.
“Delivering land to the landless must remain a priority and must be addressed with enough vigour and enthusiasm as if it has depended on our last breath. A new era of politics has dawned on us, that we need to constantly reinforce the importance of convergence on issues that matter. Let disagreements not predominantly impede our potential to achieve but rather that our disagreements are based on issues that matter. We have to make things happen,” she says.
Addressing fellow councilors, Gawanas, says she is open to constructive criticism. “We have to continue creating and maintaining local, regional and across the board partnerships, have a friendly approach towards investors and create conducive environments for business to thrive and investments to grow, for investors to feel secure, safe and comfortable enough to invest within the boundaries of Windhoek,” she appeals.
Jurgen Hecht, Otilie Uukule, Ndeshihafela Laranja and Ivan Skeywer have been elected for the Management Committee.
