WALVIS BAY – The chairperson of the Walvis Bay Municipal Council has objected to a directive by the line ministry that wants to hold the local authority of councillors liable for legal costs incurred in the municipality’s dispute with Wena Investments CC.
Chairperson of the management committee, Ephraim Shozi, who spoke at the special council meeting on Wednesday, said it is unfair to hold the council liable for a matter they had no knowledge of.
During the meeting, he read the ministry’s directive and questioned why the political leadership was not informed about the dispute before it went to the High Court.
According to Shozi, councillors only became aware of the litigation through social media and were not formally briefed on the dispute with Wena before it reached court.
“We rejected the directive from the line ministry. The council should not be held responsible for legal expenditure due to administrative decisions taken without proper political oversight. Hence, we strongly disagree with or object to the ministerial directive of liability against council members,” Shozi said during the meeting
The dispute
The dispute ended in the High Court after Wena Investment’s water was disconnected over a municipal account which the company says belonged to an unrelated third party.
The company proved that its account was fully paid and that it had no connection to the individual whose account was in arrears with N$10 301.20.
According to court documents, a similar error occurred in 2014, when two accounts totalling N$14 653.79 belonging to the same third party were linked to Wena Investment. The mistake was later reversed.
This time around, the company said the same problem resurfaced, resulting in the disconnection of water to 17 apartments, three offices and four businesses at its property.
Wena subsequently approached the High Court on an urgent basis.
The court issued in September 2026 restrained the municipality from disconnecting the company’s water supply since the account was not linked to the company.
Shozi said the municipality had already incurred about N$23 000 in legal expenditure relating to the matter, with further costs potentially still to be incurred.
During the meeting, the council recommended that the CEO compile a detailed report explaining why the Wena Investment dispute was allegedly withheld from political oversight structures and how it progressed to the High Court.
Call for audit
Council is also calling for an immediate financial audit to establish the final amount spent on legal fees and any additional costs arising from the litigation, as well as other legal matters.
“The officials responsible for handling the matter should be identified and for appropriate disciplinary or legal action to be considered if any wrongdoing or procedural breaches are established,” he said.
According to council, any verified unauthorised legal costs will be dealt with through the appropriate procedures rather than simply being recovered from councillors.
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