Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) local authority councillor, Fearika Botha on Tuesday resigned from her position as councillor of the Otjiwarongo Municipality.

Botha in an interview with Nampa said she resigned due to health reasons as well as to devote her time to her family.

She had on 20 May 2022 also resigned from the management committee of the municipality and opted to remain an ordinary council member, a position which she has now resigned from too.

At the time, she cited hostile working relations between herself and the chairperson of the management committee of the municipality, Godhardt Hoko.

She further accused Hoko of abusing the authority of his position as chairperson and said he allegedly also does not want to be corrected when wrong.

Botha on 14 April 2022 was placed on one month’s suspension by her fellow councillors after she allegedly assisted a community member to renew a municipality horse stable farming unit lease agreement.

Botha became a councillor at the municipality on 22 September 2021 after the death of Lee-Anne Liebenberg.

She is a dentist by profession at the town, and also the IPC’s Otjozondjupa regional coordinator.

Chief Executive Officer of the Otjiwarongo Municipality, Moses Matyayi on Tuesday confirmed receiving Botha’s resignation letter.

Matyayi stated that the municipality would now notify the line Ministry of Urban and Rural Development for it to place a notice in the government gazette, before the IPC nominates a candidate who will replace Botha on the municipality council.

The municipality councillors at Otjiwarongo are Mayor Gottlieb Shivute, his deputy Julienda Kampungu, Godhardt Hoko and Hilde Jeseja, Ernst Muraranganda and Sebetius Guiteb.

Guiteb is serving the municipality on the ticket of the Landless People’s Movement, while Muraranganda is from the Popular Democratic Movement.

Shivute, Kampungu, Hoko and Jeseja are all from the Swapo Party.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency