SWAKOPMUND: Several fast food kiosk owners operating alongside the Swakopmund beach area have expressed dissatisfaction with the municipality’s decision to relocate them, citing no prior consultation.

The business owners during a stakeholders meeting with the Swakopmund Municipality on Thursday accused the council of only acting on complaints from some community members, but not consulting with them on the matter before deciding on this move.

In an interview with Nampa, Jackie Kaela, owner of Surf and Chicken located at the Mole Beach said the municipality received complaints about their operations at the beach, but could not disclose to them the specifics thereof.

Kaela explained that they received some letters from the municipality last year informing them that they would not be renewing their leases for the spaces they are renting, from the end of February 2023 and that they would need to relocate to a new area.

“We then decided to engage the municipality because we needed to understand why we were required to move from an area that is frequented by people the most and is safest for everyone to swim and have a good time. They just told us someone has been complaining but they could not tell us what they were complaining about, and instead referred us to their archives for minutes from some council meeting that took place,” she expressed.

Kaela who has been operating from the Mole since 2019, expressed that moving her business from where it currently is, will kill it as the area where they are expected to relocate is far from the people who need her services the most because most of her customers do not even know about that area.

“I am catering for the average person who cannot afford to buy an expensive meal from the expensive restaurants and hotels surrounding this area but still wants to have a good time with their family and have a good meal,” she said.

Manager of Corporate Services and Human Capital in the municipality Andre Plaatjies noted that Council has had to change several policies in place, including that of regulating informal traders and now including kiosks specifically.

A kiosk owner who spoke on condition of anonymity told Nampa that the complainants, who live a few metres away, claim the cooking oil remnants used in the preparation of the fast food cause a foul smell in their houses and dirties their windows.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency