Rehoboth councillors demand greater transparency
Rehoboth Town Council councillors have called for greater transparency in the reporting of projects and programmes to ensure residents are kept informed about how ratepayers’ money is being used. The call was made during the council’s ordinary meeting on 31 August 2026, where councillors raised concerns about information that was not included in the current agenda.
Councillor Justin Coetzee said certain parts of council reports could be dealt with in camera, but progress reports on projects should be made available to the public. He said residents should be informed about the progress of specific projects and what departments of the local authority were doing. Coetzee said such reporting would allow the community to see how far projects had progressed and what was being done with ratepayers’ money. He gave sewage in Oana Park as an example, saying residents should be informed when a project was expected to start and later be told when work had actually begun.
He acknowledged that confidential matters needed to be handled carefully through the in-camera process, but said information that could be made public should be shared with the community. The discussion followed a concern that some information from a previous report was not included in the current agenda. Coetzee further stated that certain information should be available to the public in the interest of transparency. The chief executive officer Ronald Windswaai, explained that the council’s next report would focus on its strategic objectives and the way forward in terms of its strategic plan.
An operational report covering July and August would then be submitted in September, allowing for a comparative assessment of the council’s operational activities.
