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The Cabinet has approved that households with a gross monthly income of N3,200 or less will be eligible for drought relief food.
Cabinet Secretary George Simata, who made the remarks yesterday at a public sector information sharing conference in Opuwo, encouraged government information practitioners to disseminate government’s key messages to the nation.
“Some rural communities have had inconsistent or no information at all, preventing them from benefiting from the (debt relief) program. We need to significantly improve public communication.”
He also lamented that the project was underfunded, a chronic problem for the government, which Simata said was the result of poor communication.
He said that as of June, the government had received only N28.7 million in drought relief claims, of which only N19.8 million had been paid out. “The eligibility criteria for the drought relief are problematic. In 2019/2020, N292.3 million in the budget has not yet been fully spent. The same is true for the N38.2 million in the 2023/2024 budget (when N9.5 million was not claimed),” he pointed out.
He therefore urged government information practitioners to be vigilant. Simata said public administrators often fail to provide adequate information, especially to the media, which plays a vital role in providing information to the public. “As public administrators, we are not able to answer questions from the media or clarify our position on certain issues. If we don’t respond, then who will?” he wondered.
discriminate
Martha Simon, a resident of Otjaandamwenyo village in Ruacana constituency, recently expressed her dissatisfaction to the Namibian Sun over the way MP Andreas Sintama handled the distribution of drought relief food in the area.
She accused Sintama of discriminating against residents of Otjaandamwinyo. “We don’t receive drought relief regularly like others; it always comes three or four months later and is just a bag of maize meal and a bottle of cooking oil. Others receive it every month and always have extra items,” she recounted.
She added: “It’s not just drought relief; he (Sintama) has done many things that show discrimination. When we confronted him about it, he said our village did not vote for him and we should go to the councillor we voted for drought relief. I think this is because there are only Himba and Deba people in our village and he is a Ndonga,” Simon said.
wrong
Sintama denied the allegations, adding that his office does not discriminate and is doing all it can to distribute drought-resistant food.
“We receive food every time and distribute it through legal procedures. That is, through the village head and the committee responsible for registering residents (to receive drought relief food). We give the food to the committee and the villagers. To be honest, we don’t discriminate against anyone. Give that person to the (village head’s) office,” he said.
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