Albertina Nakale
WINDHOEK – Ndonga Linena Constituency Councillor Petrus Kavhura says he is much disturbed and disappointed by the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) to close down the Ndiyona satellite offices that serve three constituencies, namely Ndiyona, Ndonga-Linena and Mashare.
He said without the satellite office in the proximity of the people, delivery of service such as attending to human wildlife conflicts is already a serious challenge, due to lack of back-up staff members and vehicles.
He therefore urged MET to halt the planned closure of the satellite offices at Ndiyona and consult with the leadership and all relevant stakeholders as stipulated in all the ministry frameworks.
This comes after the ministry made its intentions known that it is closing down its Ndiyona settlement sub-office in Ndiyona Constituency in Kavango East and the three staff members at the office will be relocated to Buffalo core area in the Bwabwata National Park in Mukwe, Kavango East.
The office mainly dealt with national parks and wildlife management.
According to MET’s deputy director for the north-east regions, Apollinaris Kanying, the Ndiyona office was not worth keeping open as there are only two staff members, with the third staff member soon going on retirement.
The supervision aspect was also challenging, amongst other administrative issues, he said.
The office was being rented from the Gciriku Traditional Authority for N$750 per month and MET says the closing down is partly to cut costs.
For Ndiyona, however, closure means residents will be served from offices 100 kilometres away.
The Rundu and Buffalo offices, where the staff are being migrated, would be the nearest offices to Ndiyona.
“We got approval from the head office to close the station but it does not mean we are closing our services, we are moving the staff to Buffalo to cut costs and improve on service delivery because we have a new station at Buffalo where the staff will now be operating from,” Kanyinga said.
However, Kavhura feels the satellite office at Ndiyona was situated right in the centre of the region between the offices in Rundu and Mahango area.
“It is a pity that the regional leadership have to learn about the closure through the media. Meaning no consultations was done. Reasons provided to back the closer are irrelevant. Talking about rent cost of N$750 per month, which that translate into N$9000 per year, is not equal to moving your services far away from people you suppose to serve,” the councillor remarked.