Windhoek
A delegation representing residents of the Kavango East and West regions say they are satisfied with the meeting they held with Vice President Dr Nickey Iyambo and Minister of Information Tjekero Tweya on Wednesday.
The delegation is part of the Muzokumwe Volunteer Organisation, which held a demonstration earlier this year against what they claim to be underfunding, exclusion and under-representation of people from the two regions at national level.
At the time, they handed over a petition outlining their concerns to the special advisors to the governors of both regions. It is these concerns they discussed with VP Iyambo and Minister Tweya, according to chairperson of the organisation Paulus Mbangu, who declined to reveal further details of the outcome of the meeting.
“We had a progressive meeting and will continue to engage government. As to the content of our meeting and what was discussed, as well as decided, I cannot divulge any information,” Mbangu told New Era shortly after the meeting.
Tweya did not answer his mobile phone and did not respond to text messages sent to him at the time of going to print. In the petition, the residents highlighted the status of the two regions, as having the highest poverty levels in the country.
The petition claims that central government has ignored residents from the two regions and only regard them as “voting cows, who need to be given crumbs from the table in exchange” and alleged that “there seems to be no targeted strategy by government to address the fate of the poorest regions in the short to long run”.
The petition requests that government “work towards adhering to the principle of democracy and demographics on the ground, by increasing representation of people from the two Kavango regions in management and other decision-making positions to an adequate and proportionate level”.
It also requests that “government puts measures in place to ensure that all national projects in the Kavango regions – in particular green scheme projects – benefit the people of Kavango, although not to the exclusion of Namibians from other regions”.
The petitioners claimed that central government committed a monumental injustice through the exclusion and marginalisation of Kavangos, and requested a positive and speedy response to their concerns.