Kuzeeko Tjitemisa
The minister responsible for agriculture, water and land reform Calle Schlettwein has cautioned staff against “cheap favours”, which often lead to corruption.
“Don’t accept cheap favours. I warn you, they will catch up with you. Always stick to the rules; do things rules-based,” Schlettwein said at the ministry’s annual staff address in the capital yesterday.
His warning follows hot on the heels of the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International that saw Namibia being ranked 58th out of 180 countries.
Namibia scored 49 points on the index, dropping two points and one place on the ranking since last year.
“When you ask me whether Namibians are corrupt, my answer will be ‘they are not’. Namibians are brilliant people who adhere to honesty, but it is just unfortunate that there are a few here and there breaking the rules. So, in whatever we do, we must always stick to the rules,” he emphasised.
Highlighting the ministry’s achievements in 2021, Schlettwein said last year was one of the most difficult due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, the social strata and disruptions on activity and supply chains.
Amidst these challenges, the ministry took solace from the better rains received last year, leading to bumper harvests and the filling of dams to full capacity.
He said amongst other achievements, annual agro-assessments in the seven major communal crop-growing regions of the country were conducted, providing information on household food security, the drought situation and the availability of agricultural inputs at household and regional levels.
On the land reform front, the ministry continues to implement the resolutions emanating from the second national land conference in collaboration with the High-Level Committee on the Implementation of the Second National Land Conference. As such, 29 resolutions are completely done, and they continue to execute 167, which are of an ongoing nature.
Also, the minister said during 2021, the ministry managed to acquire 10 farms for the national resettlement programme, translating to about 41 288.9 hectares at a total cost of N$88.6 million.
Similarly, 164 resettled farmers were provided with training in relevant fields of farming.
The ministry also procured materials and equipment for the development and rehabilitation of resettlement farms to the tune of N$22.5 million, and they have to date completed installations on 114 resettlement farming units countrywide.
Besides that, Schlettwein said a total of 6 233 customary land rights, 27 leaseholds and 63 occupational land rights were registered in communal areas.
Furthermore, a total of 79 tonnage of quality foundation seed, 17 tonnage certified seed and 62 tonnage were produced at the research stations and were already distributed for this cropping season.
– ktjitemisa@nepc.com.na