Keetmanshoop
The chairperson of the National Council, Margaret Mensah-Williams has hit out at what she calls a negative image being created by outsiders, who depict the people of the South as drunkards.
Addressing the community of //Karas Region at Keetmanshoop on Monday, Mensah-Williams said the people of the South are often labelled as drunkards, which she says is a wrongful and a biased image that does not truly reflect the culture of the people in the South.
“The image people have of us is that we drink a lot, but that’s not true, is it?” she asked the gathered crowd at WK Rover hall in Tseiblaagte.
The prominent parliamentarian urged the people in attendance to shrug off such negative labels and work towards empowering themselves and their fellow residents, instead of breaking each other down. She said not working together would hold back the development of the region. “I refuse to listen to people who say people of the South are drunkards,” Mensah-Williams said.
The community members in attendance engaged the chairperson on various issues, including land, government grants and lack of health facilities in some rural areas.
Ironically, Joy-Anne Hartung from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare told the chairperson of a disturbing trend, whereby parents or guardians who receive grants on behalf of their children end up spending it on alcohol, saying the grants do not benefit the children.
“People are receiving grants, but the children are not benefiting from these grants. It all goes to the shebeens,” she alleged.
She called on government to put in place mechanisms to help curb this practice, saying it is not good when government is making efforts to eradicate poverty and people can now produce as many children as they please, yet the money intended for these children does not reach them.
Responding to queries from the audience, Mensah-Williams also expressed disappointment in the resettlement programme, saying many people in the South still do not have land to call their own and noted that even traditional authorities are without land.
She said indigenous people in the South do not have land, because their land was taken away and now they have nothing and this needs change. Southerners should be allocated farms first, she said.
“I’m not saying other people shouldn’t get land. I’m saying when we started building this country we started in the North where little was done [previously], and so we should also do the same with land redistribution,” she said.
She also expressed concern about sanitation in the region, pointing out that during the anti-colonial struggle, they protested against the poor sanitation facilities by dumping the toilets in front of municipal offices, but it is a pity that the situation has not improved significantly since independence.
“We took those toilets and threw them at the door of the municipality. We are now ruling, but what did we do about it?” she asked.
She also called on residents to stand together and report corrupt practices, which she said are hampering development in the country, noting that corruption at the end of the day affects ordinary Namibians who need basic services.
She pointed out that two government projects in the Kavango regions have not taken off yet, because an unnamed permanent secretary, who has somehow transferred the money somewhere else.
“What happened to that money”? she asked, adding that the National Council will investigate the matter.
Mensah-Williams is in the //Karas Region as part of her National Council outreach programme, which is aimed at enhancing public participation in law making and promoting the work of the House of Review.