Kalkfeld
Residents of Kalkfeld in the Otjozondjupa Region are tired of politicians who make empty promises during election time, particularly with regard to service delivery.
Kalkfeld is a settlement with a population of over 3 000, situated halfway between Omaruru and Otjiwarongo on the national C33 road in Omatako electoral constituency.
Kalkfeld was proclaimed a village in 1991, but in 1996 was downgraded to a settlement by the village council due to a lack of economic growth. The settlement does not have a fully functioning water and sewerage system, nor electricity supply, nor an ambulance.
Kalkfeld residents say at election time politicians promise them essential services, such as running water, toilets and other basic services that they do not have, but as soon as the councillors have been voted into office, they tend to forget about the voters.
Justice Kairana, a communal farmer at the settlement, said government officials usually neglect the people of the forlorn area after elections, but prior and during elections they come to beg for the people’s votes.
“We are tired of empty promises. Most of the households here depend on farming for a living, but there is no land. We graze our livestock in corridors next to the railway line,” Kairana said.
“We have lost so many of our livestock due to this, because very often the animals get crushed by the trains,” he added.
According to him government ministers, governors and councillors have visited the settlement, promising to come up with solutions to their problems, but to date nothing has been done.
“We had the former Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Alpheus !Naruseb, here last year. He promised to attend to our problems, but to date nothing has been done,” he said.
Kairana said there has been no tangible development at the settlement over the past 25 years: “We don’t have a fully functioning water system, we don’t have toilets, we are unemployed, there are no business opportunities, we don’t have land for grazing, and a lot more.”
He said over the past eighteen years communal farmers in the area have pleaded with government to accommodate them on resettlement farms, but their pleas fell deaf ears.
“We have between us more than 800 livestock grazing in an area of less than 1 000 hectares,” he said, adding that they have run out of space and are in dire need of farmland.
Another farmer confirmed that their cattle graze in the corridors next to the railway line and more often than not the cattle are run over by trains.
“Our cattle are also being impounded by commercial farmers in the area for crossing their boundaries and we have to pay N$50 per head of cattle to get them back,” another concerned farmer said.
He said they are tired of empty promises and official pledges to relocate their families. “We have been waiting. What is happening now is that we are sick and tired of empty promises,” Kairana said.
Kairua Jazema said, “Some politicians have been promising us a lot things, but very few come back to support us. We are tired of empty promises by councillors, governors, ministers.
“Please go and tell him (President Hage Geingob) to visit Kalkfeld, so that he can see this for himself,” he pleaded.
Contacted for comment, Kalkfeld Chief Control Officer, Dona Endjala referred all queries to the Otjiwarongo Chief Regional Officer, Jeaneth Kuhanga. Kuhanga was unavailable for comment yesterday, as her phone went unanswered.