Keetmanshoop
Pensioners in Keetmanshoop will be treated to a brötchen and soup when receiving their old age pension.
The initiative, which started on Tuesday, aims to feed about 2 500 pensioners at the Nampost pay point for two days of each month for the remainder of the year.
The breakfast is a collaboration between Nampost and Pick n Pay, with Nampost providing the brötchens and the latter bringing soup to the table.
Speaking to some pensioners they expressed their gratitude to the two institutions for the good gesture. They said pensioners usually stand in long queues on hungry stomachs on pension day and called on others to follow suit in helping the elderly.
Pensioner Willem Josob said some pensioners usually spend the night at Nampost to be first in the queue the next day and the little breakfast “will be a major boost for our morale”.
“Most wouldn’t have had breakfast because they wouldn’t have had anything to eat, so it’s a good thing,” he said of the initiative.
He however urged the government to set up more pay points in different locations, saying that life is made difficult for the elders as they all have to get their payments through Nampost, which results in them waiting for hours to get their pension.
“When we come very early then people think it’s because we love money, but it’s because we don’t want to be here from 8am to 5pm,” he said.
The Pick n Pay store manager at Keetmanshoop, Franklin Hartung, who is behind the initiative said the feeding scheme is part of the store’s social responsibility programme for customers.
“We feel our old people stand in long queues for long hours, so we feel it’s our obligation to do this,” he said.
He emphasised that the exercise is just about giving a helping hand where possible and not necessarily telling the elders to go and buy at Pick n Pay, adding that such acts add great value to the community.