EENHANA – Speeding up the decentralization process is one of the solutions to the numerous socio-economic development challenges facing the country, according to Swapo Party Councillor for the Eenhana constituency, Nehemia Haufiku.
Haufiku made the statement during the tour of various projects by members of the Ohangwena Regional Council. “It is up to the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development and the Office of the Prime Minister to enhance this decentralisation process and then everything else will be solved from the constituency level. We need our people to be patient, because as you can see, we are trying our level best to implement some projects in our constituencies but we lack human resources, because our people are not motivated to come and work for their own projects,” said Haufiku. The tour of various projects that started in the Okongo conservancy through to the Omauni National Youth Project ended at a farm belonging to the Ohangwena Youth Forum and was geared towards appraising councillors about grassroots projects, while highlighting the challenges of development especially in remote rural areas.
During the day-long excursion, the entourage which included nine Swapo Party councillors in the Ohangwena Region was accompanied by the Okongo constituency councillor, who is also the chairperson of the Ohangwena Regional Management Committee, Paulus Mwahanyekange. The rest of the entourage included officials from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and media practitioners in the region. During the tour it became apparent that while development may have reached some parts of the region, other constituencies are in dire need of service delivery.
Residents of the Okongo constituency are now enjoying the implementation of a green scheme project that includes vegetable, fruit and mahangu production and is implemented by the National Youth Service. Haufiku lambasted youths for not volunteering to work on projects leaving the elderly to work alone. “Look here, where are our beloved Namibian youths in these projects? The meme (Maria Kapembe) working for this project is now old and she needs to leave this project to continue producing, but where are our youths to take over?” he asked.
The Okongo conservancy, a vegetable and fruit project situated some 40 kilometres east of Okongo, was founded by 55-year-old Maria Kapembe who is now nearing retirement, but no youths in the constituency are willing to volunteer and take over the project. The project employs five youths but still needs some more for the carpentry project. The project was launched officially by the then Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah in 2010 as a community forest and has produced some quality furniture, vegetables and fruit. “The roads are very bad and this blocks tourists and other visitors to come to our rural areas, we need them to be tarred,” said Kapembe on the challenges facing the project. “People are complaining about development in the region, but in this constituency, while there was no electricity before, there was just a bush, but today we are visiting a developing area being managed by an old woman,” said the Okongo councillor, Paulus Mwahanyekange, adding that development is possible once there are healthy relations between the local, regional and national leadership.
By Clemence Tashaya