2014-01-21Mathias Haufiku "RUNDU - Starving villagers in 425 villages in the two Kavango regions have not received any drought assistance from government during the month of December. This state of affairs has resulted in a standoff with politicians and technocrats in the Kavango Regional Council, who are now blaming one another for the blunder. About 174 000 people living in 553 villages were registered under the drought relief programme across the region and were earmarked to receive a bag of maize meal each since last year August, but last month none of them received any supplies. The Kavango Regional Council’s report for December clearly indicate that only 74 766 of the total registered population received assistance. The figures were made public yesterday here in Rundu during this year’s first Regional Disaster Risk Management Committee meeting, which as always, was attended by the heads of the various line ministries who are the core members of the committee. Chairperson of the regional council, Bonny Wakudumo, accused the officials working on the drought relief programme of “doing things their own way” instead of following established procedures. “There is poor management in this whole process, and I can tell you now that it is hampering the success of the drought relief programme. We as politicians put up plans on how the programme must run, but then the technocrats change things. Who gives you the authority to change the plans without properly consulting us,” fumed Wakudumo. “Your job is to implement the plans we as politicians have initiated. If you see our plans are not workable, come to us for consultation instead of just changing things without letting us know,” he said. Wakudumo was also irked by the lack of proper coordination and supervision at the warehouse. “Why do you think 308 maize meal bags were spoiled by the rain last year, it happened because there is no monitoring, officials at the warehouse can see that the truck does not have sufficient material to cover the maize meal in case it rains, yet they allow the truck to go and distribute food, is this really how we want to serve our people,” he said. He also blasted transport companies contracted to deliver the maize meal for intentionally taking the longest routes and avoiding distributing near the warehouse, because they want to cover more kilometres so that they can inflate their prices. With the seed distribution programme running concurrently with the distribution of maize meal, some councillors are also unhappy over the fact that maize meal and seeds are not distributed in one trip. “If you have seeds and maize meal bags destined for a village in the Kahenge constituency, why can you not just make one trip and drop them together instead of dropping one and then coming back for the other?” queried Kahenge constituency councillor Joseph Sivakhu Sikongo. “Please people, let us do justice to our people who are affected by the drought and deliver proper services to them,” pleaded the chairperson. Defending his team acting Chief Regional Officer, Ludwig Thikusho, indicated that a lack of sufficient maize meal bags in the warehouse led to the situation of not supplying everyone in December. “The maize meal is simply not there, the supplier [Kavango Mills] is not coping with our orders,” said Thikusho. “For as long as the supplier is failing to deliver,” asserted Thikusho, “we can only distribute what we have at our disposal.” With regards to transport companies manipulating the system, the council’s deputy director for administration, Jona Kanghumbe, explained a rotational policy is being used so that all contractors can benefit. “Two trucks are posted to each constituency, hence we decided to rotate them on a monthly basis so that those who were initially posted near the warehouse can also benefit,” he said. “We are aware that the supervision is a problem at the warehouse,” said Kanghumbe who noted measures to rectify that are being taken. The Regional Council has since enlisted the services Namib Mills to ensure that the required amount of maize meal bags is available every month. By Mathias Haufiku" 2014-01-21Mathias Haufiku
