2018-07-16Staff Report 2 Nuusita Ashipala ONGWEDIVA – The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration in the Ohangwena Region will issue national identity documents to more than 1500 residents of Omulonga Constituency, including school going children. Constituency councillor Erickson Ndawanifwa said more than 1500 people, 700 of whom are school going learners, are without national documents. Ndawanifwa said the constituency’s request to have a mobile station in the constituency has been approved and has started working last week. “We hope that with the mobile station, everybody in the constituency will have national documents in the near future,” said Ndawanifwa. The mobile station at Omulonga will be operational until March next year. Ndawanifwa, who is also the chairperson of the Ohangwena Regional Council, wants the same gesture extended to the rest of the region. According to him, the lack of national documents is a challenge to many parts of the region, especially those that are bordering Angola. The councillor thus appealed to parents to ensure that their children are registered to acquire national documents at birth. He equally appealed to parents to put their differences aside and put their children first by ensuring that they acquire national documents. The councillor stressed that many of the children who do not have national documents are those whose parents have separated and are not willing to avail the required documents for the children to obtain national documents. He stressed that the process to acquire national documents at a later stage in life is cumbersome and thus leads to a lot of people being without national documents. He added that the situation is especially bad for learners who until Grade 10 do not have national documents. National documents are a pre-requisite to register for national examinations. “We have learners getting to Grade 10 without national documents and it is a big challenge because sometimes [learners] tend to drop out as a result,” the councillor said. He said the learners are in the meantime registered at school with church documents. 2018-07-16Staff Report 2
