RUNDU – Proper record keeping between the Kavango Regional Council and the drought relief food supplier for the two Kavango regions, Kavango Mills, appears to be non-existent as the two instances find themselves at each other’s throats over drought relief food delivery figures.
The regional council says the supplier is failing to deliver the maize meal intended for those affected by the drought, while the supplier says it has delivered the precise number of bags that were ordered. The milling company’s manager, Deon Karstens, told New Era that he does not understand how the regional council could accuse the company of failing to deliver, if in August the entire 40 000 consignment of maize meal bags that was ordered was delivered. “For August they ordered 40 000 bags and we delivered, this month they ordered 60 000 bags, we have already delivered 48 000 bags.
How can they say we are not delivering?” queried Karstens. The remaining 12 000 bags will be delivered in the coming days, Karstens added. On Monday New Era reported that private companies contracted to supply food to famished households ravished by drought are failing dismally with one specific contractor delivering only about 50 percent of the required volumes of food to people registered for drought relief. Deputy Prime Minister Marco Hausiku confirmed the predicament to this reporter during an exclusive interview last Friday and pointed out that Kavango Mills is struggling to deliver.
The story published by New Era did not sit well with the management of Kavango Mills who retaliated by accusing government of jumping the gun without consulting them. “I am the owner of this company and no one told me that we are failing, so where is all this coming from. Why did they never approach me,” charged a livid Tulio van der Merwe Parreira when New Era visited the company on Monday for a follow-up news report. “I will call Marco to find out what is going on. As a reporter you must get the correct information and write the right things, because you are tarnishing the image of my business,” said Parreira.
“Is it because I am white that you are doing this, you are racist,” charged Parreira. Karstens could however not dispute difficulties in delivering supplies to the Ohangwena Region, but shifted the blame elsewhere. “They ordered 60 000 bags, so far we have only dispatched 22 521, this is because we can only load as they come since they collect it themselves.” Karstens says Kavango Mills will soon install a new maize grinding hammer mill that will cost about N$300 000 in order to double daily production. The new machine has the capacity to double the production from 90 tonnes a day to about 150 to 160 tonnes of maize meal a daily.
Kavango Regional Council (KRC) management committee chairperson, Bonny Wakudumo, said the regional council is only facilitating the process and orders are placed by the Office of the Prime Minister. Wakudumo is sticking to his earlier statement that the regional council will enlist the services of additional millers to make sure that everyone registered under the comprehensive drought relief programme receives a bag of maize meal each month. “We already identified 16 potential millers with their own machines who have the capacity to give us about 5000 to 6000 bags, so why are we doing all these efforts if he is coping,” said Wakudumo Monday afternoon. “The trucks have to drive from the depots with just 266 bags, this is a waste of resources. How can you deliver 266 bags to a village, with let us say for instance 500 people, that is an insult to the community.
Who do you give to and who must not get,” Wakudumo shot back. In a letter presented to New Era dated August 29, 2013, the KRC forwarded a letter to Kavango Mills requesting to know when the remaining 26 400 bags for August would be delivered. “We even wrote a letter to him requesting for specific information and he responded. So how can they claim that we never approached them to discuss the issue of the shortfall in the supply of maize meal. What did he respond to then?” asked Wakudumo. “Please provide the council with the programme of delivery for the remaining 26 400 bags,” the council asked in the letter. Moreover, in the same letter the supplier was also requested to provide the council with the programme of delivery for the 60 000 bags for the month of September 2013. The KRC’s Director for Planning, Gabriel Sinimbo, urged Kavango Mills owner Tulio van der Merwe Parreira to avail himself so that the matter can be solved.
“My colleagues requested to meet him, but they could not. We wanted to discuss the shortfall in the supply of maize meal, but he claims he is busy,” Sinimbo said. We would like to have more suppliers, so that the shortfall can be mitigated, said the director. Sinimbo urged the supplier to concentrate on one region, since it would be to the benefit of the community. “This is not between us and the supplier, but it is about the people who are in need of the food. It is not helping him, neither the council, if we continue disputing whether he is meeting demands or not, the records can do the talking. He knows that if he comes here we will show him the records, he will of course talk to the OPM because they are not here, but we have been feeding them with information regarding the activities taking place on the ground,” he said. “We will see if we can engage him, maybe this time around he will be available,” Sinimbo said.
By Mathias Haufiku