Rundu
The Rundu Town Council (RTC) donated 240kg of mahangu seed worth N$5 000 to various beneficiaries that was recently handed over by the deputy mayor Ralf Ihemba to the Kavango East governor for distribution.
Dr Samuel Mbambo the Governor of Kavango East received the mahangu seed at an event that was witnessed by members of staff of the town council.
Annastasia Antonio, who is the chairperson of the council, applauded the governor for the food production initiative.
“We are well aware of the fact that our region is one of the poorest and I believe that is a call for action – that is why you came up with this noble idea, to see whether it will make a difference and that is why the Rundu Town Council would like to join hands and show our solidarity with the operation as we believe it will empower our people,” Antonio said.
The seed will support the region’s food production initiative, ‘Operation Werengendje’, which was launched by Mbambo.
Disadvantaged beneficiaries in the six constituencies of Kavango East will benefit from the mahangu seed.
“In this region we will not just sit idle but will do whatever we can to provide food for our people, and one of these packs of seed can make a big difference to the life of an elderly woman or man who doesn’t have any income at all,” Mbambo said.
Operation Werengendje is aimed at assisting and inspiring Kavango East residents to produce food for their families, and is named after a termite species.
Operation Werengendje was inspired by the hard-working termites, according to Mbambo.
“We thought of the wisdom of those termites, so we decided to name our special operation of food production, our contribution to the Harambee Prosperity Plan, Operation Werengendje, which is in our local language,” he said
The governor’s office is also assisting subsistence farmers by subsidising tractor ploughing services to encourage every homestead to be productive. “The beneficiaries were selected by their constituency councillors who then forwarded the list to us and we will send tractor drivers to plough for them and we subsidise the services,” he said.
“Because [the Harambee Prosperity Plan] is a wide concept, everyone can contribute towards what he or she believes can make the HPP a success. Now in this region we thought that since we are known as the food basket of the nation, why can’t we put our efforts and energy into something that we know we are capable of, which is the production of food,” Mbambo said.