Drought relief reserved for families with N$3 200 income or less

Cabinet has approved that households with a combined income of N$3 200 per month or less will qualify for drought relief food.Secretary to Cabinet George Simataa made the remarks at a public sector information-sharing session in Opuwo yesterday, where he encouraged government information practitioners to disseminate key government messages to the nation.“Some rural communities have different information or no information at all, resulting in them not benefitting from the [debt-relief] programme. We need to improve significantly on our public communication.”He further bemoaned the underspending of funds budgeted for the programme, a chronic issue in government. Simataa said this is a result of inadequate communication.As of June, the government has only received drought-relief claims worth N$28.7 million, of which only N$19.8 million was paid, he said. “There are problems out there in terms of the qualifying criteria for drought relief. In 2019/2020, the N$292.3 million budgeted was not fully spent. The same goes for the N$38.2 million budgeted for 2023/2024, [when N$9.5 million was not claimed],” he noted.He thus urged government information practitioners to pull up their socks. Often, public administrators fail to provide adequate information, especially to the media, which plays a crucial role in informing the public, Simataa said. “We as public administrators fail to respond to questions of the media or clarify our position on certain issues. If we do not respond, then who should?” he wanted to know.DiscriminationMartha Simon, a resident of Otjaandamwenyo village in the Ruacana constituency, recently approached Namibian Sun, airing grievances about councillor Andreas Shintama’s handling of drought-relief food distribution in the area.She accused Shintama of discriminating against residents of Otjaandamwenyo. “We don&#039;t receive regular drought relief like others; it always comes after three or four months, and it&#039;s just one bag of mealie meal and one bottle of cooking oil. Meanwhile, others are receiving relief every month, and it&#039;s always with additional items,” she narrated.She added that “it is not just the drought relief; he [Shintama] does a lot of things that show discrimination. When we confront him about it, he tells us that our village did not vote for him and that we should go get drought relief from the councillor we voted for. I think it is because our village only has Himba and Dhemba people and he is a Ndonga,” Simon said.Not trueShintama dismissed the allegations, adding that his office does not discriminate and is doing what it should to distribute drought-relief food.“We receive the food each time they are required to get it and distribute it via the rightful procedures. That is, through the headman and committees responsible for registering residents [for drought-relief food]. We offload that food with the committees and village residents. We do not discriminate against anyone, to tell you the truth. Refer that person to the [headman’s] office,” he said.

Drought relief reserved for families with N$3 200 income or less

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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Drought relief reserved for families with N$3 200 income or less

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-01

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