San are tired of handouts

KENYA KAMBOWE



A San community at Eenhana is demanding job opportunities, saying that living on handouts is not the way to go anymore.

Namibian Sun at the weekend spent some time with the San community at Ouholamo settlement on the outskirts of Eenhana, who shared the challenges they are faced with and how they want to transform their lives and become productive citizens.

Life at Ouholamo is not easy. They face unemployment, serious health issues, alcohol abuse and lawlessness, which is attributed to the fact that there is nothing to do all day.

Decades ago the community still followed their traditional, nomadic lifestyle, but that has changed.

Their transformation is mostly attributed to the tireless efforts of former deputy prime minister Libertina Amathila, who ensured that San communities are treated like any other Namibian citizens.

Currently there are about 80 residents at Ouholamo, who live in 20 houses built by the government about a decade ago.

Their headman, Hangula Malunguda, says life at Ouholamo has gone from bad to worse.

He says they used to receive aid in abundance from the government and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

During Amathila’s term of office, NGOs such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) made sure that most of their needs were taken care of. They had vehicles on standby to take them to a clinic, a fully equipped kindergarten, an arts and crafts training centre and plenty of food. None of that exists any more.

“We had three bakkies. One was involved in an accident and we don’t know what happened to the other two.

“Our machines that we had received disappeared and when we ask the relevant authorities we get unsatisfactory answers. We had televisions and computers in our kindergarten, today there is nothing,” Malunguda says.

“Some of the elders here are disabled and they are expected to go to Eenhana to get their monthly pension grant. There is no car here for us, therefore the pensioners are left with the only option of asking someone to take them to town at a price.”

They last received food aid from the drought-relief programme in December last year.

The community now feel that the time has come for them to work for themselves and take care of their families.

However, they first want answers as to what happened to the equipment they had received, saying that they still have the skills to operate them.

“We want to know what happened to our equipment. Some of us still have the skills and if we get that equipment back we might be able to use it and make money which will assist our community,” one community member remarked.

A disabled man, Haimarwa Haipinge (73), was seen crawling on his hands and knees for lack of crutches or a wheelchair.

“He really needs a wheelchair because he is disabled and it is not safe for him to crawl from place to place. We are in the forest and snakes are not strangers to us. If there is someone out there who can assist, please do so,” one person said.

Contacted for comment, Eenhana Constituency regional councillor Nehemia Haufiku said he was aware of the problems of the San community, not only at Ouholamo but across the region.

He said when the international aid agencies left, the programmes they used to run were abandoned.

He denied that the government was neglecting the community, though, pointing out that they were provided with houses, access to water and health facilities, and food aid.

Haufiku admitted that there are genuine problems at Ouholamo that need to be addressed collectively by all role players. But he pointed out that some of their misery is self-inflicted, mainly because of alcohol abuse.

“There were people who had the responsibility of looking after them within those NGOs and mostly they were not Namibians but volunteers from other countries and when they left, those programmes ended because they required funding,” Haufiku said.

He said unemployment is a national problem that the government is addressing.

Asked about the drought relief, Haufiku said the food had been delivered and would soon be distributed.

“The food is at a warehouse at Ongha. It’s just a matter of arranging transport to get it to them,” Haufiku said.

The development planner in the president’s office, Thomas Pulenge, said although he was aware of the issues affecting the San community, he was surprised to hear that they were hiring the services of other people.

“What they are saying might be true, but the matter that they are hiring people to transport them, that I don’t have an idea about it because we really have good relations with line ministries,” Pulenge said.

Asked about the prospect of jobs for the San community, Pulenge said the government recruited many of them into the law-enforcement agencies but many quit without explanation after receiving training.

He said their education level was a barrier to employment. Many San children sat for the grade 10 examinations last year but they did not make it. The government would not give up on them, he added.

“We had a number of them who wrote grade 10 last year. They could not make it, only a few made it, and it has always been our mandate as we negotiated with the ministry of education ... regardless of their age and points, these guys must go back to grade 10 to see if they can make it. If not, then we will need to explore other alternatives such as vocational training,” Pulenge said.