Wakudumo calls for change to reverse poverty
Kenya Kambowe
RUNDU
Denying the recently announced statistics that the Kavango regions are amongst the poorest in the country, Kavango East governor Bonifatius Wakudumo says what needs to change is the way things are done to uplift affected communities.
He argued that the Kavango regions are blessed with fertile land, water in abundance and a good climate that can foster a strong agriculture base; however, these resources are not used in the best possible way to alleviate abject poverty.
Wakudumo, who was speaking at the official opening of the Rundu Vocational Training Centre (RVTC) agri campus, refused to accept the statistics.
“Why should this region be classified as the poorest region? Those are fundamental questions we should interrogate collectively. Time has come for us to face the reality,” he said.
“I am not convinced that this region should be classified as the poorest region; I will not believe [it]. So, the question is what went wrong. Let us be bold and courageous to address the aspects of what went wrong 31 years down the line,” he said.
‘Where are we going wrong?’
“We cannot get different results if for the past 30 years [we are] sitting here and having good meetings, inaugurating very nice infrastructure but what is the end results of the infrastructures that we are putting up?” he asked.
“I am happy that the German embassy is here to putting in the money, but yet we are the poorest region. Where are we going wrong, fellow Namibians?”
Wakudumo further questioned why there is no agriculture-based university in the region yet the region is regarded as the food basket of the country.
“If the regions’ characteristics show that here we can do agriculture better than in other fields, why don’t we capacitate agriculture in this region? Why don’t we introduce a faculty of agriculture at an advanced level so that people can be capacitated to do research?” he asked.
[email protected]
RUNDU
Denying the recently announced statistics that the Kavango regions are amongst the poorest in the country, Kavango East governor Bonifatius Wakudumo says what needs to change is the way things are done to uplift affected communities.
He argued that the Kavango regions are blessed with fertile land, water in abundance and a good climate that can foster a strong agriculture base; however, these resources are not used in the best possible way to alleviate abject poverty.
Wakudumo, who was speaking at the official opening of the Rundu Vocational Training Centre (RVTC) agri campus, refused to accept the statistics.
“Why should this region be classified as the poorest region? Those are fundamental questions we should interrogate collectively. Time has come for us to face the reality,” he said.
“I am not convinced that this region should be classified as the poorest region; I will not believe [it]. So, the question is what went wrong. Let us be bold and courageous to address the aspects of what went wrong 31 years down the line,” he said.
‘Where are we going wrong?’
“We cannot get different results if for the past 30 years [we are] sitting here and having good meetings, inaugurating very nice infrastructure but what is the end results of the infrastructures that we are putting up?” he asked.
“I am happy that the German embassy is here to putting in the money, but yet we are the poorest region. Where are we going wrong, fellow Namibians?”
Wakudumo further questioned why there is no agriculture-based university in the region yet the region is regarded as the food basket of the country.
“If the regions’ characteristics show that here we can do agriculture better than in other fields, why don’t we capacitate agriculture in this region? Why don’t we introduce a faculty of agriculture at an advanced level so that people can be capacitated to do research?” he asked.
[email protected]
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