Walvis Bay rural constituency councillor Johannes Nangolo has said that there is no need for health minister Kalumbi Shangula coming to the coast as coronavirus-related deaths stand at four.
There has been a call by some Walvis Bay residents as of late for the minister to have his boots on the ground to get a better picture of how people are struggling under the lockdown and the menacing shadow of the virus which has infected more than 1 300 so far.
“Dr Shangula (must) come to Walvis Bay to do what? I wanted maybe, that whenever he is announcing things, maybe he should also be a pastor. So that he can tell people those words of encouragement. But for him to just come… You want him to speak to everybody or what? He has a job to do,” said the councillor.
Meanwhile, Nangolo said he has a list of more than 15 000 people who are queued to get food assistance.
But what is making the situation worse is that those who are being retrenched are piling on that list, stretching out resources on the part of the government.
“Food is coming. Even today we have now distributed food to 2 000 people. We are still having food but it is not enough. We have a list of 15000 plus but other people are losing jobs and need to be included. Each and every day people are coming and telling us they are losing jobs and want to be included on the list. For now, we are working with those on the list. When we finish with this one, we will write those not on the list and we will see how far we will go in terms of food distribution,” he said.
He said they are distributing “whatever we are getting (as) long (as) it is food”.
This week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has also said that the rising Covid-19 deaths and infections in neighbouring South Africa should save as a warning for the rest of the continent.

“Even though the numbers in those other countries are smaller I think what we starting to see is a continued acceleration of transmission in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and I think that has to be taken very, very seriously
“South Africa may, unfortunately, be a precursor, it may be a warning for what will happen in the rest of Africa. So I think this isn’t just a wake-up call for South Africa … we need to take what is happening in Africa very very seriously,” he said.