By: Ludorf Iyambo

Brenden Simbwaye location residents in Windhoek’s Samora Machel say their local councillor Nestor Kalola neglects them.

On Wednesday, a group of residents submitted a petition at Khomas regional council office.

The residents also called on the Khomas regional governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua to intervene in the matter.

According to the residents in 2020, the World Food Program (WFP) and Catholic AIDS Action gave them a Covid-19 Cash Based Transfer of N$ 600 per month for three months through their constituency councillor’s office.

They say an estimated 1 777 residents were notified that they were beneficiaries, and they were supposed to get money from March 2021.

“On 22 February 2022, we received a public notice for the community to go check the names of the beneficiaries as per selection made by WFP at the council office notice board.

“We found out that the names pasted at the office are not for the community members who registered from December 2020 to January 2021,” said Kauhanda Godfried, the community group leader.

Godfried said that the names on the notice board were registered under the table through the constituency council office in favour of family members, registration committee, and friends to benefit from the grant.

Godfried further stated that from the beneficiary documents printed on 21 March 2021, 85% of registered are only Oshiwambo speaking people.

“Of those, 15% cover all other tribes in our constituency,” he said.

In their petition, the residents said they are also being removed from the food bank beneficiaries list because they have televisions and fridges in their houses.

“Yes, we have fridges, but they are empty. There is no food. We are all affected, but we are being left out of the program due to tribalism and racism used by registration teams,” he expressed.

One of the residents told The Villager that some people who got food parcels are working and are benefiting twice from government initiatives.

“Those who are unemployed and are affected by Covid-19 are on the street with hunger. We want to know why only Herero, Mbanderu, Damara and Kavango speaking citizens were removed from the list,” said the resident.

In this vein, the residents asked McLeod-Katjirua to put the Covid-19 cash-based transfer granted by WFP on hold until all the corrupt activities are sorted.

They also asked for a new implementation of re-registration and mobilised new strategies that could cover all the people.

Chief regional officer at the Khomas regional council, Clement Mafwila, said that their office is there for the people.

“We heard your concerns, and we will pass it to the relevant authority,” said Mafwila.

Mafwila said this while receiving the petition on behalf of McLeod-Katjirua.