Omaheke Region Governor, Pijoo Nganate said rich Namibians are not doing enough to assist underprivileged Namibians and help government narrow the inequality gap being experienced almost in every corner of the country.
Nganate made these remarks on Saturday at Omitara settlement in the Omaheke Region while addressing the farming communities, who were airing their grievances to the governor and the Namibian Police Force Deputy Inspector General, Joseph Shikongo, on stock theft at their farms.
The governor said the Namibian Constitution is clear, and it protects everyone no matter their colour or race and the police will arrest everyone that commits a crime. But the farmers must also reflect on themselves to see what the root cause is of crimes because people that are mostly involved in stock theft are not the rich ones but poor Namibians who are enduring generational poverty – some caused by their former employers.
“When we talk about crime then we must also look at the root cause of these crimes and how we are going to solve it amicably. Our country has high inequality despite natural resources that we are blessed with, we have rich people who have it all and then we have poor people who have nothing at all. It shows that we are not doing enough to help government narrow the inequality gap, and I am talking about all of us including myself with the little that I have,” said Nganate.
He added that there are people who approach his office looking for help to be settled somewhere after they were dumped on the roadside by their employers after working for them for many years.
“This settlement (Omitara) is mostly made [up] of former farmworkers who were dumped on the roadside by their bosses, and because they have nowhere to go they just settle here. How do you dump another human being on the roadside after working for you for more than 16 years? It’s not acceptable, we need to do more to help fellow Namibians,” stated Nganate.
One of the farmers, Marco Seefeldt said he employs close to 40 people on his farm and pays them well. However, he said, the farming community in the area does not employ people from Omitara because there is a belief that they are the ones involved in poaching and stock theft, so the farmers rather employ people from far.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
