Kunene residents dispute rich claims

OPUWO – The Governor of Kunene, Dudu Murorua, has warned that developing regional capitals through the decentralisation process could turn smaller towns and villages into ghost towns.

Murorua was speaking at the Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) workshop at Opuwo on Monday. He called on participants to not only concentrate on assessing individuals or communities, but to also look at the region’s resources and infrastructure.According to Murorua, official documents referring to Kunene as a rich region are wrong.”The PPA should consider the cultural norms in determining what is referred to as … rich and not only use the predetermined norms of western cultures,” he added.”We are the poorest of the poor and it would be very wrong to say that the people of Kunene north are very rich,” he added.Workshop participants also objected to statistics from the 2001 national census, which indicated that only seven per cent of the people living in the Epupa constituency of the Kunene Region were unemployed.In fact, participants felt that census indicators for the entire Kunene Region did not reflect the true situation on the ground.- NampaHe called on participants to not only concentrate on assessing individuals or communities, but to also look at the region’s resources and infrastructure.According to Murorua, official documents referring to Kunene as a rich region are wrong.”The PPA should consider the cultural norms in determining what is referred to as … rich and not only use the predetermined norms of western cultures,” he added.”We are the poorest of the poor and it would be very wrong to say that the people of Kunene north are very rich,” he added.Workshop participants also objected to statistics from the 2001 national census, which indicated that only seven per cent of the people living in the Epupa constituency of the Kunene Region were unemployed.In fact, participants felt that census indicators for the entire Kunene Region did not reflect the true situation on the ground.- Nampa