Malaria spray workers left unpaid and struggling

More than 100 indoor residual spraying workers have gone nearly two months without pay.

The non-payment was caused by expired payment authorisations, Zambezi regional health director Woita Kapumburu says.

“The non-payment due to expired authorisation does not only affect the Zambezi region but the rest of the other malaria endemic regions as well. However, the issue is being attended to and will be resolved soon,” he says.

The workers say they have not been paid since completing two weeks of training and starting fieldwork on 22 September.

The national indoor residual spraying campaign, launched by minister of health and social services Esperance Luvindao in August, commenced on 22 September in malaria-endemic regions.

Prior to that the operators were trained for two weeks.

The Zambezi region accounted for the highest number of malaria cases, with 25 065 out of the 95 729 recorded nationally earlier this year.

The spray operators in the region are divided into 12 clusters and have to spray about 11 000 structures within three months.

Despite their crucial role the workers say they have gone through September and October without payment.

One supervising spray operator, who spoke to The Namibian on condition of anonymity, last Tuesday said some workers had considered stopping work until the issue was resolved, but were told to continue.

“The operators are now going house to house on an empty stomach, as they just eat once per day. Imagine we are working with chemicals on a hungry stomach, while the job also requires us to move around furniture to obtain maximum coverage. We also have families that relied on us to buy them food once we got our salaries. We suggested that we stop working until the payment issues are resolved. However, that request was denied,” the source said.

The source said they were told that their payments are delayed because the region’s IRS payment authorisation expired last year.

“They say they are working on renewing the authorisation but without telling us how long that will take. It’s really unfair and really discouraging to be working without being paid,” the source said.

The source revealed that the campaign is also hampered by malfunctioning spraying pumps, while other clusters share three spray pumps between seven spray operators working at the same time.

Health ministry spokesperson Walters Kamaya has confirmed the non-payment of the IRS spraying operators, saying that authorisation has been pending.

“Authorisations have been pending, and they were only emailed to the regions on Tuesday [last week], and payment will be made as soon as possible,” he says.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.