No hurdles in Kamanjab food distribution

KAMANJAB constituency councillor Engenesia Tjiretje-Ensingue says the double distribution of drought relief food and fodder is going well.

“We don’t have any hurdles, the issue of lack of transport is history,” Tjiretje-Ensingue said.

Farmers in the Kunene region complained to Nampa in September that they were struggling to transport fodder from their constituency offices to their farms.

Tjiretje-Ensingue told The Namibian in a recent interview that 700 bundles of fodder and 120 bales of lucerne are currently being distributed at the constituency.

She also revealed that 1 100 x 10kg bags of maize meal, 1 100 of cooking oil bottles (750 ml) and 346 boxes of tinned fish (750g) have also been distributed in the Kamanjab constituency in the past two weeks. Tjiretje-Ensingue has been accompanying the distribution teams to ensure that everything was done properly. More than 1 700 beneficiaries received drought relief food, including migrant workers at charcoal farms.

“Charcoal production workers stay in our area for some months, so we also cater for their families residing on the farms. They are also Namibians, so we include them,” she said, adding that they likewise cater for the migrant community who moved from Anker to Kamanjab.

The Anker settlement is part of the Sesfontein constituency from where many people moved, and are now staying in informal settlements at Kamanjab and on nearby farms.

Some families from Anker have enrolled their children at Kamanjab after the Moses //Garoëb Primary School closed due to frequent earthtremors.

Although Tjiretje-Ensingue said she did not know the number of livestock that died from the drought, she expressed concern about the continued migration of farmers into the Kamanjab constituency. Her team thus sometimes gives fodder to cattle they find grazing next to the road as it is sad to leave them without fodder.

“The cattle were in a bad condition. They (cattle) were in a terrible state,” she stressed. She also shot down claims that the food being distributed was not enough for the people, saying there was enough to go around.

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