Onawa blames drought delay on technical woes

ONAWA Mills, one of the contractors responsible for the delivery of maize meal in the Ohangwena, Omusati and Oshana regions for drought relief, says it will start delivering soon.

The Ombalantu-based company was awarded a tender in October to deliver 3 917 tons of maize meal to the Ohangwena Region as part of the Emergency Management Unit’s drought relief initiatives.
To date, however, only 45 tons, or 3 500 bags, of the contracted 313 262 bags of maize meal have been delivered.
Asked what was hampering the company’s delivery of maize meal, Onawa Mills Director Paulina Haindongo said: ‘We have been experiencing technical problems, but these have been attended to and we will start delivering soon.’
She would neither elaborate on the ‘technical problems’ nor would she qualify the word ‘soon’ – except to say that ‘we are busy crushing at the mills now and we will deliver soon’ before hanging up.
The tender period ends in March.
The EMU has had to ask Namib Mills and Kavango Mills to help out in Ohangwena and Omusati by each providing an additional 150 metric tons of maize meal.
Namib Mills has also had to do most of the work in the Oshana Region, where both Onawa and Namib Mills were awarded the tender, but where the former has been slow in delivering.
Drought relief in the Ohangwena Region is meant to benefit 18 409 households, which are supposed to receive three bags of maize meal each, in addition to two bottles of cooking oil and four tins of fish.
However, because of the non-delivery of the fish by Windhoek-based Ongolo Trading and inconsistent delivery of maize meal by Onawa Mills, beneficiaries have not been receiving their full rations.
According to the Deputy Director of the EMU, Gabriel Kangowa, a letter has been sent to Onawa Mills to speed up and improve its deliveries or risk a reduction or termination of the tender as provided for in a contractual clause in the document.
‘We are dealing with people’s lives here, but the Government’s objectives to respond to the needs of its people are being defeated by this non-delivery,’ he said.