Vet Affairs should handle Vet Children, says Neka

The Namibia Exile Kids Association (Neka) has come out in full support of the protesting group of Children of the Liberation Struggle currently settled at the Swapo Party headquarters, saying their plight has not been handled correctly thus far.

Making its first public pronouncement on the protesting ‘children’ since its formation late last year, Neka on Friday stated that having ‘monitored the situation with keen interest’ since the group began its protest a year ago last week, it believes that the problems of the Children of the Liberation Struggle, as a collective group, cannot be addressed by the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture.The demands of the protesting group for jobs, education and training made national headlines last year when a large contingent descended on the doorstep of the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs on September 2, refusing to move for almost three months, until they were evicted from the premises with a High Court order. Addressing their plight was placed with a joint ministerial committee, with the Ministry of Youth chairing and directing the process of registering the youth and addressing their demands. Around 10 000 ‘children’ have already registered.’Neka believes that our issues are not the programmes of the Ministry of Youth,’ Benitha Nakaambo, Neka’s Public Relations Officer said on Friday. She added that as children of the struggle, the correct Ministry to handle their problems would be the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs.’The Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs should have created a department within itself to try and solve this problem at hand. What does is meant to solve issues of the war veterans currently alive, and pretend like those whose blood waters our freedom had no dependants?’ she questioned, adding that ‘Neka feels strongly that it is the responsibility of the Ministry of War Veterans’ to look after the dependants of the deceased war vets.’She said that the Veterans’ Act was flawed in that it excluded children born before Independence, many of whom were born in exile, and particularly those children who returned from exile without their parents.Critical of the lack of progress by Government in addressing the demands of the protesting groups in Windhoek and Oshakati, all of whom again took the streets in demonstration on their anniversary last week, Neka has also called for renewed dialogue.’We have the support of the Founding Father and the President, but someone somewhere is trying to sabotage the whole process,’ Nakaambo said, adding that ‘a clear indication of what’s going to happen should be provided before the elections.’In fact, so slow does the group view the progress to be, that Nakaambo stated that ‘the whole issue is starting to bore us (Neka)’.’It is because of the dormant articulation from Government that Neka as the only representative of ‘the children of the liberation struggle’ is now seeking new dialogues in addressing the persisting issues regarding our members. We are therefore seeking ‘the platform’ that we had believed in as the right avenue in addressing the issues of children born by the national liberation revolutionaries,’ Nakaambo said.She added that if Government required a ‘think tank’ to speed up the process, Neka would gladly assist.’After all, with that talk about being the future of tomorrow, we might as well start today. Inclusion of the affected group might be a way to progressive move(ment),’ she said. nangula@namibian.com.na