Ohangwena regrets wasted drought relief food
The Ohangwena Regional Council says it regrets the incident of Okambebe village, whereby drought relief food items were reportedly kept in a private distribution place (bar) until spoiled that it is no longer fit for human consumption.
The items comprise 12 bags of 12.5kg maize meal and five 750ml cooking oil bottles, with an expiry date of December 2020.
The food items were kept at the village drought relief distribution centre for further distribution to the community in 2019, but unfortunately, some food items remained.
The village drought relief committee handed over the leftovers to the village headman to store until the rightful owners are available for distribution. Unfortunately, the leftover food was forgotten and got spoiled in the storeroom where it was kept for a long time.
Council spokesperson Silas Nepembe said drought food distribution procedures are clear and do not allow items to be kept in private places or at the drought relief centre.
Nepembe said the village drought relief food distribution committees are always informed of how to handle and distribute the food to the rightful owners once received.
“Food items are meant for immediate distributions and should not be allowed to get spoiled in the hands of those who were supposed to assist the council in distributing it further to the needy communities.
Ohangwena Regional Council is, therefore, sincerely apologising to the communities of Ongenga constituency on behalf of the drought relief food distribution committee of the Okambebe drought relief food distribution centre.
Nepembe said the council would like to urge relief distribution committee village heads and those who are responsible for distribution of drought relief food to make sure that an incident of this nature does not happen again in future.
Last week, residents of Okambebe village went on a demonstration against their headman Filemon Nghipangwa, for allegedly locking drought relief food in his bar. The residents are demanding the Oukwanyama Traditional Authority dismiss the headman immediately.