The Councillor of the Rundu Rural Constituency, Paulus Mbangu, has called on the Office of the Prime Minister to roll out drought relief in the drought-stricken Kavango East Region.

Mbangu says the Office of the Prime Minister only provided drought relief to selected areas such as the Kunene, Omusati, and Erongo regions.

"The reality of the matter is that the poorest of the poor are here in Rundu Rural, where we have a lot of San communities, and even the food that they are being given is not even enough. There's no way that we can put the San community in competition with other citizens of this country. They are supposed to be prioritised first. Whatever relief is being rolled out by the Office of the Prime Minister, the first priority is supposed to be the San community; those are the most vulnerable people. Statistical data indicates the crises that are on the ground, and there's no argument about it, but of course, it's just very bad that sometimes our priorities are misplaced."

Mbangu also wants the Kavango East Region declared a drought-stricken region.

"I have already submitted a motion to the Regional Council that we want Kavango East Region to be declared an emergency, so in terms of the procedures, the regional disastrous management meeting has to be convened and a letter has to be written to the national committee in Windhoek to declare Kavango East as a drought-stricken region so that they can declare an emergency. We are expecting the Ministry, especially the office of the Prime Minister, to roll out drought relief not only in our constituency but in the entire region because drought is a reality."

Mbangu says people have ploughed, but due to a lack of rain this year, the farmers will not have a good harvest.

The Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Dr. Peya Mushelenga, says the Kavango Region has not received good rains and might also face drought.

Dr. Mushelenga said this during his visit to Ndiyona Constituency to familiarise himself with the network coverage.

"Government has so many issues to deal with like now I do not only see that there are issues of network, I also see that it has not rained very well here; there are no real crops in the fields, and people here would be more or less like other people that are affected by drought."