Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare said the situation of Angolan kids as young as four years old on the streets is a case the government regards as urgent.

Dr. Ngurare was responding to a question by PDM leader McHenry Venaani, who questioned the government's capacity to handle the problem following unsuccessful attempts to repatriate them.

Venaani stressed that he asked the minister the same questions several times.

"This country has a culture of not having our children begging in the streets. We are not a country of beggars. At every robot in this city, in the whole of Namibia, you are seeing children as young as four years old begging. Under your watch, three- and four-year-olds are begging every day on the streets. You told us you took these children to Angola; they came back, and you can do nothing. Now if you can't handle four-year-olds, can you handle real issues of our country?"

Dr Ngurare said there are bilateral conversations underway around the issue.

"You have actually narrated various instances that the two governments have been working and continue to work on this matter. So yes, we have the capacity, and we are dealing with it. It may sound, from the construction of your question, that there is no seriousness to it. There is seriousness to it because this is a bilateral issue, and that conversation is underway and continuing, and we will be able to come back and present to you precisely what and how far we have come."

Meanwhile, the Body of Christ Party leader, Thomas Festus, questioned what the government is planning to do with Namibian children who aren't attending school, of whom he said are being exploited in informal locations.

"I don't know whether they have been employed to collect water. These are minor children, who are supposed to be in school."

Dr. Ngurare said incidents such as these should be urgently reported.

"If there are children that are being exploited that way, that is wrong. And you would help us both from the perspective of law enforcement as well as the ministry responsible for the children so that we can know, in fact, if there is an exploitation that is known; let's have it reported because that is not the environment that we want our children to grow up in. I think all of us agreed, and so too is the Constitution. Family is a basic unit, and we would like to see stronger families that would be able to take care of their children."