A government data verification process has left some of the country's most vulnerable citizens without income for over two months.
In Tsumkwe, elderly residents whose state grants were suspended say they are now facing severe hunger.
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) on Wednesday launched the Marginalised Communities Report, compiled from the 2023 Population and Housing data.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare has suspended pension grants for an undisclosed number of beneficiaries after a verification exercise found discrepancies between their records and the National Population Register.
An amount of N$1,600 might be someone's savings, but for 77-year-old Frans Geiseb, from Omatako Village in Otjozondjupa Region, the monthly old-age pension grant is more than a personal lifeline.
It is the only source of income sustaining a household of about 25 family members.
Almost 16,000 Old Age Grant beneficiaries have been temporarily suspended from Namibia's social grants system after their names could not be verified in the National Population Registry System.
Minister of Finance Ericah Shafudah says that NamPost was awarded the tender of distributing grants as a result of the public entity to public entity procurement strategy.
This was her response to IPC MP Lilian Lutuhezi, who sought clarity on how the ministry came to the decision.
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah last year announced that the old-age pension grant would be increased incrementally to N$3,000 per month, meaning the amount would rise in stages over a period of time rather than through a single immediate adjustment.
Social grant beneficiaries at Tsumkwe and surrounding villages have expressed dissatisfaction about the slow process of Nampost payments.
Nampost took over from Epupa Investment in October last year, and beneficiaries want that company to do their pay-outs.
NamPost has announced additional supplementary payout dates for children's cash grants, following a request from the beneficiaries.
The supplementary payout dates run from Friday until Saturday.
The Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Emma Theofelus, is asking for social grant beneficiaries to remain patient while NamPost is processing their payments.
The minister visited the Nampost branch at Divundu, Kavango East.
