The Chairperson of the Kavango West Regional Council, Joseph Sikongo, calls on the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security to increase the staff numbers at the Nkurenkuru Home Affairs office.

The office is reportedly only operating with two staff members.

The Chairperson of Kavango West Regional Council says the office is supposed to serve all eight constituencies in the region.

Recently, he brought 15 people from Tondoro Constituency to acquire national documents, which was too much for the office to process at that particular time.

"Here I really want to urge the honourable Minister of Home Affairs Immigration Safety and Security to employ people or staff members who can help people at home, be it capturing of IDs or issuing of birth certificates or death certificates. I think there are only two staff members that I found, and I really feel pity for those two staff members who are really working as if they are dying tomorrow because of the number of people that they are covering on a daily basis."

Sikongo further stated that in 2019, the Kavango West leadership met with the ministry regarding the matter in Windhoek, but until now nothing has been done.

He further says that the slow service at the Home Affairs Office is depriving most people of the opportunity to obtain their documents and start benefiting from the government's poverty alleviation programmes.

We spoke to some community members, and this is what they had to say:

"Now the office is still full, but we have to go back home. Some came from faraway villages, and tomorrow again people have to pay for transport; transport has become expensive these days," says Herta Nekaro, a resident of Ekuvi Village.

Muhepa Joseph Sikote, a resident of Tondoro Village, says, "Since 7:00, we have been in the queue. They only managed to assist about 30 people, and the rest, maybe 500 people, have to go back without being assisted. This is an everyday experience year in and year out; when will the number of undocumented people reduce?"
 
"Until now, we did not have food, not even water. The office is operating with three people, and they must take lunch, leaving us seated here with hunger. They need to expand the Nkurenkuru office; three people cannot assist this whole group," says Saima Petrus of the Matava Village.

Efforts to obtain a comment from the Ministry of Home Affairs proved futile.