The Kavango West Regional Council has expressed concern over alleged poor service delivery by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security.
The issue was raised during an oversight working session involving the council leadership and officials from the ministry’s Nkurenkuru office.
Thomas Rengi, councillor for the Ncamagoro Constituency, said most residents in the region speak vernacular languages and should be assisted accordingly.
“Most of our people here—about 98%—speak vernacular languages, and we have to take that into consideration. If we do not treat them properly, they may feel that they cannot be assisted here and that they have to travel to Rundu,” Rengi said.
Councillor for the Kapako Constituency Augustinus Kupembona said residents had complained that they were not being served at the Nkurenkuru office and had to travel to Rundu to obtain national documents.
“People are complaining during open-line programmes about this office because they are not being served unless they go to Rundu, where they are treated like Namibians who need national documents. You mentioned e-ID, but we cannot talk about e-ID when our people do not have birth certificates,” Kupembona said.
The Chief Regional Officer of the Kavango West Regional Council, Matheus Singambwe, also raised concern about the office’s failure to attend regional meetings.
“The calendar of all our meetings is available. The Regional Development Coordinating Committee concluded its meeting yesterday, and it is a statutory meeting that every institution in the region is required to attend. When you have an office and officials who are unwilling to attend, it becomes an issue,” Singambwe said.
The office is operating with eight staff members instead of the required 17.
The ministry’s Director of Civil Registration, Dr Batlomeus Shikongo, said the vacant positions had been advertised, but no new staff had been recruited since the office was inaugurated.
“There has been no new recruitment since the office was inaugurated. However, as I mentioned, all the positions have been advertised. The only position that has not yet been filled is that of chief administrative officer, due to the process I referred to earlier,” Shikongo said.
He added that the ministry would assess the time it takes to assist residents and provide services to customers.
The Kavango West Region faces a high number of stateless and undocumented people, as well as a high rate of late birth registrations.
Chairperson of the Kavango West Regional Council, Filipus Tenga, said residents should be treated with dignity and should not have to travel to other regions to access services.
“Our people must be served with dignity. We do not want to see people leaving this office and travelling to Kavango East just to access services they should receive in their own region. The government has spent a lot of money constructing this building. We now want it to fulfil its purpose,” Tenga said.
An agreement was reached for the office to submit monthly reports. A representative will also be selected to attend Regional Development Coordinating Committee meetings.