The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs visited the Waya-Waya San Community in the Zambezi Region on Monday.

The visit is to assess whether the government’s projects intended for the marginalised people here are benefiting them and to also engage with the recepients and establish other issues that could be improved.

The meeting focused on matters such as education, national documentation, food programmes, health access, development projects and social grants.

Addressing the meeting as a member of the community, Liswaniso Liswaniso revealed that many young children do go to school, however, there’s food shortage, that keeps them out.

Some of the challenges include a lack of school uniforms, peer pressure and teenage pregnancy.

Liswaniso shared that he dropped out of university after his financial allowances were not met. He revealed that he then left Windhoek and came back home.

“I am now a villager, doing nothing but drinking in bars,” he said.

On national identification issues, the meeting established that many of the community members still do not have birth certificates and identification documents (IDs). To add to this, those who are supposed to receive social grants have been deprived due to no national identification.

In response to all the challenges, member of the standing committee, Inna Hengari, acknowledged that as a committee, resolutions such as resettlement, education, effective government programmes are what they wish to implement to effectively deliver quality services to the marginalised people.

The committee also visited the Electoral Commission of Namibia to assess whether its structures there are ready for the 2024 elections and whether it has enough resources to avoid last minute preparations.

The committee was led by its deputy chairperson, Paula Kooper.

Source: NAMPA