“Change this business-as-usual attitude” – Minister Kameeta grills Ministerial staff

The newly created Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare, which was meant to be a beacon of hope for the poor and destitute, lacks urgency in executing its duties. This is according to the Minister accountable for this Ministry, Bishop Emeritus Zephania Kameeta.

Kameeta urged staff of the Ministry to change their “business as usual” attitudes. Minister Kameeta made these remarks during the official opening of the Workshop titled “Development of a Road Map and Implementation Plan for the Blueprint on Wealth Redistribution and Poverty Eradication” in Swakopmund on Wednesday this week. Various stakeholders from various sectors of society attended the workshop which ended yesterday.
“While we were supposed to be servants of the people, we have become their masters; plans that should bring changes in the lives of our people are shelved, because the ‘master’ for example has to go on leave,” Kameeta said.
In this regard he highlighted various socio-economic and developmental policies, programmes and initiatives introduced by Government. “Our Vision 2030 and its implementing vehicles, the National Development Plans (NDPs) are well articulated and are admired across the globe. But these plans have not translated into wealth and prosperity for all,” he said.
According to Kameeta Government held a national dialogue last year in all 14 Regions of the country, where the people of Namibia had the opportunity to raise various concerns.
“The different issues that emanated from the national dialogue forms the basis of the national blueprint,” he explained. The blueprint was presented to the participants of the workshop for further input.
“Allow me to highlight one key issue, which was synonymous across all the 14 region: Lack of implementation. In fact, lack of implementation has been identified at different levels – national, regional and international”, Kameeta said.
Due to this key concern the Minister called on the participants to come up with concrete and “implementable” poverty eradication actions, based on the concerns of the people that should yield tangible results.
“We do not need to reinvent the wheel. We are tasked to ensure that relevant programmes are properly coordinated and synchronised,” he said.
According to Kameeta coordination is indispensable and it does not help if every ministry or institution is doing their own thing. It is his hope that at the end of the workshop the resultant implementation plan includes a clear coordination mechanism with the Ministry of Poverty Eradication taking a central coordinating role.