By Charmaine Boois
Mariental, Nov. 11 – Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila visited Mariental in the Hardap region yesterday as part of her effort to interact with regional leaders across the nation.
The objective of the meeting was to address local issues and present strategies and initiatives to advance regional development.
The engagement was held in governor Salomon April’s office, where all of the regional officials, including the chairperson of Hardap regional council Gershon Dausab and the mayor of Mariental, Cherien Kock were present.
Kock told the PM that money budgeted for development projects by the Mariental municipality and the Hardap regional council has not been received, despite the fact that both entities had submitted budgets to the Ministry of Urban and Regional Development.
“We never get the money as the budget for our development and in the end, some irrelevant excuses are made, without money we cannot achieve our goals and objectives,” the mayor said.
Dausab said since the government does not have money, the authorities should think about partnering with the private sector to advance the nation, particularly the regions.
He emphasized the region’s socio-economic issues, such as the hospitals’ inadequate care, which is caused by a lack of funding for service delivery leading to people dying when that could be prevented.
“Our people are dying because of the poor facilities at our hospitals and some are losing their lives on the road while being transported to Windhoek. We need to help our people,” he said.
Harald James Kambrude, the Hardap regional councillor for the Rehoboth west urban constituency, told the prime minister that the central government needs to come up with innovative ways to stick to and enhance the financial resources so that each region can receive better funding allocations for development.
The Prime Minister advised council members to cooperate to identify methods of raising or mobilizing funds in order to bring regional development to the areas.
“None of us is here for our sake, we are leaders and have a specific task which brings development and services to our people as they have placed their power in us,” said the prime Minister.
