The efforts of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to eradicate poverty and create more jobs have been recognised by a Namibian delegation visiting the city on Wednesday, 6 July at the Woolboard Exchange.
The Namibian delegation was on a fact finding mission to learn more about poverty alleviation and job creation policies and the implementation strategies.
They were presented with information on the various programmes run by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, including the Assistance to the Poor Programme, Extended Public Works Programme and the Waste Management Cooperatives programmes.
They also visited a cooperative project in the Joe Slovo Township, where a group of predominantly women were running a very successful waste management cooperative.
The delegation was led by Namibian Secretary for Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Erastus Negonga. The Municipality was represented by EPWP Coordinator Mandayi Ralo, Acting Executive Director for Infrastructure and Engineering Walter Shaidi and senior municipal officials in the department of Special Programmes.
Namibian representative Erastus Negonga said: “We decided to come to Nelson Mandela Bay because we heard that it was a leader in implementing policies and programmes of poverty alleviation and job creation. We wanted to come here to learn about how and why the implementation of these policies is so successful,” he said.
Negonga said the Namibian Local Government is currently facing a problem where people who stay in urban areas are failing to pay rates because of poverty and unemployment. He said they are being forced to suspend the services of those failing to pay rates and ultimately attach their properties.
“We can’t continue in this way because the problems our people are facing are genuine. Suspending their services or attaching their properties only worsens the problem. We have a sincere appreciation for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality for showing us the way and we will take valuable lessons from how things are implemented in this city and country,” said Negonga.
NMB Communications
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