Walvis Bay residents rejecting maize meal, mahangu aid

Some Walvis Bay residents have been rejecting food aid donated by the town’s municipality and good Samaritans in an effort to help feed families.

Some food aid recipients have started to sell and give away donated food items, especially bags of maize meal, to taxi drivers and residents of other parts of the town, saying they do not eat that type of food.

Others have gone onto social media, complaining they could not accept horse mackerel fish and maize meal just because they are needy, and that they needed food like sugar, rice, vegetables and steak.

One resident posted on Facebook that they do not even cook maize meal for their dogs.

Sherly Johannes from Kuisebmond said her family was enjoying a bag of Top Score maize meal which she received from a friend last week. “She said she does not eat that kind of food, and asked if I wanted it, because I speak Oshiwambo. Of course I took it. We enjoy eating it it, and we cannot always afford it,” Johannes said.

A charity group had to take the soup it prepared for a needy group to residents of the fire-hit Otweya area instead, after it was rejected because there was no meat in it.

Walvis Bay mayor Wilfried Emmanuel said he was aware of the issue.

“We even received nasty phone calls from some that they do not want our food. We are in difficult times, and we are trying to help. Please do not take it if you do not need it. We have different food items. Feel free to take only what you need, so that we can give the rest to someone else. Let us please cooperate,” he said.

The town’s municipality has so far distributed about 6 000 food parcels, and says it will continue until all needy households have received parcels.