Labour minister Uutoni Nujoma on Tuesday in the National Assembly said that Namibians in the northern regions are building pit latrines to use as toilets, while those in the southern parts of the country are too lazy to do the same.
Nujoma interjected fellow lawmaker McHenry Venaani, who was motivating his motion on Namibia’s extremely low levels of sanitation.
Venaani was addressing the deplorable conditions under which Namibians are forced to relieve themselves.
“Namibia has a major sanitation crisis. According to the World Bank, one in four Namibians do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. That means they are forced to defecate in the open. Namibia has the lowest sanitation levels,” the official opposition leader said.
Nujoma disagreed, saying Namibians who live in the southern parts are too lazy to build pit latrines like those in the northern regions.
“We Namibians. We, ourselves do not want to construct toilets, I know, ” he said.
“Go to the north, to Owamboland, where families are building their own toilets. Even a dry one, the pit latrine,” he added.
“But I know my people here,” he continued.
“When I go to the reserve there, if you wake up in the middle of the night with diarrhoea, you have to run into the bush over snakes, because people are too lazy to do something,” he said.
Previously the government spent millions of dollars to construct toilets that are now standing unused in rural households.
During 2011/12 the government spent N$181,5 million on 10 000 Ecosan toilets in five northern regions.
The opposition party did not take kindly to this statement, with Venaani standing up and calling Nujoma out for making tribalist comments.
“Honourable Nujoma, you are a tribalist. You are a Ngandjera, your traditional authority is recognised. When we are saying basters must be recognized, you are saying it is bantustans … you must do better.
Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leaders Bernadus Swartbooi, Henny Seibeb and Utaara Mootu also disagreed in the background, saying they have seen how Namibians in the northern parts live.
“You stole money… puppets, puppets. Aawambo [people] stole money, building palaces … you are lying, you are dumb,” LPM lawmakers shouted.
The discussions got heated with opposition parliamentarians not taking kindly to Nujoma’s comments, while the speaker, Peter Katjavivi, struggled to gain control over the debate.
Katjavivi later said Nujoma had withdrawn his comments.
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