RUACANA: The Councilor of the Ruacana Constituency, Abast Iipinge called on the HIZETJITWA Indigenous People Organization (HIPO) to expand to all regions and includes other tribes that are categorized as marginalized.
Iipinge was speaking at the first Annual General Meeting of HIPO at Ombuumbu village in Omusati Region on Friday.
“My believe and understanding as a government representative in the constituency towards HIPO is not more or less than to see HIPO just an organization striving to improve the lively hood of the said communities of Himba, TJimba Zemba and TWA , while they maintain their cultural norms,” said Iipinge.
He said however HIPO is just confined to these communities mostly in Kunene, Omusati and Angola.
“I wish you could enlarge your organization to include other indigenous people such as the sun community to make it a national organization,” added Iipinge.
According to Iipinge the government’s interpretation when it comes to the marginalized communities, only three tribes are included or categorized as such that are the Sun, Twa and Tjimba in contrary to the Himba and Zemba communities included by HIPO.
“I think it is important to engage the government in the discussion if there are some other communities or tribes that are thinking have been left behind in the inclusion as being categorized as marginalized communities to be included,” said Iipinge.
Iipinge said his office is faced with problems from the communities that are not categorized as marginalized but feels they are marginalized when it comes to the opportunities and have to be treated special due to that category.
He added that some tribes that are not Tjimba, Twa and Sun requests his office to declare them as marginalized communities when there are applications for positions such as going to higher learning institutions or training courses such as Nursing and so on.
The funny part according to Iipinge the people who demands to be declared as such are those out of school youths who either failed grade 10 or had obtained low marks in the grade 12. While the same tribes’ man from the same groups who had performed well do not request such documents.
“It is important for all of us to be equal Namibians,” added Iipinge.
(edited)RUACANA, 29 JUL (NAMPA) – The Councillor of the Ruacana Constituency has called on the HIZETJITWA Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation (HIPO) to expand to all regions and include other marginalized tribes.
Councillor Abast Iipinge was speaking at the organisation’s annual general meeting, which was held at Ombuumbu village in the Omusati Region on Friday.
“My belief and understanding… towards HIPO is not more or less than to see HIPO as an organisation striving to improve the livelihood of the Himba, Zemba, Tjimba and Twa communities, while they maintain their cultural norms,” said Iipinge.
He said HIPO is however predominantly confined to communities in the Kunene and Omusati Regions, and Angola.
“I wish you could enlarge your organisation in order to make it a national organisation which includes other indigenous people such as the San community,” he added.
According to Iipinge, government’s interpretation of marginalised communities includes only three tribes – the San, Twa and Tjimba, contrary to that of HIPO which includes the Himba and Zemba communities.
“I think it is important to engage government in the discussion if there are some other communities or tribes that think they have been left behind with regards to being categorised as marginalised,” said the councillor.
He further stated that his office faces problems with communities that are not categorised as marginalised, but who feel they should be categorised as such because of the opportunities it presents, such as further studies at institutions of higher learning or training courses in fields such as nursing.
Iipinge however also stated that such requests seemingly come from people such as out-of-school youths who either failed Grade 10 or obtained low marks in Grade 12, while people of the same tribe who had performed well do not make such requests.