Minister of International Relations and Trade (MIRT), Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, says Namibians in South Africa are not under any threat in the face of recent xenophobia attacks in the neighbouring country.
This was after concerns were raised by IPC MP, Rodney Cloete, regarding the safety of Namibians in the foreign country.
"When I read the newspapers, the only indication that I saw from the Ministry of International Relations was saying that our citizens in South Africa need to remain vigilant. I just wanted to find out from the ministry: Do you have an evacuation plan in place? and is there a budget also in case it is before the 30th of June, and when that comes, what will happen?" asked MP Cloete.
The minister reassured the public that should Namibians be in danger, the ministry will act swiftly, but there have been no such reports thus far.
"They have associations and they have leaders. And the assurance we got was that none of their lives are in danger, so we continue to monitor. None of them are affected. Should the situation escalate to the level where we need to do more than monitoring, we will do so. However, at the moment, everybody's safe."
On the other hand, IPC MP Lilani Brinkman questioned the Ministry of Health and Social Services on measures in place should the hantavirus reach the border.
"What is the preparedness? Really, the measures that the ministry is taking are actual measures, not things that we are hearing we will do. Because we know that nothing took place. And a cruise ship is coming on the 14th from South Africa. We want to know, can the public be assured whether we are ready for this?"
The health minister, Dr Esperance Luvindao, stated that surveillance teams are operating throughout the country to ensure that viruses do not cross the borders.
"If it is indeed true that the necessary screening has not taken place, we take that allegation very seriously, and we will definitely follow through because, as the honourable member has stated, this must be happening, and we have an entire directorate for that which has been doing so, but we will definitely take it up should these allegations prove to be true."