Some people were not born patient. So that when it comes to standing in a long line, especially a line leading to the door of a fish shop, such people will simply not stand in the line.
So the Namibia Fish Consumption Promotion Trust (NFCPT)’s shop in Ongwediva is one shop where one can stand in the line for hours while other people jump the line to buy their fish quickly and go home to have their lunch on time.
This situation is unfair to those who were born patiently.
But spokesperson for NFCPT Mr Chaluka De Wet says that residents of Ongwediva are to blame for this behaviour.
“We cannot employ security guards to tell people what to do. It’s a moral obligation for people to stand in the line. Everywhere across the country our shops are overwhelmed by customers, but only there in Ongwediva where we have a problem of people not wanting to stand in the line,” De Wet says.
“Ongwediva actually has enough space where people can line up, but you people don’t want to line up.”
When asked for comment, spokesperson for Ongwediva Town Council, Mr Jackson Muma, says that the council has no responsibility to educate its residents on customer behaviour.
Muma maintains that the council cannot take the blame for people misbehaving at the fish shop.
“It’s more of their [NFCPT] responsibility to ensure that their business is in order. Because if you come to Ongwediva and there is a problem in the bank, the manager must be able to look at the problem and address it accordingly,” Muma states.
“If the problem is widespread, that is when the council can try to do something. But problems of a specific business must be handled by that specific business. It’s a responsibility of each business to make sure that their house is in order, they have rules and ways to make their customers happy and to put people in a queue.”
Apart from residents of Ongwediva, residents of Oshakati and Oshikuku towns are also served by the NFCPT’s fish shop at Ongwediva.
