Political parties challenged to produce capable young leaders

Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) executive director Graham Hopwood encourages political parties to focus on producing capable and efficient young leaders.

He says it is sensible for any political party which wants to have a future to ensure that young people are able to ascend through the ranks to leadership positions without being blocked by the old guard.

Hopwood says young people in politics should be promoted based on merit rather than patronage.

His comments follow recent remarks by Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) secretary Ephraim Nekongo, who says Swapo should institute a quota system to allow its young members to ascend to the parliament and even the Cabinet, should the party emerge victorious at the 2024 polls.

Nekongo made these remarks at a Swapo rally in the Oshana region over the weekend.

Hopwood, however, disagrees on how the ascendance should be executed.

“There is too much focus on people just getting into the structures . . . and not enough on how we can go about producing quality leadership,” he says.

He says the young Swapo parliamentarians who appear to be capable are among the eight members of parliament (MPs) appointed by the president.

This indicates that they were selected by State House from other parts of society, he says.

“That indicates that the Swapo structures are not producing the right type of people. And those who are among the eight did not really make any progress at the Swapo congress, because they are not really established in the party,” Hopwood says.

This casts doubt on whether they will be carried over, if Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah wins the majority votes or “replaced by SPYL people who have not proven themselves on the national stage in terms of politics, but may be there just because they are in the structures”, he says.

Hopwood says the party should consider young people with experience in the private sector, civil society or with international experience.

“The proportional representation party list system that we use for the National Assembly does not really encourage individual talent, because it is based on loyalty and patronage,” he says.

Hopwood says it is due to this practice that “Namibia has perennial deputy ministers whom everybody knows do not possess any ministerial qualities.”

YOUTH QUOTA

Meanwhile, Nekongo remains firm in his call for a youth quota, citing that this has been the position of the SPYL for some time.

Speaking Desert Radio on Tuesday, Nekongo said it is a SPYL congress resolution that the youth should be the leaders of today.

“I also said that the youth has the energy, yet the elders know it all. As such there is a need for a coexistence between the two generations to propel the development of our country through the Swapo party,” he said.

“We simply want young people to be part of the leadership, and we are calling for this quota, knowing how the structure of the party is. We know that if the youth are not given a quota, it would be difficult for them to get themselves into such positions,” Nekongo said.

He said attempting to rise through the party’s internal structures presents the youth with several impediments, among them the shortage of numbers and their minimal representation on platforms like the Central Committee.

Responding to the notion that the youth should be job creators rather than jobseekers, Nekongo said while the sentiments ring true, an enabling environment should be created in which young people could create jobs.

“You do not just create employment from nowhere.”