Swartbooi accuses other parties of being copycats

Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi says other political parties in the country have no clear ideological position as they copy ideas.

He said this at his party’s policy conference, which was underway in Windhoek yesterday.

The conference will come to an end today.

Swartbooi said when other parties come together, they sing and dance and engage in political rhetoric.

He said some leaders talk when they convene a meeting.

“The next day, that leader comes with the best ideas from Britain to change the Constitution of this country along the lines of the United Kingdom. Nothing new,” he said.

According to Swartbooi, some parties are copying the South African Democratic Alliance (DA).

“They even want to outperform the DA. Then others now have this project from South Africa. These little NEFF, ZEFF and other economic freedom fighting institutions are springing up across the country, and when you look at what the EFF is, you say: Can they just sit down and grow up?

“The one with 16 seats [in the National Assembly] today is a liberal, tomorrow a neoliberal. The other day a leftist party where your ideological identity is. Where is your ideological posture? Who are you? . . . [sic]’ he asked.

Swartbooi said some political parties have approached the LPM to form a political party without defining their political identity first.

“We are saying, are you a girl or are you a boy? At least we must be clear about it. You can’t be something in between,” he said.

He said political parties should not form coalitions without knowing each other’s ideological positions.

Swartbooi said some parties do not pay attention to important policy issues.

“We are expected as a political party to lead by knowledge, not by ignorance,” he said.

According to Swartbooi, other political parties would now also start holding policy conferences like the LPM.

He said the country is faced with the challenge that leaders seem to be elected from the former liberation movement.

“The former conduct of the former liberation movement was a better one. The current conduct of the former liberation movement is the one we do not want. They are bad and we are good. They did what was good, they are doing what is the worst in society,” Swartbooi said.

He said public policy has been used to systematically benefit some Namibians and disadvantage others.

“Our public sector policy and its consequent impact began to be positively experienced in favoured communities, while the policy benefits became non-existent or limited in reactionary or misled, and therefore unfavoured, communities,” he said.

Swartbooi said the asymmetry in access to benefits cannot be allowed to continue in the country.

“The new land reform policy requires only one thing from the possible beneficiary, and that is that you should at least have two million dollars worth of assets before you qualify. This policy is historic and amoral,” he said.

Swartbooi said this means it is contradictory that those who have lost land as a result of historic processes like genocide and dispossession must become multimillionaires before they get their land back.

He said public policies are crucial because they determine who gets what, where and how much.

LPM deputy leader Henny Seibeb said the party governs two regions, namely //Kharas and Hardap – both of which are endowed with natural resources and among the driest regions in the country.

The party’s conference will see several experts in various fields share their knowledge to assist it in constructing its own policies.

Invited guests include Ben Cousins, who has served as the South African National Research Foundation’s chair on poverty, land and agrarian studies, and Abdurazack Karim, an expert in city and regional planning.

The conference is expected to attract about 250 attendants.