Budget fails to address youth unemployment – LPM

Landless People’s Movement (LPM) spokesperson Lafalaza Simaata on Monday said the national budget announced last week fails to address unemployment among the youth.

“We’re maintaining the status quo and the status quo is one that’s currently failing, where you have an increase in unemployment rates, you have continuous markets that are not growing, such as industries like manufacturing that haven’t grown in the past few years,” Simaata said.

He further highlighted the “failing” school education system and that youth unemployment is continuously growing.

According to Simaata, there might be an increase in the budget here and there, but not enough to radicalise the situation. He added that they believe that shows there is a lack of ambition to adjust.

“The budget doesn’t steer from what it has previously done in any shape or form,” he said.

As in their manifesto, Simaata highlighted that agriculture needs a huge boost to grow as an industry and to be a backbone that many in the country can rely on.

He said, currently, agriculture is the highest employer in the country but at the same time it suffers from drought and farmers that do not necessarily get the support they require or they need.

“You can see how problematic it is to maintain the already existing budget. We won’t address the issues that we are facing, but you also aren’t allowing innovation to occur within that industry,” Simaata said.

Over the weekend, LPM held its fourth national convention in Windhoek, with leader Bernadus Swartbooi firing shots at the national budget and calling for opposition unity ahead of November’s local authority elections.

Speaking to Desert FM, Simaata highlighted how important it is to consider how funds are acquired from the strength powers of each government level.

“When people understand that, they can understand for instance, the stagnancy or why things take a bit longer for projects to lift off and why they have to wait to be assisted” he said.

He said it is important to educate people on these matters because certain things are consistent problems that have already existing projects.

He added that once that transparency is there, it allows for individuals to understand what is going on.