Govt reviews performance at retreat

PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba jetted into Windhoek from Ethiopia at lunchtime yesterday and immediately flew to Swakopmund as his top leadership and executives of State-owned enterprises descended on the coastal town for the first Cabinet retreat under his leadership.

Pohamba’s Cabinet, top executives and heads of Government agencies will meet today through Friday to discuss progress made since March and look at ways to improve key areas such as land reform, economic growth and the development of civil servants for better service delivery. Most of today will be used to discuss a strategy to stimulate economic development with the Director of the National Planning Commission Helmut Angula, Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Trade Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko.Sources who are preparing the meetings said participants will take a serious look at the land reform programme.During last year’s national elections, Swapo promised to expropriate 192 farms belonging to foreign absentee landlords, with a total size of about 1,2 million hectares.So far only one farm, Ongombo West, some 60 km northeast of Windhoek, has been expropriated under the leadership of Pohamba, himself a former Lands Minister.Sources said the land reform programme has yet to create employment while the development of communal areas has not gotten off the mark.”We have increased the allocation for land reform from N$50 million a year to N$100 million, but the big question is whether we are using the money and doing it wisely.That will come under focus,” said one source.Pohamba’s Government was elected against the background of a promise to create 22 000 jobs in the grape, date and sugar industries; 10 000 permanent and 34 000 seasonal jobs through the Green Scheme (gardening jobs, including cotton production) in the next 15 years; 2 000 temporary and 500 permanent jobs in the mining sector through Scorpion zinc processing; and 18 000 in the fishing industry.In addition, the retreat will focus on the impact of corruption on the State’s operations and whether “jobs for loyal cadres” – a decision taken at an earlier retreat – was actually paying the expected dividends.Most of today will be used to discuss a strategy to stimulate economic development with the Director of the National Planning Commission Helmut Angula, Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Trade Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko.Sources who are preparing the meetings said participants will take a serious look at the land reform programme.During last year’s national elections, Swapo promised to expropriate 192 farms belonging to foreign absentee landlords, with a total size of about 1,2 million hectares.So far only one farm, Ongombo West, some 60 km northeast of Windhoek, has been expropriated under the leadership of Pohamba, himself a former Lands Minister.Sources said the land reform programme has yet to create employment while the development of communal areas has not gotten off the mark.”We have increased the allocation for land reform from N$50 million a year to N$100 million, but the big question is whether we are using the money and doing it wisely.That will come under focus,” said one source.Pohamba’s Government was elected against the background of a promise to create 22 000 jobs in the grape, date and sugar industries; 10 000 permanent and 34 000 seasonal jobs through the Green Scheme (gardening jobs, including cotton production) in the next 15 years; 2 000 temporary and 500 permanent jobs in the mining sector through Scorpion zinc processing; and 18 000 in the fishing industry.In addition, the retreat will focus on the impact of corruption on the State’s operations and whether “jobs for loyal cadres” – a decision taken at an earlier retreat – was actually paying the expected dividends.