LPM is not a tribal party – Swartbooi

THE Landless People’;s Movement’;s leader, Bernadus Swartbooi, last Wednesday said the organisation is not based on ethnicity because its membership cuts across the length and breadth of the country.

The former Swapo parliamentarian stressed that the movement, which recently applied to the Electoral Commission of Namibian for political party status, stands for the advancement of all Namibians when he addressed the organisation’;s sympathisers and members at a fully-packed Keetmanshoop’;s St Mathias Hall on Wednesday.

“We are everywhere in Namibia,” he said.

The politician said the membership of the movement is not limited to any particular ethnic group as the party’;s opponents would want the people to believe, and that such statements are only aimed at soiling the party’;s image.

He promised that the movement will transform the bankrupt swapo government by trimming the bloated ministries to save costs and render effective service delivery.

“The LPM plans to free you from abject poverty through creating jobs,” he stated.

Swartbooi said under the ruling Swapo party government, significant ethnic disparities exist in the country and in the civil service employment domain. “The Namibian Defence Force staff comprises 90% from one ethnic group,” he stressed. According to him, the coloured community has also been deliberately excluded from decision-making positions in the government because they are seemingly close to the white people who do not need government assistance.

“What had happened to the coloured community? Why are they less Namibian citizens than others?” he asked, adding that this needed to be rectified. The outspoken politician further charged that the country has been made bankrupt by the leaders of the Swapo-led government, while ordinary people got poorer compared to the times of German colonial and apartheid South African rule. Swartbooi added that the Swapo-led government wants a N$10 billion Chinese loan to finance the Swapo Party to campaign for the upcoming elections.

“The government wants to use that money to create short-term jobs to woo voters for the Swapo Party,” he remarked. He also condemned the notion by some prominent politicians that ancestral land restitution, which the movement advocates, will trigger a civil war. “We do not seek civil war. With love, and together with all ethnic groups, we want to find total prosperity for the citizens of this country,” he stated.