Parliament ineffective, Swartbooi charges

Landless People’s Movement leader Bernadus Swartbooi has labelled Namibia’s parliament as ineffective and called on president Hage Geingob to reflect on the alleged weaknesses of National Assembly speaker Peter Katjavivi.

Speaking at a media briefing in Windhoek on Thursday, Swartbooi said the National Assembly “cannot just be for empty talk and passing the annual budget and then it goes into limbo, to suit the pace of the octogenarians [80-year-olds]”.

Swartbooi said the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) was not pleased with the little that has been done by the legislature in passing critical bills into law in an ever-changing world.

“Without making laws, parliament is irrelevant and not leading society,” he remarked.

Last year, five bills were introduced in parliament. This included the annual national budget. Of these, the National Assembly approved only the budget.

The proposed legislation not passed includes bills on access to information and an amendment bill on combating domestic violence.

Swartbooi also called for president Hage Geingob to introduce a basic income grant.

He said starvation in Namibia is a humanitarian crisis. “Namibians are hungry,” he said. “This starvation is the second humanitarian crisis, the first being the homelessness imposed upon the Namibian people by the ruling regime.”

Swartbooi blamed this on the government, and called on the international community to assist Namibians by providing emergency food aid.

Investment in massive agricultural irrigation in targeted areas is also needed, “to relieve the impending starvation nearing Ethiopia 1980 levels”, he said.

The LPM plans to litigate against the government on ancestral land in the south as well as the handling of the genocide matter, he further said.

The party also wants to set up a policy unit to review the country’s policies and propose alternatives in the National Assembly, he said.