Promises made at presidential debate

Various political parties participated in a presidential debate organised by Eagle FM in Windhoek on Friday.

The parties touched on various topics ranging from housing, education and the economy. Here is what some of them had to say:

LPM commits N$500m to boost Namibia’s youth economy

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has pledged to allocate N$500 million to the youth economy.

“We will immediately allocate funds to develop the sport economy, so that we can fund leagues from various sport codes to become profitable,” LPM leader Bernadus Swartbooi said, adding that sport is undermined and underpaid.

Swartbooi said he will ensure that young people do not drop out of school.

“We’ll stop the dropout process so that everyone who starts in Grade 1 can reach Grade 12, no matter how long it takes.”

“LPM will make sure that 45% of funds of the Government Institutions Pension Fund for unlisted investments is specifically allocated to enterprises run by young people,” he said, adding that young people need to be within the value chain of the mining sector.

Swartbooi said LPM aims to direct about N$12 billion towards small and medium enterprises in a sustainable way.

Venaani pledges NSFAF reform to increase student enrolment

Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader McHenry Venaani said if elected, he will ensure young people get study grants that do not need to be paid back.

Venaani said PDM plans to reform the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) to provide these grants.

“The fishing sector should allocate a portion of its natural resource quotas directly to NSFAF, allowing it to fund students free of charge and, thereby, increase student access and enrolment,” he said.

He said the party will spend 10% of the country’s gross domestic product on agriculture to increase productivity.

“To develop value chains in food processing, we can utilise the resources available at the Neckartal Dam and the Okavango River. For instance, if we produce tomatoes in that region, we should establish a factory at Berseba to produce tomato sauce,” he said.

Venaani said every company would be incentivised to provide job training to Namibians, rather than making use of unskilled foreigners.

He highlighted that people should be able to create jobs in the market.

“By doing so, we will effectively achieve our goal of generating income in two significant ways,” Venaani said.

CoD says no to comrade deployment

Congress of Democrats (CoD) presidential candidate Vaino Amupadhi said his party wants to get rid of the cadre deployment policy.

Namibia has no official policy that details cadre or comrade deployment.

“We must first stop with the policy of cadre deployment, job for comrades, because those comrades that were put in key positions in parastatals and other government institutions, they are the people that steal our taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Ally Angula pushes for housing reform

Independent presidential candidate Ally Angula plans to move residents from Katutura to less populated areas of Windhoek as part of her plan to deal with the country’s housing crisis.

Angula said Windhoek suburbs with fewer residents should be densified.

“We need to densify areas that are low density so Windhoek West, Windhoek North, those are low density areas if you look at the size of the urban [areas], and de-densify where you’ve got the high density in Katutura,” she said.

She plans to redirect funding set aside for the government’s resettlement programme towards buying urban land.