Erasmus Shalihaxwe
Grootfontein Constituency Councillor, Elder Filipe, who is also a Member of the National Council, said he has witnessed deliberate attempts to keep vacancies within certain organisations open for years by those trusted to govern and manage public institutions.
Filipe was speaking in the National Council yesterday while contributing to the Fiscal Budget debate.
He stressed that sometimes it takes more than five years to employ personnel like cleaners and labourers to serve in public institutions. He added that this is an unrealistic trend.
“It’s time to conduct an audit of public institutions such as Local Authorities to ascertain the quantities of unfilled vacancies in their organisations. Rest assured, that even our political leadership at the local authority level don’t see the challenges of our times and address them wholeheartedly,” he said.
While touching on food production, the councillor stated that agriculture plays a crucial role in food security and he implored that the Fiscal Budget policy must be adjusted towards investments in agriculture as the backbone of the economy.
He stated that it is his understanding that investments in the agricultural value chain will arrest most of the challenges of unemployment as many people will have residual income from the sector.
“Our futuristic Fiscal Budget must be directed towards wealth redistribution that will address income inequalities, specifically in rural and sub-urban areas of our Republic. Fiscal policies must speak to the current trends of our existence as a nation and we must streamline government systems and processes so that our people on the ground can see and touch their resources.
Let us remove all policy bottlenecks hindering direct access to financial resources in Namibia, just like other countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique where money is in the hands of their people,” he urged.
Filipe is of the view that Namibian interests must be at the forefront of fiscal policy so the country does not succumb to foreign interference and manipulations like what transpired between German ambassadors and the President of Independent Patriots for Change.
“Such foreign acts must be classified as terrorist acts of regime change and policy directives must ensure zero tolerance in our political system as Namibia doesn’t interfere in their political systems and processes. Such acts must be condemned as acts of evil as they desire to recolonise Namibia democratically by installing a puppet Government,” stated Filipe.
