Patience Makwele
The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) has challenged the government to demonstrate how it intends to translate its economic diplomacy initiatives, trade agreements and infrastructure investments into the 500 000 jobs promised by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, IPC shadow minister for international relations and trade, Rodney Cloete, said jobs would not be created through speeches, diplomatic engagements or memoranda of understanding, but through increased business activity, production, trade, investment and industrialisation.
“The politically serious question is different: how does a government promising 500 000 jobs build and maintain trade infrastructure but fail to generate enough economic activity to use it?” Cloete asked.
Cloete pointed to Namibia’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), noting that Namibia formally began trading under the agreement on 30 June 2025.
He said the reported issuance of nine AfCFTA certificates of origin for exports to Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria should prompt government to provide clearer information on the actual use of the continental market.
“Namibians are entitled to know how many firms are actually using that market, what they are selling, where they are selling it and what those exports are worth,” he said.
The IPC also questioned the utilisation of Namibia’s rail infrastructure, citing TransNamib’s reported position that the last recorded train movement between Ondangwa and Oshikango was on 12 July 2024.
According to the party, government has attributed the lack of regular rail services on the route to insufficient cargo to make short trains commercially viable.
Cloete said this raised questions about how Namibia could achieve its trade and employment ambitions if existing infrastructure was not generating sufficient economic activity.
He contrasted Namibia’s situation with developments in Angola, where the Africa Finance Corporation has reached financial close on US$753 million for the approximately 1 300-kilometre Lobito railway, including US$553 million from the United States International Development Finance Corporation and US$200 million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
“A gateway is not declared, a gateway is used,” Cloete said, arguing that cargo would ultimately follow routes that are cheaper, faster and more reliable.
Further calling for a more results-driven approach to economic diplomacy, saying Namibia’s diplomatic missions and international engagements should be assessed by their economic outcomes.
Cloete asked government to account for which markets had been opened, trade barriers removed, Namibian companies that had secured orders, investments that had become operational businesses, factories that had opened and jobs that had been created.
He said Namibia had the necessary platforms, including AfCFTA, SADC, ports, railways, embassies, bilateral commissions, investment conferences and the National Development Plan 6 (NDP6), but needed to demonstrate how these instruments were being converted into tangible economic activity.
“If Government cannot show how that machine gets Namibia from today’s economy to 500 000 additional jobs, then 500 000 is not yet an economic programme. It is a campaign number looking for an economy,” Cloete said.
The IPC said it would judge major economic diplomacy announcements by their contribution to real economic outcomes rather than the number of ceremonies or diplomatic engagements held.
“We are no longer interested in counting ceremonies. We are counting conversions,” the statement said.
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