Martin Endjala
The Landless Peoples Movement {LPM} leader Bernadus Swartbooi took the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation for allegedly undermining the capacity of local businesses to participate in agro-businesses at the Neckartal Dam, outside Keetmanshoop.
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said the minister showed her ignorance by excluding local entrepreneurs, during a visit to the Karas Region where she was selling investment deals with businesses from the United Arab Emirates.
Swartbooi was addressing about 400 people at Block E in Rehoboth when he referred to Ndaithwaj’s visit to the Karas Region as a joyride. “‘When did she consult the regional government (LPM) and potential local investors about that”? he questioned.
”The dam is a resource of the land and it is a food production and that priorities should be offered first to locals as a matter of good principle,” Swartbooi added.
Swapo, he said, must never again be trusted with any vote to rule this country. “The country is bleeding, their time is up,” a fired up Swartbooi said.
Swartbooi furthermore said, that, “it is now clear that Swapo wants to use the dam for gaining political leverage and putting inclusive national development aside, no wonder why Untoni Nujoma lately objected to the motion of MP Utaara Mootu in the parliament that called for the country to priorities the youth and have them venture into food production concessions of Neckartal Dam as a means of job creation”, he pointed out.
Swartbooi went onto education and said the state of education ”is completely shattered and left wanting as it is none responsive to any future developmental ambitions of Namibia”.
The vocational training does not have the capacity to absorb the mess that the ministry of education has created. “As a result of incompetent minister of education and their officials, parents are now subjected to a situation where school going children no more have space to further their education. Countless grade 11s now face a bleak future,” Swartbooi lamented.
He however, urged parents and LPM leadership to ensure that every child that walks the land is protected as for the future of Namibia depends on their patriotism. Swartbooi vowed to sweep all constituencies in the coming elections and called on the residents of Rehoboth to stand united and ready for the call when 2024 national and presidential elections comes, for them to come in numbers to vote a transition into the new government of the Republic of Namibia.
“The ruling party has lost direction and political relevance in both economic and social context, “Swapo has successfully managed to transform this country into an empty bread basket to the extent that even their work ethics have deteriorated”, Swartbooi added. The Rehoboth meeting was Swartbooi, LPM Deputy Leader and chief strategist Henny Seibed, as well as the Deputy Mayor of Rehoboth town council, Leilani Uiras and local authority management committee chairperson Jacobus Groenwaldt.
They also shared the party’s achievements, challenges and plans for the town and its residents as part of the LPM culture of an accountable governance. Amongst the issues that neede solving is the delivery of 5000 plots to local residents by the end of 2022, which has already commenced according to Uiras.
Self-sufficiency in portable water, lessening dependency on the ever expensive Namwater supply and the securing of local enterprises to resuscitate the long neglected Reho Spa.
Allocation of service contracts to local small and medium enterprises.
The discontinuation of the bucket toilet system, replacing it with temporary septic tank facilities and the integration of newly build houses into the sewer system at a later stage is also on the cards and the cancelling of pensioners municipal debts are some of the planned programmes by the Rehoboth Town Council.
The LPM local authority is expected to submit a full progress report to the national leadership next week.
