Erasmus Shalihaxwe
The deputy secretary general of the Swapo Party, Uahekua Herunga has admitted that the ruling party has failed to fulfil its promises made during the 2019 election campaigns.
Herunga said this during an interview with the Windhoek Observer on the sidelines of the media briefing in Windhoek where Vipuakuje Muharukua announced that he is switching to Swapo from the Popular Democratic Movement on Tuesday.
‘’I am a believer in a success story, but obviously, it will not be 100 percent. The Swapo-led government has hugely succeeded, but that does not mean there are no challenges or shortcomings within the implementation services to the Namibian people by the ruling party,’’ he said.
Herunga was evasive when addressing the areas where the party has failed to deliver and rather stated that Swapo wants to focus on working hard on job creation, growing the economy, and creating industries that can put money into the pockets of Namibians, especially young people.
In 2019, Swapo made various promises, among them, plans to deliver 687 000 hectares of designated communal agriculture land in the Otjozondjupa, Omaheke, Oshikoto, Kavango East and Kunene regions.
The manifesto also emphasised urban development, particularly the upgrading of informal settlements and the acceleration of land servicing in urban areas.
Additionally, Swapo pledged to reduce teenage pregnancies by 30 percent by 2025.
The healthcare infrastructure received significant attention, with promises to build maternity shelters across the country to reduce maternal deaths.
The party also promised to fast-track the completion of outstanding capital projects at various health facilities, ensuring better access to healthcare services.
‘’The current government has set itself to increase educational funding by 21 percent and to increase the number of schools in the country by 8.6 percent in the next five years. In terms of electricity, once elected into power, the Swapo-led government further seeks to increase local generation capacity to 755 MW by 2021/2022. It also plans to increase rural electrification coverage by 100 percent within the next three years, with the first 50 percent starting next year,’’ reads the Swapo manifesto.
Infrastructure development was another key focus.
Swapo promised to construct 800 km of bitumen-standard roads and 1 524 km of gravel roads within five years.
Herunga acknowledged that the government’s struggles over the past four years have prevented the fulfilment of all these promises with less than four months until the elections.
