Rhetoric must fall: Venaani

WINDHOEK, 12 APR  – Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) President McHenry Venaani said the time is over for rhetorical promises not accompanied by action and delivery in the fight against corruption, redressing unemployment and turning around Namibia’s economic fortunes.
Venaani made these remarks outside the National Assembly, shortly after President Hage Geingob delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Wednesday.
In his reaction to Geingob’s SONA, an unimpressed Venaani charged that rhetoric without results was meaningless.
“We want delivery. If you are saying you are going to do things, do them. There is no longer room to make empty promises to the citizenry,” stressed Venaani.
He said some milestones highlighted in the SONA were not worthy of celebration.
“The president just came here to say they have built 800 toilets. Now if you have a target in four years for 50 000 toilets, how do you clap hands for 800,” asked Venaani.
“If you were saying the debt level should be under 30 per cent and you are already at 35 per cent and growing with Chinese loans that are coming, we are going to be at 40 per cent; how are we measuring our targets,” he questioned.
Approached for his reaction, United Democratic Front Parliamentarian Dudu Murorua expressed satisfaction, saying there were positives that could be deduced from the SONA.
Murorua pointed to the tracing and rooting out of ghost employees by the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture.
Through this exercise, the ministry saved around N.dollars 34 million, according to Murorua, who added that these funds can now be redirected to other priority areas of national interest.
A disappointed Murorua, however, said those who benefited from being ‘ghost teachers’ thought they were cheating and stealing from the government.
“In fact, they were robbing the entire nation at the end of the day and it is all of us who were suffering altogether,” he said.
In his SONA, President Geingob highlighted strides made through the Harambee Prosperity Plan, reaffirmed his political will to end corruption and clarified some misconceptions around the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework.

NAMPA