By Taddeus Shithigona, Criminal Justice Scholar
OPINION: If the Swapo Party were to annihilate, Namibia would degenerate and collapse, and all the gains of independence would be reversed expeditiously.
The party is the hope of the nation, and an irreplaceable, perennial mass-based movement with a proven track record of fostering national unity, reconciliation, inclusive development and shared prosperity for all.
It is therefore imperative that Swapo continues to rise to the occasion and take the nation into confidence: by fostering the unity of purpose in its ranks; ridding itself of self-serving and self-centred leaders and opportunistic cult personalities, and decisively dealing with incidences of corruption, especially by its members. This will subsequently create a fertile ground for the unconditional implementation of the well-crafted and well-intended Swapo Party Elections Manifesto, Swapo Party Political Programme and the national development policies by its government.
The party has come to crossroads where it cannot afford to procrastinate on the socio-economic developmental agenda of its government. However, the party has done an amazing job in some sectors such as the construction of road networks placing Namibia at position number 1 in that regard in Africa.
Tremendous success has also been observed with the acceleration of the provision of water and electricity to the most remote areas country-wide, implementation of free primary and secondary education, increasing the elderly pension grant and children’s disability grant, in a quest to improve the livelihood of the most vulnerable groups in our country. However, more still needs to be done to address the looming unemployment crisis, access to housing and improved sanitation in the informal settlements.
There is no doubt that the Swapo Party is best suited, best experienced, and best advanced, with its governance structures, programmes and policies, to bring about inclusive development and shared prosperity to all the people of Namibia.
The party, therefore, owes to the nation, to the country, to sort itself out, not so that an individual can be in charge, but so that the Swapo Party plays the role that is expected of it by the people. This Namibia which the party has always been committed to from its infant stages, to serve the people and put Namibians first, that’s all it needs to do, and re-establish that Swapo is indeed the beacon of hope of the hopeless masses of our people.
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