The human rights organisation issued the statement in response to media reports in which it was revealed that Cabinet had been informed that the estimated total construction cost of the State House project had almost doubled from its initial figure, to about N$445 million.

Another N$23 million is projected to be needed to buy the 43 hectares of land on which the State House complex is being built.

That price tag does not yet include the still unknown expected costs of having to compensate the owners of some 67 properties in the vicinity of the new State House grounds in Auasblick for the expropriation of their properties, of which they were informed early last month.

In its statement, the NSHR said it was "totally dismayed and alarmed, though not necessarily surprised", by reports of the ballooning price of the new State House.

It claimed that the State House complex constitutes probably one of the clearest pieces of "smoking-gun evidence" yet that President Sam Nujoma is preparing himself for a fourth term of office - a scenario which at this stage remains unconstitutional.

Also, charged the NSHR, the increased spending - "runaway and lavish", in its opinion - comes at a time when Namibia's people face "enormous and very serious socio-economic hardships", which the organisation claimed is shown in Namibia's deteriorating performance in terms of international measurements of development and human poverty.

On a human development index, Namibia recently slipped back from a position where it had been placed 111th out of 184 United Nations member states, to 124th place, the NSHR stated.

It added that in terms of a measurement of poverty in the country, 35 per cent of Namibia's population live on less than US$1 (some N$7,50) a day, while some 56 per cent of the population live on less than US$2 (some N$15) a day.

The organisation added that, as a cost-saving measure, the President and other Cabinet Ministers should involve members of the public to contribute "at least in terms of manual labour" to the construction of the new State House complex.

The public has already shown large interest in contributing to building other national infrastructure, such as the Tsumeb-Oshikango railroad, the rights body claimed, while suggesting that alternatively the tender for the complex should be removed from its North Korean holder and be awarded to local companies.

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