A bicycle for each Namibian: Nujoma

THERE was a contrast of the old and the new, with young local musicians rocking the large crowd during a Swapo rally at the Zoo Park in Windhoek on Sunday afternoon, where 80-year old former President Sam Nujoma was the main speaker.

‘Swapo rocks!’ shouted a fired-up Margaret Mensah-Williams, Deputy Chairperson of the National Council, after Gal Level, singer Nancy and Kwaito boy group PDK one after the other energised the Swapo supporters before Tatekulu Nujoma took the microphone to once again tell the story of Swapo’s liberation struggle and developmental successes as the national government since 1990. ‘Swapo Party is the only party that has the capacity to eradicate poverty, diseases and ignorance and implement Vision 2030,’ Nujoma reiterated. ‘Swapo is ready and fully prepared to attain resounding victory in the upcoming elections and score all the 72 seats in the National Assembly’, Nujoma told supporters. He said the children of today were the ‘ammunition’ to fight the economic battle of building a prosperous Namibia if they took education seriously. ‘Find kindergartens for the children and buy computers for them. No person (in Namibia) should be without shelter and no Namibian should be without a bicycle, a scooter, a car or a boat. We will convert canoes at the Okavango (River) into boats,’ Nujoma said. He also wants 60 per cent of the national budget devoted to the education sector. ‘We need doctors, scientists and engineers,’ he stated. Nujoma urged that more value addition to Namibian resources should be done locally and more businesses should take out loans from the Development Bank of Namibia to increase manufacturing in the country.’We must work harder and do research to find solutions to challenges Namibia is facing,’ he urged. ‘I am particularly pleased that hundreds of Namibians, especially white Namibians, decided to work together with Swapo, which is the political home for all Namibians irrespective of race, colour and origin.’Turning to crime, the former President said it was a shame that ‘the bags of our mothers are grabbed while they walk in the street’.’It is shocking and that must stop, we all must be vigilant and the Police can’t do it alone, citizens and the whole nation must also chase criminals, we all must be Police.’At the rally it was announced that 280 new members had joined Swapo and that they allegedly came from the CoD, Nudo and RDP opposition parties. Earlier that afternoon, Swapo member Piet van der Walt urged other Afrikaans-speaking Namibians to join Swapo, especially white Namibians.’I want to say that Comrade Sam Nujoma does not hate whites,’ Van der Walt said to applause. Just weeks ago, Nujoma said at a rally in northern Namibia that British people should be ‘hit with a hammer in the head’.On his birthday in May this year, Nujoma threw a party for vulnerable children and used the occasion to say that ‘Germans must be shot between the eyes’.