APP calls for political debate

THE All People’s Party (APP) is challenging Swapo and all opposition parties to enter into a national debate on ‘any issue, any topic, at any venue and at any time’ in the run-up to the November national and presidential elections.

Party president Ignatius Shixwameni last week called on the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) ‘to create platforms for people to articulate what they will be doing’.’We are tired of speeches being read. Leaders should be able to show that they understand what they are backing. They should be able to speak themselves, and to explain themselves through debate.’He said the APP’s inaugural congress this month had ‘resolved to call for a series of debates on TV and radio for the leaders of all political parties before the November elections’.Shixwameni also appealed for a level playing field in media coverage of political parties.’This is a year of elections and all parties are looking at fresh mandates. I hope that all media will be able to cover all parties fairly, and to let the Namibian people judge for themselves on who makes the most sense.’ Shixwameni said the inaugural congress of the party held in Rundu on May 1 also decided to push for a Freedom of Information Act which will allow citizens to have access to all State information.Delegates also called on Government to immediately lift its ban on advertising in The Namibian. ‘We are no longer in the era of preventing people from publishing their ideas,’ the party leader said.The congress adopted the party’s constitution, political programme and code of conduct.Prominent in its programme is the party’s resolve to endorse the implementation of a Basic Income Grant for poor households within five years.Also on its programme are: ‘bigger support to youth development and empowerment by making provision for the State to spend not less than half a billion Namibian dollars on direct youth empowerment projects’; a requirement that all companies exploiting the country’s natural resources must have at least a 35 per cent Namibian shareholding that is ‘distributed amongst a workers’ trust, community trusts and innovative needy SMEs’; and the unbundling of profitable State-owned enterprises to make provision for a minority private shareholding that includes workers and community trusts, while the State retains a two-thirds majority shareholding.The APP’s political programme further calls for the awarding of construction tenders to local companies, or those with a minimum 40 per cent verifiable Namibian shareholding and ‘provision for the Namibian State to acquire shares in carefully identified and selected profit-making private enterprises internationally’.Shixwameni highlighted the adoption of a code of conduct at the congress, which ‘provides for punishment of leaders and members who make themselves guilty of transgressing the ECN code of conduct, and makes those in positions in Government institutions ‘accountable to the rank and file and the public’.He noted that at the inaugural congress, the APP also elected into office the party’s top seven executives and its 35 Central Co-ordinating Committee members.nangula@namibian.com.na