The extent to which political leaders will go to win people’s trust is disheartening.
The poorest of the poor, the hopeless and most destitute previously disadvantaged Namibians put so much hope and trust in the lies of politicians.
President Hage Geingob in April told people the //Kharas region will not remain poor with the envisaged green hydrogen project.
He said: “There’s diamonds here, but these people are poor. We cannot have green hydrogen and people are still poor.”
This is the same man who, during his term as Namibia’s first prime minister, publicly stated that, considering the country’s wealth and small population, every Namibian can enjoy a better life.
The current //Kharas governor, Aletha Frederick, during her maiden state of the region address at Keetmanshoop in 2020 said the region would not be exploited any more.
She said the region is a high-end profitable tax-generating area, which predominantly comes from diamond mining for the central government.
Politicians never have done enough to bring about genuine transformation in the social and economic lives of citizens.
The official opposition, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), only goes around bad-mouthing Swapo for apparently having messed up things.
On the other hand, we have the Landless Peoples Movement (LPM), a grassroots political party which seems promising.
But even with them it seems like more talk and less action.
Imagine Keetmanshoop residents’ municipal issues becoming more prevalent.
Some settlements in the region are without water for months, and no one, not Swapo, the PDM or the LPM, seems to care.
Water is a basic commodity which any responsible political office must prioritise.
There are pensioners, disabled people, schoolgoing children, women and subsistence farmers who are experiencing a serious lack of water.
Other political stakeholders, like the Independent Patriots for Change, Affirmative Repositioning movement, National Unity Democratic Organisation, and the South West Africa National Union seem to prioritise their own political interest instead of offering the nation and its citizens solutions.
Sepo Organisation
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