Itula slams 2026/27 budget as ‘copy-paste’, questions N$244m spent on workshops

Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) president Panduleni Itula says the national budget cuts development spending while allocating billions to travel and workshops, describing it as “business-as-usual”.

Itula held a press conference in Windhoek yesterday, where he outlined what he described as “misplaced priorities” in the budget.

Itula described the 2026/27 budget as “business-as-usual”, arguing that it shows the government has not re-evaluated its spending despite changing economic conditions.

“Nobody has asked: did this work last year? Can we do something different? We analysed all the line items in that budget. About 66% are on autopilot. It’s a classic Namibian mentality of copy-paste,” Itula said.

He pointed to specific line items he said the IPC had identified as wasteful, amounting to N$9.3 billion. According to Itula, subsistence and travel (S&T) allowances and workshops are overfunded.

He said the government has spent N$244 million on 243 workshops over the past year.

“The minister said there is a dearth of capacity in the civil service to execute services. What are the workshops for?” Itula asked.

The criticism comes as the budget tabled by finance minister Ericah Shafudah reduces the development allocation, a cut the minister says was necessary because the previous development budget had not been fully executed.

Itula argued that while capital projects are being scaled back, operational spending continues largely unchanged.

With the N$9.3 billion that IPC says it has identified, Itula said the government could honour its campaign promise of a N$3 000 per month allowance for pensioners.

“Your pension is unaffordable? It is not unaffordable. It was just not a priority in this budget,” Itula said, adding that the government could also spend more on infrastructure, including building schools and hospitals.

Other political parties and political analysts told The Namibian that although some spending might be high, not all operational expenditures are wasteful.

Affirmative Repositioning’s George Kambala says the party welcomes the budget and is still conducting an in-depth review of the documents. However, he acknowledges concerns about S&T.

“S&T is a concern. We don’t appreciate the allocation. It’s too high. We need to rethink the S&T formula,” Kambala says.

However, he disagrees with Itula’s characterisation of workshops as wasteful.

“We are part of the international community and we need to ensure our public servants are able to deal with any issues that come up. We need to capacitate public servants,” Kambala says.

Former finance minister Calle Schlettwein has also pushed back against the suggestion that training and travel are wasteful.

“As a small economy living in a globalised world, it would be a mistake to isolate ourselves. Namibia strongly believes in a multilateral world; we have to participate to make our voices heard,” he says.

Schlettwein cautions against generalised statements about travel.

Travel includes state veterinarians responding to disease outbreaks and fisheries inspectors going to sea – both necessary to the agricultural sector, he says.

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah says travel, workshops and S&T allowances are often politically sensitive because they are often viewed as non-essential.

“But not all travel and workshop spending is wasteful – some supports core government functions,” he says.

He adds: “The Independent Patriots for Change is right to interrogate the budget – scrutinising public spending, identifying waste and highlighting gaps in implementation is a core role of any opposition party.”

‘HYPOCRITICAL’

Political analyst Rui Tyitende raises questions about Itula’s budget analysis given the IPC’s own spending patterns.

“Even though the issues they highlighted are profound and should be considered, it has become evident that the IPC has no moral high ground to lecture the government and the Namibian people,” he told The Namibian.

His comments come after IPC’s Imms Nashinge refused a second-hand luxury car that was offered to him as official leader of the opposition.

“No thinking Namibian should take them seriously when they make such remarks as they are no better than the current administration,” Tyitende says.

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