POPULAR Democratic Movement president McHenry Venaani says the government can only create feasible employment opportunities by cutting to the bone all perks and luxuries given to top officials.
Venaani, in a press statement released yesterday, urged finance minister Calle Schlettwein to cut government expenditure by doing away with unwarranted spending.
The opposition party leader stated that ‘Harambee sloganeering’, which he said has sent many breadwinners home without jobs, must be put to an end, dubbing it a failure.
His reaction follows media reports that close to 37 000 employees’ contracts had been terminated during the previous financial year. The reports were informed by statistics released by the Employment Equity Commission (EEC).
The affected sectors include agriculture, construction, fishing, manufacturing, tourism, wholesale, retail and mining.
“The PDM has with shock learned about the latest statistics released by the EEC, indicating that 36 822 employment contracts were terminated during the 2017/18 financial period,” Venaani said.
He added that job losses have become a national crisis, and that the figures represent the harsh reality of the number of people sitting at home without any means of survival while it is business as usual for the government, and the president keeps clocking up frequent flyer miles,” the PDM leader charged.
Venaani said his party has been calling for an urgent jobs summit, which summit must include aligning the required skills to what students are studying.
“Part of the summit should be aligning entrepreneurs with funders and donors. The innovation, science and IT sectors should be a special focus,” he noted.
The PDM president added that there is a lack of political will to create job opportunities for ordinary people in Namibia.
“Politics must be put aside,” he urged.
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