Political judgement day is nigh: Ulenga

THE ruling Swapo party has used the past 19 years to ‘take away from the nation and to enrich themselves’ instead of growing the economy, providing good education, decent housing or affordable land, Congress of Democrats (CoD) leader Ben Ulenga has claimed.

Ulenga was speaking at a ‘policy and strategy retreat’ of 50 CoD leaders from all 13 regions at a conference centre outside Windhoek on Friday.’Four times Swapo was given the mandate by voters to govern, because the people hoped that Swapo would deliver jobs, housing and properly educate our children, but four times Swapo failed to deliver all the promises,’ Ulenga lashed out. He criticised Government expenditure on a new State House, which costs over N$600 million, over the past seven years. ‘CoD was launched [in 1999] to bring change to Namibia, to fight autocracy and advance democracy, to fight tribalism and build a united nation,’ Ulenga said. Youth empowerment and jobs for young people are other issues ‘that need deep reflection’, he added. ‘It is my wish that we in CoD should distinguish ourselves from other political parties by providing really workable guidelines for land and agrarian reform,’ he said, without giving details.Ulenga said the 13 political regions in independent Namibia were created along old tribal boundaries dating from the apartheid era and this should be changed. ‘2009 is an election year and the political judgement day is nigh,’ he stated. The CoD retreat was held to draft an election manifesto after members received presentations from several experts on the economy, labour, agriculture and land reform.