SPYL On Youth Allergies

IN your Monday edition you alluded to the pronouncements of the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) which gave impetus and a catalyst for the adoption of key and historic documents during the just ended fifth Central Committee meeting in a free and independent Namibia.

The SPYL would not claim victory but would rather transfer such victory, if any, to the leadership of the Swapo Party for listening to the calls of the SPYL.Our public pronouncements in the past and in the future will and might win us both enemies and friends. Either way, our resolve is undeterred by criticisms because the challenges for youth empowerment and rural development are real and not imagined. We are not and will not be driven by personal gratification but rather the implementation of Congress Resolutions as well as the Swapo Party Manifesto and by our shared conviction that our rural areas constitute the largest bloc which has given the electoral mandate to the Swapo Government. We are therefore happy to acknowledge those in our Party and its Government who are youth-friendly. We appreciate the recent announcement by Cde. Jerry Ekandjo that over N$100 million has been approved for rural toilets in five regions of Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena, Oshana and Omusati. In the same vein, we applaud also those Ministries/Agencies/Offices who continue to employ and empower the youth of our country both in small and large numbers. Our support is predicated on the fact that these programmes are geared towards practical youth empowerment and quantifiable rural development including housing, rural feeder roads, rural electrification etc.The adoption of the rules and procedures as well as a Code of Conduct is a welcoming development. However, the SPYL is by far the only wing of the Party that has had its own Code of Conduct on the basis of which we have conducted disciplinary measures. We are glad that the drafters of the Party Code of Conduct consulted our Code of Conduct in formulating the Party Code. In the opinion of some, the Party Code of Conduct will be used to silence the SPYL, NUNW and some radical Regional Coordinators! But notwithstanding, the SPYL will continue to be even more radical and militant than ever before in advocating for the implementation of the Election Manifesto and in condemnation of hibernators in the Party. They are allergic to the Youth League. One even addressed a Swapo rally in Ohangwena and advised parents not to tell their children to vote for Swapo but to make their own choice. Another one went to address an illegal meeting and vilified the Founding President, Think Tank and SPYL. Yet some of these people are protected.How shameful that they have chosen to misrepresent the SPYL saying that we don’t recognize the liberation struggle waged in particular by nationalist freedom fighters of PLAN. This is a pathological lie and the rank and file should dismiss it with the contempt it deserves. Patriots, in our view, include both those who were in exile and those who were inside the country. Similarly there are those in RDP or CoD who can claim liberation credentials too. Since we know how bitter and protracted the liberation struggle was, do the hibernators want us to believe that they fought more than H.E. Dr. Sam Nujoma, the Leader of the Namibian Revolution? The SPYL will never forget and will forever honour the martyrs of our national liberation struggle, thus all those, within and outside the Party who are trying to distort and misrepresent the SPYL, are doing so in bad faith.Thankfully, these Rules and Procedures and the Code of Conduct will adequately provide for accountability to Swapo by all those who are deployed in government on its behalf. The documents also provide for a recall on those who are transgressing or not performing to the expectation of Swapo. This is a historic manifestation of a Party directing its government – a call which the SPYL and its solidarity partners have been advocating for a long time. We are therefore happy and expect these documents to give meaning to the calls for service delivery by all Government Ministries/Offices/Agencies to our people without fail. In this regard, we would expect that the Secretary General of Swapo would be empowered to summon those deployed in government to account for their performance and conduct. Ironically, the habitual critics of SPYL accuse us of indiscipline, yet some Ministers exhibit unmitigated arrogance when it comes to their conduct with the Office of the Secretary General. This is where the Code of Conduct shall play a key role, in our view. Once again, we applaud our Party and its leadership for the adoption of these historic documents which place Swapo above the rest. Dr Elijah NgurareSecretary of SPYL