Swapo launches 2009 manifesto

PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba launched the ruling Swapo party’s 2009 election manifesto on Saturday in front of a large crowd in Katutura on Saturday.

‘Our children are the future of our country and it is important that our programmes and policies are designed to meet the current and future needs of the youth,’ President Pohamba said, adding the manifesto, which he called a contract between Swapo and Namibian people – would soon be printed in ‘all Namibian languages.’The entire Swapo leadership, as well as invited diplomats, were present to witness the launch, which was accompanied by a flood of balloons in Swapo colours being released into the air.’We will do everything in our power to accelerate job creation through the promotion of value addition, local manufacturing and small and medium enterprises and we will continue implementing our development plans to make sure Namibia becomes an industrialised country as envisaged in our Vision 2030 plan.’Citing details from the manifesto, Pohamba said that if re-elected, Swapo would continue to enhance the capacity of the law enforcement agencies to combat crime. ‘We will tackle crime and disorderly conduct by insisting on tougher sentencing for serious crimes, putting more Police officers on the streets, providing more to Police and legal counsels and ensuring that our correctional services are repositioned to reform offenders, especially the youngsters.’Swapo was a winning party and unlike other political parties, he said.’Swapo has the will, the capacity and the necessary experience in governance to bring about a better life for all citizens. Swapo will continue with ongoing policies to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of resources to all communities in all parts of our country,’ Pohamba promised, adding ‘we can do more’.’We will vigorously pursue policies and programmes geared towards addressing the inherited social inequalities and the elimination of all other vestiges of apartheid colonialism.’According to Pohamba, Swapo is the ‘only driving force for peace, development and stability in Namibia and the party has delivered on its promises to the nation over the past 19 years’.This year’s manifesto is in booklet form and is comprised of 42 pages compared to the 75-page manifesto in A4 format published in 2004.The 2009 manifesto is thin on details on what the party wants to achieve in different sectors, such as land reform, over the next five years. In 2004, Swapo vowed to expropriate 192 farms belonging to foreign absentee landlords.To date, this has not been achieved. In the 2009 manifesto, Swapo promises to ‘to undertake urgent measures to review existing legislation, policies and programmes related to land acquisition and redistribution’. With regard to education, Swapo promised in 2004 to build vocational training colleges in those regions where none existed and in the new manifesto this promise is repeated.In general, in its 2009 manifesto Swapo promises to continue with the aims of its 2004 manifesto. Although Cabinet had decided in 2007 that Namibia should use nuclear power by 2018, a decision that was not made public, the 2009 manifesto mentions only that investments will be made in power generation programmes, ‘especially the Kudu gas field, hydro power, renewable and other alternative energy sources’.The manifesto will also be available at the Swapo website under www.swapoparty.org.