Swapo Youth urges ‘patriotic Namibians’ to buy local

ALL patriotic Namibians should buy locally produced goods and Government, regional and local authorities should “source all types of goods and materials from indigenous and local businesses,” before sourcing elsewhere, the youth wing of the ruling Swapo party said in a statement released yesterday.

The statement, which was signed by Veikko Nekundi, Swapo Youth League (SPYL) Secretary for Economic Affairs, omitted to mention that Namibians would only be able to buy around 20 per cent of local goods, since close to 80 per cent are imported – from South Africa. “The services sector is by far the largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but this is still dominated by only one racial segment of our society,” Nekundi criticised.Swapo’s youthful economic commentator further demanded that the Ministry of Mines and Energy “stop with immediate effect granting rights to foreign companies” that have less than 51 per cent Namibian shareholding.Government should consider the youth and women when awarding tenders, develop strategies to encourage young entrepreneurs and design policies to “help young people to find those important first jobs that enable them to gain the experience they need.””We call upon all Government ministries to expedite their recruitment processes and to fill all vacant positions so as to absorb the unemployed youth,” the Swapo party youth wing said in its statement.The SPYL further condemned “the tendency of continuous empowerment of the haves and the failure of regional councillors and regional resettlement committees for continuously neglecting (to) resettle the youth.””The services sector is by far the largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but this is still dominated by only one racial segment of our society,” Nekundi criticised.Swapo’s youthful economic commentator further demanded that the Ministry of Mines and Energy “stop with immediate effect granting rights to foreign companies” that have less than 51 per cent Namibian shareholding.Government should consider the youth and women when awarding tenders, develop strategies to encourage young entrepreneurs and design policies to “help young people to find those important first jobs that enable them to gain the experience they need.””We call upon all Government ministries to expedite their recruitment processes and to fill all vacant positions so as to absorb the unemployed youth,” the Swapo party youth wing said in its statement.The SPYL further condemned “the tendency of continuous empowerment of the haves and the failure of regional councillors and regional resettlement committees for continuously neglecting (to) resettle the youth.”