The president of the official opposition party PDM, McHenry Venaani, said Monday that whatever the politics, the nation is bleeding.
Delivering the Real State of the Nation in Windhoek, Venaani said jobs are being haemorrhaged with more than 30 000 being lost in the construction industry alone.
The PDM holds the Real State of the Nation Address to report on the status of the nation without sugar-coating anything but telling it like it is.
According to Venaani, the retail and hospitality industry was also losing jobs and that the government is blind to the reality that more jobs will be lost.
He said while it is true that the spread of COVID-19 is responsible for recent job losses, the government’s failure to mitigate the risk has worsened the problem. Venaani said the government’s appetite for mining taxes has stood in the way of meaningful planning for sustainable jobs in the mining sector.
Fishrot
As the nation comes to terms with the Fishrot saga, Venaani said, the President of the debt-laden government stands before parliament to paint a picture of being tough on corruption.
“Had the fishrot scandal not been so serious, it would be laughable. Political stunts must not become part of our body politic. There is a need to review the current process of allocating fishing rights and quotas,” Venaani said.
He further said the quota system was introduced to empower Namibians by giving them licenses to harvest fish from the Atlantic Ocean, the system only benefits a few well-connected and well-off individuals who use poor communities as fronts for their companies.
“We must be alive to the plight of the more than 5,000 fishermen who lost their jobs through Swapo’s greed. As I said before, their families continue to suffer the consequences of bad government and corruption. The only beneficiary is Swapo and its kingpins.
“Many of these men and women continue to knock on my door complaining about the injustice they endure. They must get their livelihood back,” he said.
