EDITORIAL: Where are Swapo’s young turks?
Hype around the Swapo congress has picked up intensity in recent weeks and, as usual, there’s no mention of young people as potential candidates for various positions – not least that of the possible successor of President Hage Geingob as head of state.
Instead, the names of Geingob, who turns 81 this year, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (70) and Nahas Angula (79) have been thrown around as possible contenders. Geingob, of course, cannot serve a third term as head of state but he is rumoured to harbour hopes of retaining his position as head of Swapo.
These senior citizens are allowed to dream. They are allowed to aspire for political office – including State House. But where are the young people amid all this?
Women, to their credit, have demanded their political rights and have achieved the breakthrough – the zebra style system that has infused them into party and parliamentary structures in equal measure as men.
Young people, on the other hand, are seemingly happy just to pump fists in the air and sing ‘Alert Namibia’, Swapo’s anthem, and be rewarded with personal assistant positions and corrupt preferential tender awards.
The youth are the most disenfranchised population of our country, but instead of becoming agents of the change they want to see, they often bark their discontent from the dark corners, including computer keyboards, like Chihuahua puppies.
Instead, the names of Geingob, who turns 81 this year, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (70) and Nahas Angula (79) have been thrown around as possible contenders. Geingob, of course, cannot serve a third term as head of state but he is rumoured to harbour hopes of retaining his position as head of Swapo.
These senior citizens are allowed to dream. They are allowed to aspire for political office – including State House. But where are the young people amid all this?
Women, to their credit, have demanded their political rights and have achieved the breakthrough – the zebra style system that has infused them into party and parliamentary structures in equal measure as men.
Young people, on the other hand, are seemingly happy just to pump fists in the air and sing ‘Alert Namibia’, Swapo’s anthem, and be rewarded with personal assistant positions and corrupt preferential tender awards.
The youth are the most disenfranchised population of our country, but instead of becoming agents of the change they want to see, they often bark their discontent from the dark corners, including computer keyboards, like Chihuahua puppies.
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Namibian Sun
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