Manifestos at a glance

Housing Swapo: Invest over N$250 million over the next five years to build over 6 000 houses for lower- and middle-income earners. Expand housing programmes to accommodate more Namibians, especially police officers, teachers and nurses. Steadily upgrade informal settlements in partnership with Namibia Shack Dwellers Association.APP: Remove squatter camps and replace them with apartments and affordable shelters through social housing initiatives. Spend N$2 billion annually on the construction of affordable housing for civil servants and low-earners. Engage banks on mortgage repayment periods and overhaul and streamline the National Housing Enterprise (NHE).All bills owed by poor households to local councils to be cancelled. PDM: Roll out a massive low-cost housing programme and provide a house to every family by 2026.Develop social housing on a massive scale to ease the burden of rentals and allow young professionals to access affordable housing. Provide a housing loan guarantee fund to assist low- and middle-income first-time home buyers to access loans. Establish an urban land resettlement scheme. NDP: Construction of low-cost housing and social housing projects, instead of contracting foreign constructors or selling these houses to commercial banks. Advocate for the building of many government flats in urban areas to accommodate unemployed youth. Land Swapo: Accelerate the implementation of the resolutions of the second national land conference, including the overhauling of the willing seller, willing buyer policy to put in place an alternative land acquisition and distribution policy. Review the target to acquire 2.5 million hectares of land by 2020 upwards to align with the broader aims of the national resettlement programme.APP: Accelerate the servicing of urban land and regulate and control settlement in urban areas to avoid illegal occupation of municipal land and the erection of illegal structures. Fast-track the land reform and distribution process for those without land and committed farmers.People with a passion to farm will enjoy top priority, instead of weekend, holiday and hobby farmers. PDM: Expropriation with JUST COMPENSATION.Development of virgin land with fencing and water infrastructure and the creation of developed commercial land on a 15-year leasehold to create more farmers.Regular audits of resettlement farm infrastructure and punitive measures for deliberate vandalism of property.The development of diverse systems of land tenure towards an evolutionary process which should culminate in leasehold and ultimately a freehold system. NDP: Communal land must not be commercialised and foreigners should not be allocated or sold land in these areas.Resettlement programme should only benefit those who were dispossessed of their ancestral land by Germany. Those who lost their ancestral land must have it returned free of charge.Prices for urban land should be reasonable and affordable. The economySwapo: Strengthen and develop policies to ensure that capital allocation support employment and wealth-creation, as well as the industrialisation of the economy. Adopt inclusive and sustained transformation programmes, encompassing macroeconomic reforms and initiatives, as well as specific sectoral interventions. APP: Promote the establishment of public companies and cooperatives with a minimum 25% stake to the Namibian state, as well as worker, regional women and youth trusts, so they can benefit from the value-addition of minerals and fisheries, etc. The reinvestment of 50% of locally generated revenue by all companies operating in the country. Promote investment by promulgating policies and laws that are investor-friendly and that protect the local economy and Namibian businesses.Less cumbersome processes for the registration of companies, work permits and the streamlining and simplification of the tax and revenue system.PDM: Review the performance of state-owned enterprises, limit bailouts and reform high wage bills.Strategically sell assets that are not core functions of government and decrease the burden of state involvement in business.Build modern infrastructure and the capacity of small businesses to create stronger job growth, as well as lower taxes to stimulate stronger economic growth and unleash real economic potential.Deepen engagements with SADC and Africa and new trade routes to BRICS nations and broaden property ownership to include rural communise. NDP: Advocate for 60% or higher state ownership, with a waiver on liabilities, in all local and foreign mining companies operating within the country.Advocate for value-addition to all mineral resources by following value chains of mineral resources before export.All raw materials, including timber, should be converted into finished products before export and train locals in mining and other value-addition processes. HealthSwapo: Remove all barriers to accessing quality and affordable preventative, curative, rehabilitative and palliative healthcare at all levels of the healthcare system. Pursue and fast-track plans to build new level 2 and level 3 hospitals across the country to improve the delivery of quality healthcare and further invest in the renovation and rehabilitation of ageing health facilities, including the national referral hospitals. APP: Increase health funding and ensure the equitable distribution of health financing burden. Reduce the incidence of impoverishment due to catastrophic healthcare expenditure and improve the quality and efficiency of service delivery.Provide well-trained health professionals and improve their conditions of service progressively. PDM: Scrap the medicine tender system. Reduce out-of-pocket expenditure for health and provide annual health cover to poor families under the VERUKISA SCHEME that will target the provision of telemedicine and diagnostic laboratory facilities at health and wellness centres by 2023.Provide clinics in all 120 national constituencies by buying shipping containers to be converted to smart clinics.Build two new major hospitals in Katutura to ease the burden of overcrowding and modernise state hospitals. NDP: Introduce electronic files for patients and deliver chronic medication at home for the elderly. Promote hygiene, healthy eating and the use of herbs as natural preventive measures against some diseases.Upscale cancer awareness. Job-creation Swapo: See comments on the economy.PDM: Create an enabling environment for business growth through infrastructural development, a professional and streamlined public service, good education and vocational training relevant to global trends and technological advances.Promote investment in innovation, research and the development and fostering of a culture of entrepreneurship by funding education and training, as well as small business incubators.Establish a department of youth and job-creation. APP: Revive the agriculture and manufacturing sectors and reduce imports. Encourage the formation of youth and women cooperatives across the country to take up agricultural projects. Support the local timber-harvesting industry and ensure it is sustainably managed with the protection of the environment. NDP: Advocate for the creation of more jobs and create awareness against artificial intelligence (Fourth Industrial Revolution).Advocate for the creation of a national unemployed graduates hub and union and encourage government to increase post-graduate funding.Advocate for a progressive taxation system across the private and public service, and income regulation in executive corporate and political positions. JEMIMA BEUKES AND ILENI NANDJATO

Manifestos at a glance

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-04

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Manifestos at a glance

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-04

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