Opposition bash N$6bn defence allocation

OGONE TLHAGE

The opposition has blasted the N$5.9 billion budget allocation to the defence ministry for the 2018/19 financial year, which is the third highest out of all ministries.

Opposition MPs also said the national budget, presented by finance minister Calle Schlettwein yesterday, had failed to address the country’s immediate needs.

Singling out the spending on defence, they were largely in agreement that it was too high and unnecessary.

United People’s Movement (UPM) national chairman Jan Van Wyk said that given the country’s pressing housing needs, it would have been better to allocate more towards the ministry of urban and rural development, which received a paltry N$2.2 billion in comparison.

“There are questions to be raised on defence spending, while the ministry of urban and rural development is not getting the money. I would expect that more should be spent there, given the housing shortfall,” said Van Wyk.

He described the astronomical defence allocation as disappointing and said the money would be better used if it was geared towards the housing shortfall.

“We need to get money to the local authorities so that they can avail land affordably,” Van Wyk said.

United Democratic Front (UDF) president Dudu Murorwa, like Van Wyk, felt that the defence ministry had received an unnecessarily big allocation. He was of the opinion that the money would be well-spent if allocated for agriculture.

“We do not have a critical defence situation, we can relax a bit. The minister of finance could have given more to farmers to help with the drought situation,” Murorwa said when questioned.

FNB economist Namene Kalili welcomed government’s fiscal consolidation stance and said it was a step in the right direction.

“We are moving to slow in the right direction. Fiscal consolidation is reducing your deficit so that it is smaller than GDP growth; we are not quite there yet. We are still seeing the debt stock picking up… heading towards 46% and we had set a target of 35%.,” said Kalili.

PSG Konsult analyst Eloise Du Plessis welcomed the increase in allocations to the development budget.

“The 30% increase in the development budget is welcomed and this has been achieved mostly through off-budget finance from the African Development Bank, KfW and public private partnerships (PPPs), with specific funding for specific projects. I think this is positive,” said Du Plessis.