Swapo defends Namra election promise

The ruling party Swapo has defended stating in its 2019 election campaign manifesto that one of its successes were operationalising the Namibia Revenue Agency (Namra) in 2019, which in fact did not happen.

During his midterm budget review speech last week, finance minister Calle Schlettwein said Namra will only be operationalised in March 2020.

Schlettwein said his ministry is struggling to launch Namra this month, as was the initial promise by government.

Swapo's new manifesto lists operationalising Namra as one of its government's achievements for 2019.

The party's executive director Austin Samupwa denied that the party lied in its manifesto about Namra being operational.

“There is no lie. People are being appointed in the meantime. The finance minister did not mean nothing is taking place,” he said.

Political commentator Ndumba Kamwanyah said this contradiction shows once again that political parties are not in touch with reality.

According to him, there is a pattern especially with the ruling party, to just claim success for even things that are not working on the ground.

“You will hear people talk about Harambee or Vision 2030 but they do not really connect it with the reality on whether it is really successful or not. There is a problem with parties when they work on their manifestos. They bring in things that do not really work,” said Kamwanyah.