‘Toilet politics’ will dominate 2018

Herma Prinsloo
JEMIMA BEUKES

Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) president McHenry Venaani has lambasted the Swapo government for what it calls “a shameful denial of human dignity”.

Venaani held an open media interview yesterday where he described the party’s plans for 2018.

He tore into the country’s leadership for spending millions on an “excessive fleet” while the average Namibian does not have access to a toilet.

“People are using plastic containers. This year we will truly focus on toilet politics. The Harambee government says it will push back the frontiers of poverty but it cannot build toilets - but it has four jets. Can’t we sell two and build toilets? It is a shame that hepatitis broke out in Namibia 27 years after independence,” he said.

The number of hepatitis E cases plaguing several informal settlements of Windhoek since December continues to rise, with 294 cases and one fatality reported to date.

According to him the lack of sanitation is an epic failure.

Misuse

Venaani also rejected a “culture of impunity” among ministers who use luxury government vehicles for private use such as transporting cement, as was done over the weekend.

“There is no justification for a minister or deputy minister to load cement bags. When we start to justify that, then tomorrow you will also load your goats in a Mercedes-Benz. And another day you will load kapana in the Mercedes Benz to go and sell, because ‘it is my vehicle’,” he said.

He also questioned the unlimited use of fuel by high-ranking government officials, saying it bordered on corruption.

According to Venaani the number of state funerals and official trips must be capped.

“Every authority that is in the country must have a limit. If not, then you can go to your farm ten times and nothing will happen to you because you have been given a car,” he said.

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Namibian Sun 2024-04-20

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