Venaani lashes Geingob

JEMIMA BEUKES In a self-styled state of the nation address early this week, PDM leader McHenry Venaani launched a scathing attack on President Hage Geingob, saying despair and desperation were the order of the day in the country.According to Venaani, Geingob failed to give an account of the real state of the nation when he spoke in parliament last week.The official opposition leader said the dire unemployment rate remained high.According to Venaani about 45% of Namibians younger than 35 are without a job and living in shacks, while those with jobs have to spend a big chunk of their salaries on high mortgage repayments or rent.Real income had stagnated and owning a home was simply beyond the means of most working families, Venaani said.“For the unemployed the situation is even direr, having to settle in shacks when they move to the city and have very limited prospects to escape their oppressing living conditions.“The difference between what the poor earn and what a dwelling costs them is so large that many families choose to remain in their shacks even if the breadwinner may find gainful, full-time employment.”Venaani said he was disappointed that Geingob failed to admit the housing crisis and high jobless rate.Geingob, according to Venaani, “chose to tell a tale of two Namibias” in his speech.“There is the Namibia inhabited by the president, his family, business friends and a small select group. Then there is the real Namibia inhabited by the remaining 2.5 million of us,” said Venaani.In his address, Geingob labelled corruption as the nation’s “enemy number one” in the war against widespread poverty, saying there was political will to tackle the problem.He also welcomed debate on ancestral land claims ahead of the second national land conference that will take place later this year. The head of state largely painted a bright picture of the country.However, Venaani differed sharply and accused the Geingob administration of having a complete lack of information on jobs created in the country.“Does the president have no evidence of the scale of graduate unemployment in this country? Has the president no evidence of the large number of teachers and nursing trainees who, three years and more after completion of their training, are virtually all sitting at home without being afforded the opportunity to offer the critical services for which they have been trained for?“Why ignore the clear evidence of this cancer that characterises the true state of the economy? We heard nothing of the bold and radical measures that would encourage enterprises to expand, or that would help build new businesses in agriculture or industry to generate the hundreds of thousands of jobs that our youth need rather than saying new funds are found that are not clear where they are coming from and not budgeted for either.”‘Promises, promises’Venaani added that Geingob had in the last few months proven himself to be a leader of many unfulfilled promises and ambitious plans that had little hope of being achieved.Venaani said his party believed the president would do well to start explaining why it had failed to deliver the 200 000 serviced erven he had promised when confronted by land activist Job Amupanda and his Affirmative Repositioning Movement.“In 2018 that unfulfilled promise remains of unserviced erven. Now we have been told that this incompetent government has managed to provide fewer than 10 000 erven for the land-hungry citizens his party claims to be concerned about.”Psemas messVenaani also urged the government to consider administering the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (Psemas) internally in order to save costs, and to increase the ratio of health workers to patients.He added that the government should provide motorcycle ambulances for rural areas and revamp its new healthcare policy.“We have a situation of one out four children born in our country being stunted, meaning suffering from malnutrition and undernourishment, a situation that tells a glaring tale that one out four Namibians grow to abnormal capacity due to poor living conditions,” the opposition leader said.

Venaani lashes Geingob

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-29

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Venaani lashes Geingob

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-29

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