EDITORIAL: PDM youth showed the way

Young people in Swapo and other political parties can learn a thing or two from how their peers in the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) have turned the tables and weaved themselves into the central committee, knocking the old guard off their perch.In PDM, young people are not begging for inclusion like the Swapo youth do every time they get onto the podium. They simply organised themselves and went into elections as a united front. PDM also has vibrant young people in parliament, who got there on their own merits - not handpicked like ripe cherries in harvest season.The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) in particular must flex its muscles and stop begging for positions like school boys. At the 2019 Swapo electoral college, the youth were outfoxed. Its highest-ranked candidate at the electoral college, Hophni Ipinge, came in a distant 83rd.At the time, some youthful members - such as the late Mandela Kapere who ranked 45th on the list and was not a nominee of the youth league - had resolved to push for at least 40% representation in the National Assembly. Occupying the top five positions on the list were Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Sophia Shaningwa, Pohamba Shifeta, Lucia Iipumbu and Tom Alweendo – all of whom were not young people. In the national elections, Swapo ended up winning 63 seats, with nearly none occupied by young people. Swapo’s youngest members in the National Assembly – Emma Theofelus and Patience Masua – were presidential nominees who, to date, have no voting powers in that house. The youth must do better!

EDITORIAL: PDM youth showed the way

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-07

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EDITORIAL: PDM youth showed the way

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-07

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