The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA)'s Secretary-General McHenry Venaani has urged the political party that will win the Presidential and National Assembly elections slated for 27-28 November this year to reform the country's education system.
Venaani, who was speaking at a panel discussion on inequality in Namibia here on Monday, said the country needs an education system that creates jobs for economy growth in order to alleviate poverty.
He added that agriculture is another vital sector in which his party prioritize, therefore, he challenged the new government to make sure that at least 10 per cent of the budget will be spent on agriculture.
He called on the closure of gap between white and black people specially when it comes to land allocation.
Meanwhile, the Congress of Democrats (CoD)'s Spokesperson Natjirikatjorua Tjirera has called for the fair redistribution of land between white and black people, adding that the situation of unemployment in the country also needs to be revisited.
The All People's Party (APP)'s representative, Lena Nakatana condemned the allocation of Chinese scholarships which were given to high ranking officials' children.
She said there are many poor young people across the country who need to further studies but cannot go far because of financial constraints.
The newly introduced party, Communist Party's representative, Attie Beukes called on Namibian youth to study politics, while the Monitor Action Group (MAG) representative, Jurie Viljoen has called on government to allocate tenders to Namibian companies for the benefit of the country.
“One could accuse Namibians of being lazy, but they should educate people and train them to do their jobs properly,” he said, adding that all facilities are available, adding that people need to be motivated to work hard.
The President of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), Hidipo Hamutenya at the panel discussion said his party is looking on the priorities such as education, job-creation and production of quality products for economic growth of the country.
Hamutenya said the country lacks social discipline and is unable to address the phenomena.
Republican Party (RP) representative, Gert Jansen suggested that the Ministry of Veterans Affairs should be renamed the Ministry of Job-Creation and Poverty Reduction.
Jansen supported Viljioen that the government needs to award more tenders to local companies for the economic empowerment of the country.
He accused Chinese people of taking local jobs while most Namibians are unemployed.
However, the Swapo-Party Youth League Secretary General, Elijiah Ngurare said the issue of inequality is universal and is not unique to Namibia.
Thus, he noted that youth empowerment is critical because about 90 per cent of the Namibian population is youth.
The panel discussion on “Inequality: What can be done?” was organized by the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI).
(NAMPA)