OSHAKATI – Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) member Julius Nyerere Namholo says the planned mass housing project should benefit the majority of homeless Namibians, especially the youth.
Last Friday during the round table discussion held in Oshakati by members of the SPYL Executive Committee, Namholo said the youth should probe the newly introduced mass housing project to ensure the large chunk of money assigned to the ambitious project remains in the country.
He also pressed that a large portion of the multi-billion dollar project benefit Namibian youth.
“When the Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (TIPEEG) was introduced everybody was excited, now that we have come up with the mass housing project we are once again excited, now no one is talking about TIPEEG anymore. It is all about excitement. Some made money and moved on but, whether TIPEEG was successful or not successful, it doesn’t matter anymore to us,” said Namholo.
Namholo said it is time Namibian youth start agreeing to disagree, put their differences aside and form partnerships to alleviate poverty and unemployment, create worth and develop the country.
The youth should and see the bigger picture and make a mark on the equation of the mass housing project and see how the N$45 billon assigned to this project would benefit them.
“We need to ask questions. Who is going to build these houses? Who is going to supply the building materials? Who is going to supply cement? Who is going to service the land? Who are we in this whole system? Are we as Namibian youth only going to be digging holes and carry cement? Where are we in this equation? The larger portion of the N$45 billion may end up not benefiting the youth. We should ask questions, we should see the bigger picture,” urged Namholo.
Apart from the mass housing project, Namholo said the country needs to consider pumping millions of dollars into vocational training, maintaining that this is a massive step towards addressing poverty and unemployment.
He said it is time Unam and Polytechnic of Namibia be compelled to have only a small intake of students in courses such as human resources, accounting and other administration courses as these people leave the university searching for jobs, unlike people that are trained at vocational training centres who are trained to be self-employed and be employers.
Apart from Namholo, Imms Nashinge who also took part in the group discussion said it is also time for the country to start developing sport as a career.
He said there is a need to have a uniformed setup at all youth centres in the country to ensure that young people take up sport as a career and this will also eliminate the mindset of considering certain sports activities as reserved for some regions or for some races only.
By Helvy Shaanika