WINDHOEK – Affirmative Repositioning (AR) activist-in-chief Job Amupanda, who publicly declared his ambitious plan to contest the position of mayor of Windhoek in 2020, has listed urban land, housing, water provision and unemployment as top of his priority.
This, he said yesterday, would help restore human dignity in the nation’s capital. Amupanda said 29 years after independence there is finally engagement on who is going to be mayor. “It’s true we are taking over the City of Windhoek. It’s true I am contesting for City of Windhoek. It’s true that I am not going to wear that [mayoral] chain. Not that I am lazy and the chain is heavy or anything. Why do you need to wear a chain in order to show compassion to build a home for someone?
Why do you need to wear a chain to provide development for people?” Amupanda remarked.
He continued: “We want to send a message to all the elites to pay their bills already. They don’t pay their rates and taxes. We are going to cut some of these things when we take over and we are definitely going to take over.”
Once elected Amupanda promised to take city council meetings to constituencies instead of having them in the municipal chambers, so people can make informed decisions.
“You don’t get to participate on who is going to be a mayor. We are making politics fashionable. We have housing as priority. The other is happiness. In the United Arab Emirates, they appointed a minister of happiness. If you are heart-broken, where do you go? Law has become [more] important than humanity. How do you assure happiness?” he asked.
He said a series of economic interventions would take place to improve revenue, instead of the current approach of constantly increasing rates and taxes by the city.
Further, he vowed that all residents would benefit from a 12 percent reduction in rates and taxes.
To change current property relations, he proposed that a municipality-owned enterprise for housing construction and another for property development would be established.
“We are re-opening Ramatex. All uniforms for the City Police, cleaners, drivers, workers at City of Windhoek will be produced at Ramatex. We are going to ban all the importation of uniforms. Re-opening of Ramatex will be our strategic intervention of job creation,” Amupanda undertook.
He also promised to improve safety in the city.
“We want our streets to be safe and our streets can never be safe with the military beating up people,” he said.
Presenting Amupunda, fellow AR activist Dimbulukweni Nauyoma said the story of Windhoek is a sad one and needs urgent economic and radical transformation.
He said in many parts of the world, a mayor is not just any person but a technocrat.
“Politics is now fashionable because you know activist Job Amupanda, a PhD candidate, deputy dean in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Namibia; holds a Master degree; holds an honours degree; holds a degree; has been an activist all his life; shaped and changed policies that implicated to an advantage of society’s living; is going to be your candidate. You as a person have confidence that here we must press green, red and register,” Nauyoma said.
Namibian law does not allow the public to directly elect a mayor. Whether Amupanda stands as an independent candidate or stands on a ticket of a registered organisation, he would need to be elected by fellow city councillors to become mayor of Windhoek.