The National Democratic Party has issued a stern warning to Namibian and African leaders who are “stealing and misusing natural resources to enrich themselves”, leaving Africans in poverty.
The opposition political party held a press conference at the Katutura Youth Complex in Windhoek last Friday, where NDP president Martin Lukato Lukato said “despite Africa being the richest continent in all natural resources in the world, Africans are the poorest people in the world in an underdeveloped continent.”
“The resources in Africa are being taken out daily, weekly, monthly and yearly non-stop from Africa,” he said. Lukato observed that these resources are being used to develop foreign countries and continents.
He added that African regimes in power failed to formalise mechanisms that control and manage the exploitation of African resources for centuries.
According to Lukato, foreign countries and continents exploit African minerals through foreign embassies through their representatives. These are done through aid, in a form of memorandums of understanding, which is coupled with conditions attached.
Wild animals are also being taken out of the country by hunting professionals, tourists and more with the authorisation of African regimes in power.
Lukato said African people only get conflict, dictatorship, one-party states and corruption in return for their natural resources.
Moreover, he also touched on the issues of education, saying the Namibian education system is “a mess, trash, joke, mockery and a disappointment”.
A dismal performance by the grade 11 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary and grade 12 Advanced Subsidiary levels (NSSCO and NSSCAS) show that only 8 133 pupils or 24% qualified for tertiary education from the 38 019 candidates who sat for the 2022 national exams.
“The minister of education must be
ashamed of herself and do the honourable thing to resign with immediate effect,” he charged.
He added that she has failed the poor children and the entire nation.
The NDP president demanded for the abolishment of the imposed new curriculum because it has no hope for a bright future. He also remarked that the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) is not the solution for the large number of pupils who failed last year.
Namcol earlier this year said it is prepared to register about 24 000 learners for the 2023 academic year at an average of two subjects per learner.
Lukato suggested that mistreatment and discrimination against those who cannot afford to pay school fees and tuition fees must stop, while the NDP demanded the implementation of free education from pre-primary to tertiary education.
Furthermore, the NDP president believes that the current approved free education is fake, and is thus appealing to the ruling party for dialogue for it to be rectified.
* Van Wyk Amutenya is an intern with New Era.