Rudolf Gaiseb

Led by seasoned politician Martin Lukato, the National Democratic Party is promising to increase the old-age pension grant, introduce free education for tertiary institutions, and solve the housing problem.

This is if the party is elected into power on 27 November. They launched their manifesto on Sunday at the Katutura Teachers’ Resource Centre and Youth Complex in Windhoek.

On the day, Lukato stated in the manifesto
that the NDP government would, with immediate effect, increase the old-age grant from N$1 600 to N$3 000 per month. As part of the party’s poverty-reducing ambitions, he promised to also increase the social grant for orphans and vulnerable children, including people living with disabilities.  “We will double the social grants in order to reduce the crisis levels of poverty, and boost domestic economic demands and expansion,” Lukato said.

He further said: “The NDP will implement free education for all from pre-primary to tertiary level to accommodate both the rich and the less-privileged.

“Not free education on paper, but decolonised education for all, incorporating topics pertaining to indigenous knowledge, sovereignty and economic freedom in the curricula,” he asserted.

If vouched in governance, the NDP also promises to use science, technology and innovation to
produce the knowledge, information, skills and talent needed to support, facilitate and fuel the development and growth of strategic industries and sectors of the economy and society, central to the overall independence and sovereignty of Namibian and African people.

To mitigate the housing crisis and develop infrastructure, the NDP vows to introduce laws that will compel large corporations to directly contribute to the construction of schools, hospitals and other important social development projects and programmes. According to their manifesto, the NDP government will maximally use infrastructure development and expansion as a means for massive labour-absorbing industrialisation for the upstream and downstream sectors. The NDP states that the ownership of land shall be a priority to all Namibians, and foreign nationals will seek national land provision committee approval.

“The large majority of black Namibians are landless, and the post-1990 government has cumulatively bought less than 10% of the targeted 30% of land meant for redistribution over a period of 34 years. The party will ensure, through a motion in Parliament, that a ‘land policy’ shall be passed that will make it possible that stolen land is given back to its rightful owners,” Lukato said. He assured that communal land will be under
the powers of the traditional leaders’ authority, and the Land Act shall be amended to empower traditional leaders on the allocation, use and preservation of communal land. Lukato’s party also promised to implement the universal healthcare plan. “Namibia’s healthcare system excludes a substantial number of Namibians, and the country is, sadly, still far from achieving universal health coverage,” he said.

He promises to build many hospitals across the country in various regions to avoid referring patients from those regions to hospitals in Windhoek.

Furthermore, Lukato’s anti-graft fight will continue. “The financial sector in Namibia is owned and controlled by a financial cartel that excludes and discriminates against many people on racial grounds. The NDP will use a federal system of governance, which means a fair representation of all Namibians in running the affairs of government shall be guaranteed. The NDP will accommodate all ethnic groups in Namibia,” he stated.

While pushing for the processing of minerals locally, he added: “We will return the ownership of the mineral wealth of the country in the hands of all the people of Namibia by nationalising the mines by 2028, in line with the minimum commitments made by the people of Namibia in the Founding Manifesto.” -rrgaiseb@gmail.com