WINDHOEK – The Executive Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Graham Hopwood, says that he thought the Swapo Party election manifesto would feature the Basic Income Grant (BIG).
This, said Hopwood, was because the party’s presidential candidate, Prime Minister Hage Geingob, threw his support behind BIG in 2012.
“But it (BIG) is not mentioned,” said Hopwood, after scrutinising the manifesto, which was launched on Saturday at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Katutura.
Proponents of BIG have called on government to come up with better alternatives to alleviate poverty or introduce BIG, which was first introduced to Omitara’s Otjivero community as a pilot project.
Residents received an allowance of between N$80 and N$100 per person on a monthly basis.
Members of the BIG Coalition secretariat, which was spearheaded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRIN), consisted of a coalition of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), labour unions and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The secretariat contends that social grants have proved to be a powerful tool in decreasing poverty.
But government overall shot down the idea, reasoning it was too expensive and would create dependency among citizens.
Furthermore, the IPPR chief said that the manifesto was mainly about the continuity of existing policies and “is cautiously worded with few specific targets”.
“The only specific commitments I can see are on the amount of land to be acquired for resettlement, the number of students to be trained in medicine and the roads to be constructed,” he said.
Hopwood reckoned that there is little about new policies and even the commitment to provide free tertiary education is tentative – only expressed as an idea to be explored.
He said that the manifesto stresses the track record of the ruling party and for the most part emphasises continuance with very few, if any, surprises.
Phanuel Kaapama, political commentator and Unam senior lecturer in political studies said that he has not read the manifesto, but following media reports, he found some interesting ideas in it, especially the one on free tertiary education. He said that by their very nature, manifestos are not very detailed, but he would be interested to know how government would generate funds for such an endeavour.
“The idea is appetising but it raised other questions,” he said, adding that it was up to the electorate to question politicians on how they would implement such plans.
He stated that in other countries the media question politicians on such claims or citizens request debates.
“As scholar and analyst, when I hear some of these ideas, I want more concrete details that I can’t get in a manifesto.”
Comparing Swapo manifestos since the 1989 elections, Kaapama said that year’s manifesto was ideological, well argued at political level and focused on solidarity and social justice.
“It was understandable because Swapo was making transition from liberation movement to a political party,” he remarked.
Kaapama said the 1994 manifesto was a more bureaucratic work plan which also made promises of job creation, while the 1999 manifesto was met with challenges as journalists started questioning the job promises made.
He said that one of the things that came out prominently in this year’s party manifesto is the land issue, where focus has moved away from agricultural land to addressing housing in urban areas.
“Urban poverty is becoming a problem,” he said, adding that people can have land or housing but that cannot be looked at in isolation of income and jobs.
“Everything has an economic trade-off,” he said.