Rudolf Gaiseb
Independent Patriots for Change president Panduleni Itula said Namibia’s laws and purported inconducive environment hinder private sector investment that would aid in job creation.
He said, over the last five years, at least 30 000 employers have left the scene, contributing to the decrease and leaving Namibia’s labour market destitute.
All this is amid an increasing population that now stands at 3.02 million people.
“Our law is chasing them away. We need, first of all, to clean our house to ensure that investors feel attracted to Namibia. We need to look at our corporate taxes,” he said, in response to President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) last year.
Since Itula elected not to be a member of Parliament, he could not address the head of state directly.
Instead, he held a press conference on Friday, two days after the Sona.
In Parliament, though, it was official opposition leader Immanuel Nashinge who stood toe-to-toe against Nandi-Ndaitwah.
According to Itula, before making any statement, leaders need to create the relevant conducive environment to create the implementation of that statement.
“It’s time that the Namibian people seek to get a team that can actually govern based on evidence, not just throw statements in the air,” he said.
For Itula, it is not clear what the conditions of employment are for the employees quantified in the 130 000 new employees registered with the Social Security Commission.
The 250 000 jobs pronounced by Nandi-Ndaitwah, he said, do not indicate whether employees are permanently employed or on a contractual or internship basis.
Itula requested that presidency reveals these numbers.
“The Social Security Commission registers anyone who starts paying contributions. That includes temporary workers, seasonal workers and people who had a job for three months and then lost it. A registration is not a permanent job. It is a payslip,” he said.
Last week, the President reported that, over the past five years, the gross domestic product (GDP) has grown from N$190 billion to N$270 billion.
Additionally, tax revenue rose from N$55 billion to N$76 billion, a compounded growth rate of 9%, sustaining a tax-to-GDP ratio of 30.5%.
This eventually places Namibia among Africa’s top three.
Nandi-Ndaitwah added that GDP is projected to grow from 1.7% in 2025 to 3.1% in 2026, “necessitating the rapid identification of new economic frontiers. However, the ongoing war in the Middle East poses a downside risk”.
Corruption
Itula stated that, despite Nandi-Ndaitwah equating corruption to treason, “the corruption score has fallen faster under her administration than under any previous government. Words without action are just words”.
Last week, Nandi-Ndaitwah reiterated: “As I always say, corruption must be treated as treason because it undermines our development and threatens our peace and stability”.
She cited that the Transparency International Index ranks Namibia with a score of 46 out of 100 and at position 65 out of 182 countries in 2025, a decline of three points from the previous year.