Albertina Nakale
Windhoek-President Hage Geingob yesterday announced that May Day this year has been reserved for a nationwide clean-up campaign where he expects all citizens to roll up their sleeves and clean the country of its nauseating dirt.
Geingob made the announcement yesterday after meeting the leadership of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) at State House.
He said he invited the trade unions to discuss the state of the economy as all along he would only
meet them to talk about wages and increments.
Yesterday’s meeting was the first since NUNW urged President Geingob to stop the alleged purging of some Swapo members after last year’s heated elective congress of the ruling party, where NUNW was represented.
On cleaning, Geingob said he chose May Day (1 May) after consulting several relevant stakeholders to clean the country on Workers Day, which is to be held in Khorixas this year.
“Namibia is getting dirty. Windhoek used to be the cleanest city in Africa if not the country. Now Kigali overtook us. I was there and I had to admit. They are clean because they are cleaning up, period. We decided to have a nationwide cleaning up exercise where the army, police, teachers, other workers, ministers and President should all roll up their sleeves to clean-up,” he said.
Recently, musician Eric Sell, known as Ees, implored government to dedicate this year’s Independence Day to cleaning up the country, a suggestion that was turned down. Geingob reacted that the message on Sell’s viral video was not bad, but disagreed with his proposal to not celebrate Independence Day.
Apart from cleaning, it was suggested that spending money on independence festivities was not a prudent decision under the current economic conditions.
In a bid to reclaim Windhoek’s status as the cleanest city in Africa, President Geingob last October revealed his intentions to set aside a day on which all Namibians will be called on to roll up their sleeves and engage in a nationwide cleanup campaign. In so doing, he said, Namibia will not only reclaim the title of having the cleanest capital in Africa, but will go a step further to become the cleanest country in Africa.
Namibia lost the prestigious title of having the cleanest city in Africa due to the increasing amount of waste accumulating along its national roads, in towns and villages.