WINDHOEK - Swanu of Namibia has promised, if given the mandate to run the country, to establish a transparent legal framework for the awarding of exclusive prospecting licences (EPLs) and fishing quotas.
This is part of Swanu’s election manifesto, which was launched on Monday by the party’s president Tangeni Iijambo in Windhoek.

Iijambo said key resource sectors of the economy such as mining, fisheries, agriculture and forestry remain largely in the hands of foreign corporations and other interests, reducing the majority of Namibians to poverty and untold hardship.

Mining contributes 25 percent of the country’s GDP. 
Namibia has various natural resources including diamonds, uranium, copper, gold, lead, tin, lithium, cadmium, zinc, salt and vanadium.

“To that end, all existing contracts with foreign corporations will be re-negotiateded for the benefit of the Namibian economy and the citizenry,” he remarked.

Swanu also undertakes to tighten and introduce new stringent requirements in respect of environmental impact assessments, while vowing to ban phosphate mining in Namibian waters to protect the fishing industry.

Iijambo also promised that workers, including the youth, will be vested with substantial ownership and control over all major sectors and state-owned enterprises.  This, he says, includes sectors such as mining, fishing, tourism and agriculture.

Iijambo also touched on infrastructure, where Swanu notes with growing alarm the deteriorating state of national infrastructure in the public health sector, the broader public service and the road network.
“Our national development goals remain but a dream deferred, due to the neglect and lack of consistent maintenance since independence. Our hospitals and other health infrastructure are in a dilapidated state, affecting the government’s ability to deliver basic services to the people,” he charged.

In this regard, he promised that Swanu will undertake a deliberate and comprehensive programme to rehabilitate and expand the national infrastructure to create a sustainable economy geared towards the delivery of social services to the people and to spur economic growth, development and prosperity for all.
On health, Swanu promised to introduce free universal health and pharma care as well as conscript the massive resources of transnational corporations and taxes to fund the sector.