By Emma Kakololo WINDHOEK The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) has pledged to make 2006 a practical year for youth empowerment to ensure that the aspirations of the youth are met. Hence the SPYL is calling on the entire nation to stop “lip service” that is often paid to youth empowerment matters and start practising what they preach. The ruling party youth wing strongly believes the country has ample resources to provide for all its citizens and there should thus be no reason why the youth of the country should be unemployed or be condemned to poverty. “For as long as there are people in the country earning over N$100 000 per month while others earn zero dollars, it shows that there is a chronic unequal distribution of the country’s economic wealth which must be addressed as a matter of moral principle,” it stated. “If it is true that we are poor, perhaps we should make sure that the highest paid person in both private and public sector should be earning N$1 000 per month,” SPYL secretary for information Elijah Ngurare said during an interview recently to discuss SPYL’s challenges for the year. “Frustrations, expectations, goals, dreams of our rank and file are the daily preoccupation of the SPYL leadership. This year we will continue vigorously with mass political mobilisation most importantly to advocate for practical and quantifiable measures of empowerment of the youth,” Ngurare stated. In addition, he says the SPYL would like to see party cadres who are directors of companies and ministers practically respond to the plight of the youth particularly the unemployed. “Internship/job attachment programmes must be implemented by all ministries and parastatals. “A yearly budgetary allocation must be made to ensure that each local authority particularly those in remote areas of our country are able to engage the services of unemployed youth,” he stated. With regard to young people trying to come up with business projects and abundant ideas for business but are handicapped by the lack of financial resources he said: “Those are the people that must be supported. Support the SMEs in practical terms. “Our Swapo Party Government must make resources available to ensure that SMEs in rural areas have access to funds.” He said a practical way in which this could be done is through the establishment of a Rural Development Bank with branches directly in remote areas of Namibia. “The majority of the youth are unemployed and these are not statistics in numbers but people whom we have addressed and most of them are in rural areas.” He also commended the youth for their creativity in helping to bring Namibia’s music to life. “The SPYL also noted the proliferation of the Namibian music industry mostly dominated by the youth. We salute the ingenuity and intellect of our youth in this respect. It is our hope that radio stations in Namibia particularly the NBC will support our young musicians by playing their music as well as being invited to perform by both public and private sector,” he said. He was optimistic that through music, the youth would also be able to educate others on the importance and the richness of the country’s respective cultures. “Moreover, the universality of music could also harness unity and patriotism amongst all our people. In this respect we salute the foresight of musicians like Jackson Kaujeua, Ras Sheehama, Shikololo, Gazza and others.”