WINDHOEK – Despite the fact that President Hage Geingob says the joint police and defence force crime prevention operation will not be stopped anytime soon, Swanu of Namibia has called on the president to ensure the army returns to barracks before the start of the Presidential and National Assembly elections on 27 November.
Geingob was quoted as having said the joint crime prevention operation by the Namibian Police Force and Namibian
Defence Force will not be stopped anytime soon, despite complaints of violence and the loss of civilian lives at the hands of NDF members involved in the operation.
However, Swanu president Tangeni Iijambo who launched his party’s election manifesto yesterday said Namibia is faced with many critical challenges apart from landlessness, such as homelessness, rising crime and violence.
“Why do you think the army has been deployed on our streets? The government has run out of ideas, they are running scared. We, therefore, call on President Hage Geingob to pronounce himself on the duration of Operation Kalahari and to ensure that the army returns to barracks before the start of the elections on 27 November 2019,” Iijambo said.
The Swanu leader noted his party is in favour of a systematic application of the subsidiarity principle in order to bring decision-making as close to citizens as possible and to deepen the culture of human rights and protect civil liberties and the rule of law.
He argued that Namibia is becoming unrecognisable to its own citizens and the government poses the greatest threat to the hard-won freedom. Geingob on Friday, when he inaugurated the new state-of-the-art police headquarters in Windhoek, said as a nation governed by the rule of law, Namibia takes the war on crime seriously.
“You cannot fight poverty without crime, and vice versa. In this regard, the government has sought to intensify its fight against crime by launching joint crime operations between the Namibian Police and the Namibian Defence Force. These operations are taking place with strict adherence to maintaining the rights and freedoms of our citizens,” Geingob said. However, Geingob said that as with all complex operations, misunderstandings could occur, resulting in fatalities.
But he promised that the government would ensure that all incidences in which laws have not been adhered to are investigated and prosecuted. Iijambo said the government has failed to address the challenges facing Namibia, adding that those in charge cannot understand why crime is on the rise and why there is a spike in gender-based violence.
“They do not know why there is increasing voter apathy and general dissatisfaction with service delivery, they are at a loss to explain the growing intolerance against certain sections of our society such as Rastafarians, lesbians, gays, ageism and other minorities,” Iijambo reacted.
According to Iijambo, the answer is obvious to Swanu. He said the root cause of all these challenges is pervasive inequality, perpetuated by ruthless and uncaring capitalism and a slavish belief in the ability of the free market to deliver social justice and equality, social welfare and dignity.
He said capitalism would remain the excellent creator of poverty and inequality.
As socialists, Iijambo said, Swanu has no illusions about the direction they ought to go to rescue the country and its people from the greed of the wealthy few and the power of multinational corporations.
He accused the wealthy few individuals of allegedly having received the go-ahead from the current government to exploit the resources and to repatriate their massive profits abroad, while Namibians face starvation, drought, grinding poverty and massive unemployment, especially among the youth. He vowed that Swanu, if given the chance to rule, would transform the status quo and bring about the inevitable and required change. “The time has come to reverse our losses. Join Swanu of Namibia to turn the tide and build a more prosperous and dignified future for all Namibians, irrespective of race, creed, ethnicity, gender or social status. Let us join forces to deny Swapo a two-third majority and restore Namibia into a country we can all be proud of again,” Iijambo said.