News and Information

Liberation only benefiting wealthy few, says the RP
November 8, 2004
LINDSAY DENTLINGER at SWAKOPMUND

THE Republican Party took its election campaign to the coast this weekend where it promised to treat all Namibians equally if it came to power.

At a rally at Swakopmund on Saturday afternoon, party president Henk Mudge concentrated on pointing out what he viewed as the shortcomings of the Swapo Government.

The party currently does not have any representative in the central Government, having broken away from the DTA a year ago.

The gathering was characterised by strong religious undertones and support from some churches - the RP has said it is important to restore the country's moral fibre, which it believes is the root cause of the neglect and abuse of women and children.

Mudge told supporters, drawn mostly from the town's DRC informal settlement area, that Government had failed to fulfil the promises it made to the electorate during its 15 years in power.

"Swapo has lied to this country," Mudge charged.

He said the RP's vision had not changed since the seventies when his father, veteran politician Dirk Mudge, formed the party - to create a government that does not suppress any ethnic group, and through which all the citizens benefit equally from the country's resources.

He claimed that the Swapo Government was sidelining other ethnic groups in favour of the Oshiwambo and that the country had been liberated for only a few who were becoming wealthy at the expense of the majority.

"Swapo is telling people that they liberated this country.

They never liberated anybody except the ministers and their permanent secretaries," cried Mudge.

"Only the Ministers and the other big heads have benefited from land reform."

The small gathering that turned out to hear the party's manifesto cheered as Mudge dwelt on what he viewed as the Government's failure to deliver on its promises of job creation to alleviate poverty.

"Namibians are poorer now than they were before Independence.

Unemployment is greater now than at Independence," Mudge told the upbeat crowd who responded to his remarks with the party's trademark thumbs-up sign.

"The Swapo Government does not know how to create jobs and they don't care," he said, bemoaning the situation of thousands of school leavers who find themselves jobless after completing formal schooling.

He said the RP would see to it that children were allowed to stay in school even if they do not make the grade, saying families were struggling to support them through the distance education system.

"Swapo has even prevented teachers from improving their education.

But the biggest injustice Swapo is committing is to prevent children from finishing school," he said.

He told the rally that the party supported land reform but that the programme had to be better run than was currently the case to ensure that productivity was maintained.

Mudge made a final plea to supporters to vote for him as presidential candidate, saying that as the only one without personal aspirations he would do his best to improve the plight of Namibians.


Source: Namibian.com.na


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