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The ongoing debate over ownership of Namibia’s natural and mineral resources has recently seen the SWAPO Party Elders’ Committee (SPEC) weigh in on the issue, announcing that it will be an issue in the election campaign.
After the discovery of large oil reserves off Namibia’s southern coast in late December 2022, the late former President Hage Geingob said the resources “belong to those who discover them.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Mines and Energy Tom Alweendo said that the oil and gas reserves belong to the Namibian state. Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah made this clearer when he recently announced that a law would soon be enacted confirming Namibia’s ownership of its oil and gas resources.
Life Resources
In a press statement on Tuesday, the influential SWP Council of Elders referred to Section 95 of the Namibian Constitution, which states that the government shall use “biological resources sustainably for the benefit of the people”.
“We are pleased to share with the Namibian people the SWAPO’s vision for the next five years, with a focus on economic development. Our (election) campaign slogan is: ‘Unity in diversity, Harnessing natural resources, Youth empowerment and Sustainable development’,” the committee announced.
Job creation
The committee noted that Namibia is rich in natural resources that benefit the majority of the population.
“So our campaign theme is that the PPP must continue to fulfil its constitutional responsibilities in mineral processing or value creation and ownership of our country’s economic resources,” said SPEC Secretary Mukwaita Shanyengana, Special Adviser to the Vice President.
“We advocate that government agencies allocate specific financial resources in their development budgets for job creation and economic empowerment for the youth. We believe in the equitable distribution of our country’s resources through the use of our natural and mineral resources,” he stressed.
Nandi Ndaitwah, who will be elected as the new president of Namibia in late November, supports value creation and processing as a key strategy for job creation, while also recognizing the importance of strategic mineral resources and calling for special measures, policies and laws to protect them, according to the commission.
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