{"id":33506,"date":"2022-11-10T17:22:24","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T17:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget"},"modified":"2022-11-10T17:37:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T17:37:02","slug":"opposition-lash-directionless-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget","title":{"rendered":"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiimi for a lack of direction, grandstanding and paying lip service to significant challenges while also expressing concern over debt levels and corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can fool some people sometimes but you cannot fool all the people all the time, change your tactics before it is late,\u201d said Rally for Democracy and Progress parliamentarian Mike Kavekotora during his contribution to the 2022\/23 mid-term budget review that was tabled two weeks ago in the National Assembly by the finance minister.<\/p>\n

Kavekotora pointed out that external shocks are not subsequent events and the government must simply admit that it failed to adopt a macro-fiscal policy framework to mitigate the impact of external shocks, specifically the Russian-Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n

He added government once again failed to address the plight of the most vulnerable members of society in the mid-term budget. \u201cIn most cases, the budgets you present, including this one, fails to address the plight of the youth and the most vulnerable members of the community in terms of food security, decent housing, sanitation, education and health,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The medium-term framework expects increased revenue for the current financial year upward by N$4.4 billion, from N$59.7 billion to N$64.1 billion. This represents some 7.9% growth in revenue from the previous year. Over the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), domestic revenue is forecasted to grow by an average of 7.4% to reach about N$78.3 billion by the 2025\/26 financial year.<\/p>\n

Kavekotora further noted, effectively no resources apart from the N$5.2 million of the N$4.4 billion was allocated to the vulnerable member, \u201cthe minister claims to care about\u201d. The parliamentarian is worried that the bulk of the N$4.4 billion went to operational expenditure and the basic needs of the man on the street are of no consequence to the<\/p>\n

government.<\/p>\n

Popular Democratic Movement shadow finance minister Nico Smit last week criticised the level and purpose of Namibia\u2019s debt and noted for \u201cevery dollar spend on an incompetent civil servant\u2019s salary, government postpone the development of those most destitute individuals in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said Namibia pays billions of dollars to service debt, which could have been applied to lift people out of poverty. \u201cThose who have to live without a roof over their heads, without running water, without proper sanitation, without reliable electricity, without good roads, and in many cases, still without a snowball\u2019s hope of ever getting access to the internet,\u201d continued Smit.<\/p>\n

Also weighing on the budget this week, PDM\u2019s Maximalliant Katjimune was worried that no serious commitment was given as to how young people are practically going to be uprooted from the prevailing conditions related to unemployment, poverty and inequality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is more concerning is that government is even failing to maximise and fund its own programmes for young people run through institutions such as the National Youth Service (NYS). The NYS runs various programmes, which trains youth in three different stages,\u201d said Katjimune.<\/p>\n

According to him, the NYS\u2019s Rietfontein Training Centre is a very significant facility, but it only runs at 28% of capacity because of a lack of funds. This means that Namibia is not using this facility and the programmes run by the NYS optimally, leaving thousands of young people who ought to have benefited from the centre and the various programmes run by the NYS disenfranchised and excluded from the system.<\/p>\n

The youthful parliamentarian added NYS runs on an annual paltry budget. In this financial year, the institution received N$64 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our oversight visit over the institution in October 2022, the standing committee on human resources and community development discovered that this N$64 million is not even enough to cover the salaries of NYS staff, and that the institution relies on revenue from its various projects to cover the shortfall in terms of salaries for staff,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Katjimune said as the younger generation, he is gravely concerned about the ever-rising public debt. In his mid-term budget statement, Shiimi said the public debt stock is expected to increase to N$138.4 billion, equivalent to 69.6% of gross domestic product in FY2022\/23. Over the medium-term, expenditure framework (MTEF) the pace of debt accumulation is projected to peak in the next financial year, resulting in a stabilisation of the debt ratios over the remainder of the MTEF, as nominal GDP growth outpaces debt growth.<\/p>\n

According to the 2022 Sovereign Debt Ranking, Namibia was ranked among the top 10 countries most likely to default on debt obligations in 2022, with the country having scored 9,4% on government bond yield, with 593 basis points.<\/p>\n

Erastus Shuumbwa, a member of parliament representing the All People\u2019s Party (APP), said APP witnessed a lack of direction in terms of economy development and state capacity has worsened, whereby government depends on outsourcing private companies for services.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, our government in its current form does not drive the economy or deliver services because it has no capacity, almost everything our government does is done through tenders, government appoints private companies to provide simple services such as security, cleaning and other services and one problem is these companies make our people work long hours, no benefits and under pay them below living wages,\u201d pointed out Shuumbwa.<\/p>\n

He proposed that the government insource these workers on a full-time basis and abolish all unnecessary services.<\/p>\n

The parliamentarian was also equally concerned about the ever-growing debt and debt interest repayments. He said this is unsustainable and will create future problems to the country\u2019s credit ratings. \u201cThe projected borrowing to meet government spending is just unsustainable. The country cannot continue to be subjected to very high debts to maintain government mismanagement of public resources by a few individuals at the expense of the nation,\u201d said Shuumbwa.<\/p>\n

He further advised government to address public mismanagement of resources if it is to curb the ever-growing public debt. We cannot be borrowing money that ends up misappropriated with no one held accountable at the end of the day while the nation is subjected to repaying borrowed loans where they have no say, he said.<\/p>\n

About two weeks ago, deputy finance minister Maureen Hinda-Mbuende said going forward, government has devised a debt repayment strategy, which outlines measures to be undertaken in preparation for the repayment of central government debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strategy aims to ensure prudent credit risk management to avoid default events and make sure that the future generation is not over burdened with unsustainable debt,\u201d she explained in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiimi for a lack of direction, grandstanding and paying lip service to significant challenges while also expressing concern over debt levels and corruption. \u201cYou can fool some people sometimes but you cannot fool all the people all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":33505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-33506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nOpposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiim ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiim ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-10T17:22:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-10T17:37:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-10T17:22:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-10T17:37:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget\"},\"wordCount\":1090,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget\",\"name\":\"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget - Namibia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-10T17:22:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-10T17:37:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiim ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":480,\"caption\":\"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\",\"name\":\"Namibia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget - Namibia","description":"Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiim ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget","og_description":"Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiim ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget","og_site_name":"Namibia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-11-10T17:22:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-10T17:37:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget","datePublished":"2022-11-10T17:22:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-10T17:37:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget"},"wordCount":1090,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg","keywords":["africa press","Africa Press-Namibia","namibia"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget","name":"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget - Namibia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-10T17:22:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-10T17:37:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Debating the mid-term budget review in parliament this week, opposition parties criticised finance minister Iipumu Shiim ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_14-636d3697501f8.jpg","width":720,"height":480,"caption":"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/opposition-lash-directionless-budget#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Opposition lash \u2018directionless\u2019 budget"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/","name":"Namibia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}