EDITORIAL: The youth, too, are Namibian

This week’s national budget announcement by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi inspired some hope – at least by the new standards the country has become accustomed to in recent years.

Shiimi has termed this budget as “pro-poor”, a classification many argued was overzealous. In truth, we did not need another pro-poor budget. With revenue projections looking quite promising, we thought government would pump the brakes on social spending in the interim and rather focus on spending that would spur growth.

With joblessness soaring, Shiimi’s budget needed to be deliberate and ensure that government spending would lead towards job creation. Throwing more money in perpetuity at groups such as pensioners is increasingly becoming disadvantageous to other equally needy sections of society, such as the young men and women on the side of the road.

There is no point in heralding the fact that more revenue has been raised if we are not distributing it equitably among all needy Namibians. Empowering senior citizens through increased monthly grants while no tangible plan is in place to also get the youth out of their unemployment ditch equates to robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The country has about 152 000 pensioners, which means an extra N$100 for them would require N$182 million per year. Why not channel that money towards initiatives that would create jobs for the youth, who too are Namibian?

Taking care of ‘traditionally vulnerable’ groups should not be to the detriment of other suffering Namibians.