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Box 3062 - WINDHOEK- NA,V!IBIA E-mail:c.gowases@parliament.gm·.na Fiscal Year 2016/17 Budget Response By Hon.

Clara //Gowases Republican Party (MP) National Assembly Honourable Speaker Honourable Members of this august House Fellow Namibians It is a great honour for me to participate on this extremely important issue; our country's budget.
I am further honoured to have the chance to contribute to this ground-breaking debate and our country's progress, growth and prosperity.

Honourable Speaker.

Honourable Members I believe this august House is the appropriate platform where we the chosen leaders of this country, work out the will of the Namibian people, and the future we want for our country.
With that in mind, I am duty bound to respond first on the budget tabled by the esteemed Hon.Calle Schletwein Minister of Finance, and the author of this budget before us in general, before I go into the nitty- gritty specifics of it.

I have come to realize that producing a budget of this nature, under the current circumstances of such huge unfavourable magnitudes of internal and external financial forces, is not an easy task.

I applaud the Hon.
I applaud the Hon.

Calle Schletwein, the Minister of Finance, for a job well done.

Applying his well-known legendary, celebrated and trusted financial and fiscal knowledge, he brought the country what is needed at this point in time in terms of funding the country for development.

The first budget that the country received under the administration of His Excellency Dr, Hage Gottfried Geingob, under the noble objective of poverty eradication and prosperity creation has come and gone.
Taking office, President Hage Geingob explicitly expressed and declared his agenda base of no Namibian must feel left out with meaning.

His Excellency's agenda of poverty eradication was the very reason that Namibians of all walks of live rallied behind him and took him to the State House.

Since then Namibians have been enthusiastic and excited about the eradication of their poverty and the bringing in of prosperity for all.
This country's anticipation for prosperity has been running high ever since, as was expected.

Who can blame us?

Nobody wants to remain in poverty!

Everybody wants to live a happy, comfortable and productive Ifve.

\;\~ With this country's new agenda of transformation, and the powerful principle of Harambee, Namibians started to feel indeed "One Namibia, One Nation.

One People, One Aim".

But the stunning realities hit Namibians back to Namibia's differences of rich and poor, powerful and the powerless.
The realities of the marginalized, the vulnerable, the poor, and the disenfranchised.

Honourable Speaker.

Honourable Members of this august House.

Fellow Namibians.

We are back to square one ... again.

In fact if all calculations are taken statistically, they might indicate shockingly, that our country has gone beyond square one, in just a spin of a year.
I say this because several devastating factors such as the drought, the SACU saga, in which Namibia has to pay back N$3.00 billion, the regional and international problems in financial markets, commodities, and revenue streams and other unsavoury financial characteristics of the times have descended upon Namibia.

And yet, the required good governance has been in short supply basically across the entire spectrum of our country's governance.

This has been the thorn in the flesh of this country.
It is the single most disturbing characteristic.

And I insist to draw the country's attention back to that refusing to relent loophole.

I must exhort and remind fellow Namibians, leaders, the presidency, the private sector, as in my belief, the previous budget provisions where all strong and dynamic enough to have enabled and led Namibia out of the woods by now, and should have enabled each and every Namibian to hit the ground running toward prosperity.

What went wrong?

The budget was there.


And the budget was capable enough to create equally respectable foundations and starting points for progress and prosperity!

What went wrong, I ask again!

Where did it all go wrong, that we haven't made the mark toward our cherished goals of progress?

Something did go wrong!

And because of that, the 2015/16 budget did not reach the grassroots poverty transformation.
And as a consequence, of lack of progress toward our national goals of prosperity, Namibians are still crawling under the pressure of underdevelopment and poverty.

Starting today, we have another chance as a country, to make good on the promises of progress and growth, with this current budget.

Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of this august House, Fellow Namibians We all applaud our newly unveiled and currently operating principle of no Namibian must be left out.
And yet the poor within this era of poverty eradication and prosperity for all, are still getting poorer.

The rich are still getting richer.

I don't have a problem with people getting rich per se.

But I have a problem with the rich getting rich at the expense of the poor.

And I have a problem with the poor getting poorer.

Namibians shouldn't get poorer.

Not a single one of them.

Not in this day and age!

And that is why I am coming in full force for this year's "Pro-growth Fiscal Consolidation".
The budget speaks for the poor, the voiceless, the marginalized.

This budget says in my view, 'enough is enough'.

It says the poor have been suffering for far too long.

They shouldn't suffer any longer.

Not while our national principles are inclusion, Harambee, and no Namibian must be left out.
The key partners and implementing agents of our country's objectives of prosperity for all have disappointed Namibians with last year's budget one more time, as they have done for the first 26 years of our independence.

let me remind us all that the performance contracts on the part of His Excellency President Dr Hage Geingob with his Cabinet Members, is a great idea.
This practice needs to be revisited seriously, and the implementers of our national goals reinvigorated for speedy and better service delivery.

The key ministry, the Ministry of Poverty Eradication needs to deliver according to the expectations of the poor Namibian people.

Food Banks and Food Security issues are not yet put in place to the point of delivery.

And meanwhile poverty crisis, starvation, hunger, malnutrition are all eating away on, and destroying Namibians.
Housing crisis is on a desperate march and increasing day by day, and getting out of control, all across the country.

Namibians are in need of descent housing in which they can raise their families.

Here again in this regard there has been no respectable progress.

At the heart of this non- progress are the internal conflicts within the housing delivery industry.
The Minister of Urban and Rural Development is called upon here, and reminded that this impasse has to end and progress in housing delivery must become the order of the day.

We need to bring within this Fiscal Year 2016/17 budget, the housing delivery frontline players and decision-makers back to square one, and back to order.

Housing delivery will forever remain in the pipeline as long as this destructive impasse amongst the stakeholders is left operating in the works.

Honourable Speaker.
Honourable Speaker.

Honourable Members.

Fellow Namibians!

It's time that we put our money where our mouths are!

I insist with this budget, a budget of powerful proportions, that all stakeholders walk the talk.

The issues which are calling our sharpest attention are clear.

The solutions are starkly glaring at us.

They are calling out load for desperate attention.


The Ministry of Industrialization, Trade, and SME Development, as a key partner and agent of the development and implementation of many of the programs and projects for progress is well positioned.

When Namibia talks about prosperity, it is economic prosperity we are focussed on.

The Ministry of Industrialization, Trade, and SME Development is the frontline stakeholder in the creation of prosperity for all.
It is a well-known fact that when you empower the people, you empower the nation.

When you put financial and other resources and strengths into small and medium enterprise you empower all platforms of progress across the nation.

By doing so, you empower all enterprises, businesses, corporations, individuals families and finally the nation.

in this regard a strong call is issued out to this implementing agent to step up the implementation process.
it is recognized that the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade, and SME Development which has a huge responsibility indeed in general socio- economic terms and specifically within the current agenda of economic progress, hasn't come out strong to deliver on this mandate.

this ministry like all others, is receiving hundreds of millions of valuable Namibian dollars, for the implementation of the country's objectives of progress.

What am I saying?
What am I saying?

I am saying the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and SME Development has got some explaining to do as to why some Namibians still have to live under these pressures of poverty while this ministry has the power and resources for transformation for these Namibians to a better live.

And so does the Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare as the first row custodian of change in the fortunes of the poor, the marginalized, the vulnerable, the llial gilialized.
We need answers here.

Alongside the above two frontline custodians of transformation, are the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation, Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, which in my view are also the frontrunners to lead the country into prosperity.

They also must step up for service delivery in the direction of prosperity in this country.
The captains of these ministries all must stand up in this august House and explain to the Namibian people, why they came up short to deliver to the nation, and disappointed the Namibian people.

Other ministries are not exempt from this accountability.

They too must account and tell the Namibian people why they let them down, in the 2015/16 Fiscal Year.

Honourable Speaker.

Honourable Members of this august House.

Fellow Namibians We need visible change in this country.
Transformation that will make a mark in the lives of all Namibians.

As for this N$61.00 billion budget, each recipient ministry, and government supported entity must be held accountable for their inability of delivery.

The Ministers heading these ministries, must each add and sign a memorandum of understanding in their performance contracts, they have with the president, what they will deliver towards progress.

We need deliverables!

We need results!


At the end of this fiscal year, each must table in this august House targeted achieved deliverable results as a means of success and accountability, on their part, and progress and prosperity for the sake of the Nation.

We have got a busy year ahead.

We have got Namibians to be pulled out of poverty as a matter of urgency.

And now, we have the budget to make that possible.

Let us not waist valuable time anymore.


Now is the right time that we all hit the ground running, for the sake of our people, and our country.

Honourable Speaker Honourable Members Fellow Namibians I Thank You.