REPUBLICAN party president, Mr Henk Mudge, said corruption has taken on proportions that is frightening and it is evident in almost every government ministry and state owned enterprise. He was addressing a meeting at Katima Mulilo recently.
“The biggest tragedy is that the poor and unemployed Namibians are the ones who are suffering the most because of this.
“The fact remains that corruption thrives when there is poor decision-making, when there is a lack of accountability and where the Government fails to introduce effective and adequate control measures.
“In a layman’s terms, corruption thrives when there is bad governance and this is exactly the reason why we have so much corruption in our country.
“Instead of the Swapo Government spending our resources on activities and productive programmes that promote growth, such as primary education and basic health care and development projects, which has a high correlation with economic growth from which the poor and unemployed could benefit tremendously, they however, chose to divert a lot of our resources to large procurement projects like the State House, government office blocks, roads, airports, railway projects and aircraft purchasing, Waterfront projects because this is where people have the opportunity to enrich themselves and this is exactly what is happening in Namibia.
“Studies have shown that where corruption is evident in a government then free and fair elections and the results of elections are being perverted.
“Interesting is the fact that it was found that where corruption is rife in a government, it always tries to consolidate political power and do everything possible to reduce political competition,” Mr.Mudge said.
On elections he said he took notice of the allegations by Mr Hidipo Hamutenya that elections in Namibia have been rigged in the past.
“We also saw the reaction by amongst others the Secretarygeneral of Swapo, Pendukeni Ithana, when she threatened that Swapo is going to take Mr. Hamutenya to court.
“Let me say this today what I have said on a number of occasions, without having gotten any reaction from Ms Ithana.
“Swapo and its agent the ECN were involved in rigging previous elections and please take me to court so that I can have that platform to inform the Namibian nation where and how it happened.
“The one was the 2004 election where we won the first two cases, but unfortunately did not have the resources to conclude the case.
“The other was the recount which was fraudulent from beginning to end and another one was the by-election in Rundu rural west where we won Swapo but were given 277 votes when we had over 6 000 card carrying members in that constituency!
“I challenge Ms Ithana to take me to court for what I have said and let the nation for once hear the truth about this so-called democratic Swapo government,” Mr Mudge added.
