Harambee for the elite

Newly elected Secretary General of the Namibia Footballers Players’ Union (NFPU) and a member of the Civil Rights group, ‘Restoring the Dignity of our People’, Olsen Kahiriri said, the Harambee Prosperity Plan excludes sports, which in actual fact can bring a nation together no matter the internal problems at hand.
Kahiriri, who has freely criticised the government on its policies and implementation was reluctant to speak his mind on the new Harambee Prosperity Plan, (HPP), when the Economist asked him to comment.
“Sports can unite a nation and history has shown that it does more good than politics by far, therefore to add sports to the HPP plan will make the Plan more inclusive, and by this no on will be left behind,” he said.
Sharing a similar view, Monica Nambelela, political activist who is also a member of ‘Restoring the Dignity of our People said,“Harambee is a foreign phrase not Namibian at all, this is happening at a time when Namibia inherited intellectual capacity to negotiate a better deal for the citizens. We are going backwards”.
Nambelela said, “if Namibia has money to spend on a new airport and a new parliament and the President wants to justify another salary increment, after giving the ministers an increment of 80% water and electricity, it seems as though the spirit of Harambee only speaks to the elite”.
In an effort to display their disgruntlement, Nambelela is encouraging the youth to mobilise and flock to the Parliament Gardens on 16 June 2016, to present ‘Supreme Logic’.
“The N$2 Billion new Parliament can not be built. If we allow it then let us accept that we are a useless generation,” she added.
The Harambee Prosperity Plan is based on five pillar, which are effective governance and service delivery, economic advancement, social progression, infrastructure development and international relations and cooperation.
Expectations from the Harambee Plan are for a more transparent Namibia, a high-performance and citizen-centred culture of service delivery, significant reduction of poverty levels, a reputable and competitive vocational education training system and a spirit of entrepreneurship and enterprise development.
The Harambee Prosperity Plan was introduced by H.E. President Dr. Hage Geingob, in his State of the Nation address in March this year.