Deputy Minister of Youth, Sport and National Service, Emma Kantema-Gaomas on Wednesday objected to a National Assembly motion that called for a leaner Ministry of Youth and Sport.
The motion tabled on 27 September this year by Popular and Democratic Movement (PDM) Member of Parliament, Tjekupe Katjimune suggested a merger of the directorate of youth with the National Youth Service (NYS) and National Youth Council (NYC) into one organisation.
“This will eliminate wastage of resources and duplication of responsibilities and duties,” said Katjimune in September.
He argued that if the youth directorate, NYS and NYC becomes a single organisation, this will save resources and deliver quality services to the country’s young people.
Kantema-Gaomas however in Parliament, reacted to Katjimune’s call, saying the motion should be rejected by all means, as the NYS, NYC and youth directorate serves the Namibian youth with specific objectives.
“The NYS was established with an objective to recruit youth, instil discipline, sense of patriotism, nationhood and national pride into them, while both the NYC and youth directorate do different programmes,” she said.
The NYC, on the other hand, she said, was created to be an autonomous umbrella body of the youth organisations in the country irrespective of their ideologies, political positions and racial background.
The youth directorate on its part within the ministry develops youth programmes and policies, as well as supports and empowers the youth with different sports projects and activities from the government’s perspective.
“Therefore, we object and reject the idea of Katjimune to combine them into one single organisation, as they have wide and diverse objectives,” she said.
NYS during the 2022/2023 financial year received about N.dollars 64 million to run its youth development programmes at the headquarters in Windhoek, Berg Aukas and Rietfontein, while NYC was allocated N.dollars 18 million from the budget of the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service of nearly N.dollars 331 million.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
