Opposition leaders bashed the N.dollars 100 increase of the old age grant, describing it as shameful and an awful display of arrogance by the ruling party.
The notion was pronounced by the President of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) Bernadus Swartbooi, in an interview with Nampa immediately after the tabling of the national budget for the year 2023/24 by Minister of Finance, Iipumbu Shiimi, in Parliament on Wednesday.
The remarks come after Shimii said the increase is meant to guard against the erosion of purchasing power for those in the social safety nets.
“The old age grant and the disability grant will be N.dollars 1 400, up from N.dollars 1 300, effective 01 April 2023,” he said.
Responding to this, Swartbooi said the parading of elders for an additional N.dollars 100 was embarrassing, referring to a video played in Parliament of pensioners being interviewed regarding their expectations from government on the old age grant.
“That was a shame and it was a very bad display of arrogance of a political party that decides the poverty of our older people, their pain and suffering can be elevated to this level. They got paraded for merely N.dollars 100. It is very sad that they are engaged in desperate politics to want to say the government is doing something,” he said.
Additionally, Mike Kavekotora, President of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) party, told Nampa on Wednesday that the pensioners are worse off now than they were before the raise of food inflation and that a responsible government would have at least covered the inflation rate by increasing the grant by N.dollars 200.
“The N.dollars 100 increase as a percentage of N.dollars 1 400 is a mere six per cent. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, food inflation is about 12 per cent. In terms of buying power, the pensioners are worse off today than they were when they received N.dollars 1 300 because of the inflation rate. A responsible government would have at least covered the inflation rate and increased the pension money with 12 per cent, which is now more than N.dollars 200,” he said.
Leader of the Official Opposition, McHenry Venaani, who is also the President of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) party, echoed the sentiments in an interview with Nampa, saying the budget does not speak to expanding the economic base of the country.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
