The year 2020 is proving to be truly a year of political reawakening for many young people who for too long have been timid and remained on the fringes of mainstream politics.
Now young people are speaking out loudly and they are boldly stepping up the game in demanding their fair share of the fruits of Independence.
Social media has made it quite easy in taking away the inhibitions and getting rid of the respect Namibian youngsters used to have for the Government. Over the last 30 years the ruling party has gone through a phase, so that things will never be the same again.
In fact the Establishment is being shaken to its foundation.
Even opposition parties are smelling the coffee. So that the PDM has this week chosen to send a 26-year old young woman to represent it on the Ondangwa Town Council.
It is not because that young lady has what it takes to be a productive leader at that level, but just because the wind of change is now blowing in favour of youth participation (otherwise known as youth empowerment).
But young people will not only demand change politically. They will also demand that it should no longer be business as usual in the corporate world.
They will demand that corporate companies do business with young people’s SMEs. Youth empowerment in the business sector must become a reality.
Everyone for the last 30 years said that the youth must not be job-seekers but job-creators. But when the youngsters started their companies nobody wanted to do business with them.
The environment has now changed. Foreign-owned companies doing business here and the local private sector, they have to come out of their lethargy and meet the youth halfway.
Or else it won’t be business as usual.
Indeed this month of March should be a month for peace, a period to celebrate and appreciate the freedom and Independence of our country. It must be a month for goodwill, friendship and comradeship. We must hold hands with everyone – even those we disagree with economically.
But from April onwards it will be the beginning of labour. Young entrepreneurs will forcefully come out demanding change in the world of business in this country.
It is not only the political institutions and the legal institutions which must be responsive and sensitive to the needs of the youth, the needs of the down-trodden.
It is not only the political institutions and the legal institutions which must smell the coffee.
Thirty years is a long time for us to have successfully survived on excuses and empty promises. As government leaders have survived on the back of empty promises, the business leaders have also survived on the back of lame excuses.
Whoever will continue to peddle empty promises or advance lame excuses beyond April 2020 will do so at their own risk.
