Fed-up youth march against corruption

By Maria Hamutenya

MORE than a 100 young people on Monday marched to the headquarters of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to hand over a memorandum of demands to ACC director general Paulus Noa. The protest was organised by Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement activists in response to recent reports of high-level corruption, and to mark International Anti-corruption Day.

The protestors led by Dimbulukeni Nauyoma handed over the memorandum of demands, which included a demand for a comprehensive report on all cases that were never solved by the ACC.

The protesters also demanded the resignation of the ACC’s long-time boss Paulus Noa.

In the petition, Nauyoma emphasised the large-scale bribery and corruption in the fishing industry, as revealed in the Fishrot Files published by Wikileaks last month, which he said adversely affected the community of Walvis Bay, where many people lost the livelihood and some lost their lives, while young people had their dreams crushed by the impact.

He also called for reforms to the ACC Act in order to set time limits to the post of the director general, among others.

“These reforms will see the ACC execute its mandate fully and will see some of your friends behind bars.

These include the involvement and special approval by the prime minister that could compromise the investigations,” he said.

In receiving the petition, Noa thanked the protesters for marching to the ACC headquarters to make their point. “There is nothing hidden under the carpet, every case where we have evidence and the matter is dealt with we will share the information with the nation,” he said. He added that fighting corruption should not be left to the Commission alone but is the duty of everyone.