Office extract for citation on panduleniitula.com (draft). Ligature and line-break cleanup only. Media-inquiry footers and party profile copy from the PDF are not reprinted. Some office PDFs print Independence Patriots or Leader of the Official Opposition; this site keeps Independent Patriots for Change and does not treat the opposition-leader heading as a finding. This extract is the office wording, not a finding of this site.

Filename as supplied: SONA_2026_PRESIDENT.pdf
This extract is the opening comparison in the office PDF. Figures below are Dr Itula's reading of the 2025 and 2026 State of the Nation Address texts. They are not findings of this site. Later passages in the office PDF that name private interests, or that use wording this site does not reprint, are held.

IPC RESPONSE TO THE
2026 STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
BY H.E. PRESIDENT NETUMBO NANDI-NDAITWAH
DELIVERED 8 APRIL 2026
Delivered by:
DR. PANDULENI F. B. ITULA
President of the Independent Patriots for Change
Leader of the Official Opposition in Namibia
April 2026

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Fellow Namibians, Good Afternoon.
Her Excellency, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, delivered her second State of the
Nation Address to Parliament. It is 65 pages long and contained 183 numbered
paragraphs with the theme is “Advancing Towards the Realization of Vision 2030.”
I also have in my hand Her Excellency’s maiden SONA, delivered on 24 April 2025.
That was 36 pages and 99 paragraphs of promises, directives, and commitments.
Today I will hold these two documents side by side, read Her Excellency’s own words
from both, and measure what was promised against what was delivered. Because the
gap between the two is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of public record.
As President of the IPC and Leader of the Official Opposition, I speak mandated by over
21% of Namibian voters and every citizen who expects their government to keep its
word.
THE ECONOMY
Let us start with what the numbers actually tell us. In the 2025 SONA, paragraph 16,
Her Excellency told Parliament the economy grew by 3.8% in 2024 and was “expected
to expand to 4.5 percent in 2025.” She spoke of a “sustained track record of fiscal
prudence.”

Today, in the 2026 SONA, paragraph 23, Her Excellency quietly told us:
“GDP is projected to grow from 1.7% in 2025 to 3.1% in 2026.”

Last year she promised 4.5% growth, the actual number was 1.7%. That is less than
half of what was promised and with population growth at 1.9%, a GDP growth rate of
1.7% means the economy actually shrank per person. Namibians got poorer in real
terms in 2025. That is the reality behind 65 pages of achievements.
Now let us look at what else Her Excellency shared today:

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• National debt: N$172 billion at 62% of GDP. Five years ago, it was 48%. We are
borrowing faster than we are growing.
• Interest on debt: N$13.7 billion per year. That is more than the entire development
budget.
• In paragraph 20, Her Excellency celebrated repaying the N$14.3 billion Eurobond.
But that money was borrowed in the first place. Repaying a debt is not an
achievement. It is an obligation. The question is why we needed to borrow N$14.3
billion on international markets.
• Foreign exchange reserves in paragraph 21: N$51.9 billion providing 3.8 months
of import cover. Last year she told us it was N$63 billion and 4.2 months.
Reserves dropped by N$11 billion in one year. That is not resilience but depletion.

[A later office-PDF passage on an international index score is held. This site does not reprint that wording.]

• Unemployment remains at 36.9%. More than one in three Namibians who want to
work cannot find a job.
• Youth unemployment: 44.4%. Nearly half of our young people have no work.
• The Gini coefficient is 59.1, making Namibia the second most unequal country in the
world.

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