The Affirmative Repositioning Movement is advocating for leadership that goes beyond elections, political positions and personal ambition, and instead delivering solutions to the problems people face every day through training.
The Affirmative Repositioning Movement trained activists from across the Erongo Region, who gathered in Walvis Bay to become community-focused leaders equipped to identify and address problems affecting the people.
The AR activist in Chief and Member of Parliament, Professor Job Amupanda says the movement's community-based approach requires activists to return to their respective towns and identify problems that demand practical solutions.
In Erongo, these include challenges linked to mining, employment, fishing, housing and municipal services.
He cited concerns around subcontracting in the mining and retail sectors and called for leaders to understand how these economic activities affect local communities.
"So when this contract for one year ends, this company goes and they bring in another one. So this so-called employment that these people are talking about is actually temporary employment. What is it that we had with Rossing Uranium? What is it that we had with CDM? Permanent employment where people are fully employed. So when we are talking about the training of leaders in the Erongo region, we must also train leaders who actually understand the dynamics in the local context. So it's a big failure of all of us to allow a situation of subcontracting."
The movement says activists must ultimately be able to demonstrate tangible change in their communities and not accept corporate social responsibility initiatives from big companies that, it argues, do not have a massive impact on people's lives.
"For every mine we want a clinic. Choose wherever you are building it, but within the, those communities, in the country, particularly in the communities where we want a clinic. For every mine we want a school. For every mine we want a soccer field. But if you actually have a situation and you believe that a mine that makes billions and billions of dollars, and they sponsor a marathon. That's how weak we are, because they understand, just sponsor a marathon, just sponsor Christmas Christmas hampers with boere wors and all these things that apparently people are not supposed to be eating now. So it's a big problem that we have. And if you as leaders of AR do not have that understanding and that orientation, how robbed we are to accept mines that are sponsoring marathons and Christmas hampers. Then we would have failed."
The trainees are expected to become leaders capable of understanding local problems, developing ideas and taking action where communities need it most.