Popular Democratic Movement treasurer, Nico Smit, has said that the Export Processing Zone was never a Swapo idea, but that of an Arab-Sheik investor who sold it to some Swapo elements.
He said this was contrary to the idea that has been peddled around that Swapo mooted the flagship program.
Smit told parliament that tax concessions for EPZ companies and certain manufacturing companies created loopholes which he now expects to be addressed by the Income Tax Bill.
“Not everybody in this august House will remember but when an EPZ was first mooted in 1992, the idea did not come from the government. The very first attempt was based on the lofty ideals of a would-be Arab investor, a Sheik if my memory serves me correctly, who convinced some elements in Swapo that Namibia was in need of an export processing zone.
Who of the Hon Members here today can recall the large iron gates put up in 1992 in the desert outside Walvis Bay on the airport road, and the loud fanfare with which this EPZ was opened? I think the then Minister of Trade and Industry even made a speech.
The only problem was that there was no legislation, and the large piece of land allocated to the Sheik was randomly assigned by the Walvis Bay Town Council, then newly under Swapo control who wanted to make a political statement.
Those gates rusted in the desert where they stood and were grudgingly removed by the town council about a year or what later when it was obvious that no EPZ was about to materialize,” he said.