What does "The beggared turn up" mean here

The failure by the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) to fill the Windhoek Youth complex to capacity during the May Day celebrations has raised eye-brows with curious questions arising concerning its influence and its ability to mobilise the workers.

The beggared turn up at the youth complex also saw the head of state, President Hage Geingob snubbing the event altogether and his speech had to be delivered by the Swapo secretary general, Sophia Shaaningwa.

"Turn-up" here is a noun, and should have a hyphen. Confusion with the verb "to turn up" (to arrive) creates a mis-reading of the adjective "beggared" as a noun - it's not. Here's the sentence with corrected punctuation.

• The beggared turn-up at the youth complex also saw the head of state, President Hage Geingob snubbing the event altogether, and his speech had to be delivered by the Swapo secretary general, Sophia Shaaningwa.

It's still not very clearly written, but once "turn-up" is identified as a noun (meaning attendance), "beggared" is clearly an adjective, formed from to beggar, a verb meaning "to make poor".

You can replace "beggared" with paltry, scant, poor, small (in the sense of a crowd) and not change the meaning of the sentence, which is this:

• A very small number of people arrived at the youth complex, and the head of state, President Hage Geingob snubbed the event altogether - his speech had to be delivered by the Swapo secretary general, Sophia Shaaningwa.