Geingob wants SA to benefit from Namibia’s oil

President Hage Geingob has told his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa that they should profit from the recent oil discoveries in Namibia.

Geingob said this yesterday during his state visit to South Africa.

“Moreover, Shell and Total Energies together with our national oil company, Namcor and investors from Qatar have discovered hydrocarbons not far from South Africa in the Orange Basin,” he said.

Namibia has made three oil discoveries over the last year in the Orange Basin offshore southern Namibia and bordering South Africa.

“This presents us with another opportunity for collaboration between our governments and the private sector in the oil and gas sectors,” he said.

Geingob has promised Namibians that these discoveries will bring prosperity and growth after the difficult years the country’s economy has faced.

The president has previously said with an estimated production of 6,5 billion barrels of oil, the discoveries could earn Namibia between N$60 billion and N$95 billion annually in taxes and royalties.

He said the oil projects will generate over 3 600 jobs at the peak of production and double Namibia’s gross domestic product by 2040 to about N$636 billion.

During the media briefing yesterday, Ramaphosa said he and Geingob agreed to have their agreements audited before the binational commission later this year.

“We have directed that an audit of our legal instruments should be conducted as we move towards holding the binational meeting,” Ramaphosa said.

Namibia and South Africa have over 100 bilateral agreements covering a wide range of sectors.

This comes as the two presidents have been accused of using these instruments for their personal gain.

Geingob has been dragged into Ramaphosa’s alleged unlawful actions surrounding the cover-up of a robbery of undeclared foreign currency at the neighbouring head of state’s farm.

This includes suspects being traced to Namibia and Ramaphosa asking Geingob to assist him with the arrest of the alleged mastermind of the robbery, Imanuwela David, in 2020.

Furthermore, Ramaphosa also announced that Namibia and South Africa will host a business forum in Windhoek during their bilateral meeting.

“Our ministers responsible for trade and industry will convene a business forum later this year to be attended by business people from both countries. This will be on the sidelines of the binational commission that will be held in Windhoek,” he said.

One of the areas of cooperation is infrastructure in the water sector.

“Infrastructure is a major growth process that we both embark upon. Cooperate to build infrastructure. To ensure it is ultimately built to benefit our people. Water is another area that wants great infrastructure,” Ramaphosa said.

Namibia and South Africa yesterday signed an agreement to focus on tourism. It was signed by ministers Pohamba Shifeta and Patricia de Lille.

“We will witness the signing of a memorandum on tourism, an area key to our economic development aspirations. We should, therefore, direct our ministers and their senior officials to ensure the speedy and timeous implementation of legal instruments we enter into,” Geingob said.