Point of Clarity, Madam President

Congratulations President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on your inauguration as Namibia’s first woman head of state.

Your victory has raised expectations sky high – that a woman will bring better governance and the delivery of public services to the masses who keep voting for Swapo, yet continue to bear the brunt of deteriorating living standards.

Stripping Cabinet to 14 ministries buttresses your remarks that “there will be no business as usual”.

It’s also a promising sign that your administration will regularly appraise Cabinet performances.

Nonetheless, we need clarity about some remarks you have made.

“The Swapo election manifesto must be implemented at all costs as that is the contract between me and the people of Namibia, and I have no reason to divert from it,” you said.

To cite an example, your manifesto and implementation plan prioritise the relaunch of Air Namibia with N$3 billion earmarked to help it take off.

Are you saying that even if well-researched facts show that Air Namibia will yet again drain taxpayer money with no better returns, that you will simply proceed?

More than N$11 billion was spent on Air Namibia before, but the returns to improve Namibia failed to match up. Abysmally so.
Has tourism suffered because Air Namibia no longer exists?

Was it right that Air Namibia was essentially subsidising wealthy people to travel while public transport and logistics systems inside the country were failing?

Is it right to spend N$3 billion to create 700 direct jobs (that is N$4.3 million on average to create one job) and 500 indirect employment opportunities amid scarcity of money to curb hunger, poor health facilities, lack of housing and other in-your-face manifestations of poverty among the population?

In short, will madam president doggedly follow the manifesto even if it means driving the country into unbearable debt while adding more white elephants – as happened with the fuel storage case (N$7.5 billion), the Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (N$21 billion), Neckartal (N$7 billion), massive government offices and the over-capitalisation of roads?

The opportunity cost has been an inability to solve income disparity, malnutrition (including deaths) and general poverty.

On corruption, you said: “I’m not going to follow things that happened before I was here, but things happening from 21 March. I’m not going to witch-hunt anybody…”

You definitely should not engage in any witch-hunts. But are you telling Namibia’s anti-corruption agencies not to pursue ongoing cases or others that might come to light during your term of office for crimes committed before you were sworn in?

Madam president, you have declared that the media are the “fourth arm of [the] state”. How will you strengthen the media to play that role?

Will you ensure that the access to information law is implemented with the authority and independence to force the government and other entities to be transparent, or will we soon see business as usual – as has been the case over the past 35 years from administrations of which you have been a key part.