Prime minister addresses senior government officials

Prime minister Tjitunga Ngurare on 10 April outlined his vision for public service, emphasising accountability, service delivery and unity, while urging executive directors to implement government programmes effectively and address procurement concerns.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good morning,
I am happy to welcome each of you to the Office of the Prime Minister this morning. I do so with great humility and respect.

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah appointed me on 21 March 2025 as prime minister with clear terms of reference and marching orders. My overall responsibility is to support and assist her in the execution of the noble mandate entrusted her by the Namibian people during the November 2024 presidential and National Assembly elections, culminating in her historic swearing in as the first female president of the Republic of Namibia.

You are also aware that in the appointment of her Cabinet she made some changes in the number of ministries, offices and agencies. Therefore, as prime minister, I had to comply with that realisation and thereby realign your
assignments as executive directors to these new ministries. I want to congratulate you in your new assignment and express my confidence that you will deliver to the best of your abilities and without fail.

Dear colleagues,
As you are all aware, before the elections I was a public servant and had the privilege to work with you and to learn from you, including from secretary to Cabinet, and especially from my former executive director Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata in the then Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform.
And as you may further know, years before that, I was a politician working full-time at the Swap Headquarters at Katutura as secretary of the
Swapo Party Youth League, advocating for bread and butter issues of our people all over Namibia. In that capacity I worked together with my
predecessor, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, in various capacities of the party and country. We were the youth.

Our elders in the party leadership notably the late founding president and father of the Namibian nation Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma (may his soul continue to rest in eternal peace), former president Hifikepunye Pohamba, the late former president Hage Geingob (may his soul continue to rest in peace), former president Nangolo Mbumba and now, her excellency Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, our first female president, were our political professors.

They taught us and we learned from them. I, therefore, commend Kuugongelwa-Amadhila for her leadership as prime minister. I further
commend the leadership of all former prime ministers including Geingob, the late Theo-Ben Gurirab and comrade Nahas Angula. In saying
all the above, it is to indicate that I might be new in the position of prime minister but I am not new to the issues which are contained in our Swapo political programe which gives rise to the Swapo election manifesto and the advocacy of bread and butter issues of our people.

Dear colleagues,
I have no doubt that together we will achieve the desired impacts in the lives of all Namibians as per Nandi-Ndaitwah’s mantra of business unusual. In the publication titled ‘My Leadership Vision for Namibia’ which was launched the same day as the Swapo election manifesto, Nandi-Ndaitwah said:
“Top leadership that will work with me will be tasked and expected to instill a culture of accountability in their respective institutions. I
sincerely and strongly believe that it is our collective duty as leaders to firstly, hold ourselves to account and secondly to hold others
accountable. We must and will walk the talk and talk the walk. We must and we will earn the trust and respect of our people. We will give them the confidence that our country is indeed in safe hands.”
We are, therefore, meeting this morning mindful that Cabinet has directed all offices, ministries and agencies (OMAs) to cascade the Swapo 2024 election manifesto into their operational plans and make budgetary provision for immediate implementation. Furthermore, as public servants, we must rededicate our efforts to ensure that we fully implement the programmes of government, and bring about the needed positive changes in the lives of our people. As executive directors, you have an important responsibility in the implementation of government programmes in terms of
Section 11 of the Public Service Act. Executive directors have the functions to provide advice on policy formulation and the implementation, and to brief the president, the prime minister or the minister concerned, as the case may be, on all major issues affecting the functioning of their offices, ministries or agencies.

As we implement government programmes, we must think out of the box and ensure that we prioritise to implement programmes that are necessary to support the growth of our economy and optimise the livelihood of our people. Yes, theories are important but more important is that we must be deliberate, proactive and practical in all our doings, our results must speak
for themselves. Unnecessary bureaucracy must fall and common sense must prevail. Namibians do not need favours nor do they ask for any from
public servant, they only demand access to just, quality and equitable service delivery. Let us continue to create confidence in our public
institutions. Let the poor and the rich; let the employed and unemployed; let all our people feel confident in their public institutions. I have heard of reports that it is who you know in order to get employed; that payments must be given before a certain position is filled; that interviews are a mere formality because the well-connected was already chosen in some dark corners somewhere; that a tender is already awarded before formal sitting of a procurement committee meeting; etc.

Dear executive directors and accounting officers, I want to make a special
appeal to you, let us collectively and individually demonstrate seriousness to dispel and dismantle any of this menace in our society. Let us ensure that in all 121 constituencies and 14 regions our people must see themselves in ministries, offices and agencies of government. Competence, hard work and selfless service must be rewarded. Not corruption, nepotism,
favouritism and all other retrogressive tendencies. This means that I should not only be working with people from my village, my tribe, my clan, my race, etc, but I must be surrounded by a kaleidoscope of all Namibians. It also
means that economic empowerment must shine on the faces of all Namibians. Once again, the resources of Namibia must benefit all Namibians. As our president often says, “we are too few to be poor” and most importantly we are too few to discriminate against one another.
Ministries, offices and agencies of hovernment must be the mirror of our society through unity of purpose under the banner of ‘One Namibia One Nation’.

Dear Colleagues, as you may be aware, you are the chief advisors to ministers. I urge you to work together and under the guidance of your
Ministers and deputy ministers. As stipulated in Article 41 of our Constitution which states that “all ministers shall be accountable individually for the administration of their ministries and collectively for the administration of the work of the cabinet, both to the president and to parliament”. Your efforts are to make sure that your political principals succeed in all they do, and public office bearers are there to make your
work environment conducive for implementation. I wish to reiterate that proper service delivery requires a sound symbiotic relationship and robust consistent engagements between public office bearers and you executive directors. In this relationship, each functionary performs duties, which are complimentary to each other. Your ministries must be conducive for every public servant. To this end, I have decided to pay courtesy calls to each
ministry, agency and office and we start tomorrow with the Ministry of Education,
Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture.

As you know, public enterprises are now back to their line ministries, and executive directors are required to support and advise ministers on
modalities on how OMAs optimise parastatal performance to ensure that the objectives of sectoral policies are met. I urge you executive directors to make sure that you reintegrate the public enterprises under your respective ministries effectively.

I must also make this point that public enterprises must be expected to ensure service delivery without fail and equally adhere to the values of ‘One Namibia, One Nation’ in job creation. Their paying structures must be
reasonable and to the extent possible should not be distorted beyond their line ministries.

Young professionals in OMAs and those in PEs must all be motivated with incentives to realise their talents and dreams.

In 2008 at the Swapo central committee, as the then youth, we moved that the tender board needed reform in order to benefit the youth, women and rural communities. At the time the bone of contention was a tender for drought relief amounting to over N$200 million which was awarded to three prominent companies. Our objection was that the people who vote for the government, the downtrodden, were being excluded from the procurement benefits of government. President Pohamba ruled that
from that day onward, I, as secretary of Swapo Party Youth League, then minister of finance Kuugongelwa-Amadhila supported by the prime minister Nahas Angula, we must set the ball in motion to reform thethen tender board. The youth league was requested in the interim to
provide two names to serve on the tender board and we nominated now minister of justice and labour relations Wise Immanuel.

This is the background to the current Public Procurement Act 2015. It was not enacted to be a hindrance or nuisance of bureaucracy or excuses for delays in service delivery. It was not enacted for creating mountains or molehills of greed and corruption. It was to make the lives of our people better. It was to make government of the people a conduit of their hopes and aspirations.

Therefore, from here on forward and as her excellency has directed, if the Public Procurement Act 2015 contains provisions that are unhelpful, we must urgently amend it. And if corruption is endemic in the procurement
system we will equally come hard and close such loopholes, which erode the confidence of the people in their government. What I expect from accounting officers is common sense economic empowerment of our people which is what we envisioned when we asked president Pohamba to reform the then tender board.

We want to see that women and youth who reside near a public institution such as a school hostel should be the ones supplying that school
with food. And where the capacity to do so does not exist at the moment, we must create that capacity. We want to see the food provided to all
government institutions being produced right here in Namibia in our villages and in our regions. We have the land, water and human resources to produce this. Job creation also involves these deliberate steps which can be enabled by procurement system. Let us, therefore, modenise agriculture, let us provide small scale farmers with water, implements and training to be able to produce food. Some of the solutions for job creation exist here on earth and not on Mars. All OMAs are directed to ensure job creation and service are the kamanakandongo of your daily occupation. Let our institutions of higher learning be provided with opportunities to advance research and development. Procurement system should be an enabler of
this too.

In the next few weeks, I will also explore this matter further. I have learned that sufficient skill exists within government but often misplaced.
For example, there are many young professionals who possess requisite skills in procurement and yet there are some government departments having skills deficit in the same field. Dear executive directors, you should explore synergy and source this existing skills to support you.

Allow me to conclude by expressing my appreciation to you, esteemed secretary to Cabinet and executive directors, for your commitment and sacrifices to service delivery. I implore you to ensure that every public servant in your respective ministry is provided a conducive environment to work. Our public servants must come to work happy and go back homehappy. And by extension all our public servants must ensure that Namibians who seek government services must come to our offices happy and go back home happy. We must at all material times be servants of the Namibian people. Together, let us assist and support president Nandi-Ndaitwah to achieve the milestones she has set in her publication.

I thank you.