Pohamba, Like Zuma, Should Release Terms Of Reference

SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma was perceived to be something of a liability, especially in his own country.

As a result many wrote him off and expected a crisis of the highest order when he took office last year. I kept a close eye on his progress and must say that his recent visit to that country’s parliament impressed me.
He went to motivate the presidency’s budget in parliament and had some good points to make.
Among others, Zuma expressed his willingness to publicly release the terms of reference for his ministers.
Almost two months ago The Namibian made a similar call on President Hifikepunye Pohamba after learning that all his ministers got ToR on the dotted line when they were appointed on March 21.
In fact, I understand that ministers must report on a three-month basis on the progress of their mandate to Pohamba – a welcome move towards improved service delivery by Government.
If only we (myself and every other citizen of Namibia) knew what the ToR of each one of the ministers were to assist the President judge their performances!
For too long some of our politicians were mere celebrities throwing cake at one another as they shower in expensive wine while the voting masses are left to wonder what exactly such ministers were doing.
And I’m led to believe that there is a VERY BIG reshuffle of permanent secretaries on the way.
Some names of people who will possibly be shown the door while others will be re-assigned are already in the public domain.
A reshuffle can only be ‘big’ if we get rid of deadwood; reassign people according to their skills; and even get qualified ones in, irrespective of their colour, race, political affiliation and sex.
Of course, both Pohamba and Prime Minister Nahas Angula have a challenge at hand after the recent court proceedings which temporarily stopped the decision to fire Erastus Negonga. Other PSes, who are also former freedom fighters, might follow suit because we have a culture of entitlement in Namibia!
Some of them believe that the struggle against apartheid was similar to an episode of ‘Grensvegter’ – with them being the Rocco de Wet who alone was responsible for Namibia’s delivery from the anguish of oppression.
Negonga’s supporters believe he is being punished for the N$3 million which went missing when the Ministry of Defence ‘bought’ arms from a bogus company while he was still the permanent secretary.
Investigations were conducted, headed by Justice Minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, but the findings never publicly revealed. Thus some of us not privy to inside information might not be qualified to decide whether Negonga was the culprit or not.
What proponents in his defence argue is that bigger amounts have disappeared under the nose(s) of others like Andrew Ndishishi who was at Trade when N$100 million was ‘lost’ in an investment deal as well as the much publicised N$30 million of the Social Security Commission which disappeared under the watch of Ulitala Hiveluah, formerly of Labour.
If Negonga is fired, both Ndishishi and Hiveluah should also be shown the door, his (Negonga’s) supporters argue.
To switch the analogy, the primary cancer should have been surgically removed early when Pohamba took office – or even when former President Sam Nujoma was still in charge. The failure to do so has allowed the cancer to spread to the point where the whole body is now riddled with it.
Just because nothing was done to Negonga at the time the money disappeared – in fact he was only ‘reshuffled’ as a result – it left the impression that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of the millions. That’s what we were left to believe and still do believe.
We know that Pohamba was hamstrung, from the start of his presidency, by the need to keep the competing factions in his party together, but leaving things this late has created the impression that some people are untouchables.
The good news for those striving for fairness is the bad news facing the scoundrels of politics and business – some of them permanent secretaries who now face the axe.
Others who remain in the job must get five-year contracts with very clear goals and regular reports must be forwarded to the Office of the Prime Minister.
Anything short of that is treason!
And, Mr President, let’s publish the terms of reference to make it more transparent.

* This column first appeared in The Namibian