Succession: Shouldn’t We Also Think Outside The Box

CANDIDATES have strategies to win the race in Swapo but do they have the strategies to run the country? And do they have the qualities of a leader the country needs?

These are but two of the most crucial questions that Swapo and any delegate to the congress later this year must ask before deciding on the presidential candidate.
Instead too much time and effort is wasted on personalities and character assassination and who will benefit through tenders or prepare the State for collective piracy if their candidate wins.
Even though Swapo was known as the traditional hope of the oppressed and there is a feeling among some of its members that others have no right to poke inquisitive noses into its affairs, ignoring what is going on in the party is as good as cutting the thread that holds the country together. Swapo is the ruling party since Independence and therefore everything it does matters to outsiders also.
With the debate on succession thus limited to the Politburo, Central Committee and the congress, it should be the sole business of everyone else who thinks they are obliged to have a say to use available platforms to try and influence party members on the type of candidate to be elected. It is only right to do so even though it is not written in stone that the Swapo candidate will become the next President of Namibia.
It is a fact that the majority of Namibia has relegated the responsibility of choosing that candidate to around 500 delegates at the congress.
As for now the names of the party’s Vice President Hage Geingob, Secretary General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, Information Secretary Jerry Ekandjo, Prime Minister Nahas Angula and Deputy Prime Minister Marco Hausiku are all being touted as candidates to take over the party leadership from President Hifikepunye Pohamba.
All of the above have had their share of time in Cabinet and should by now have shown their capabilities.
Since Independence Swapo has hammered home the message of peace and tranquility. In fact even though former President Sam Nujoma emphasised economic independence towards the latter years of his rule, and Pohamba (being the continuation of programmes) reiterated these words, Namibia now needs a manager as President.
The next President should be able to steer the ship with very clear aims and be able to mobilise Cabinet, top ministerial management as well as the private sector with clear economic goals.
It should be someone who will manage Cabinet in such a way that ministers must present regular reports on progress of programmes undertaken but when they fail to deliver, sideways reshuffling should not be the option.
They should know that even though there are traits of servanthood in their leader, such a person will not tolerate laziness, lack of honesty, and will not hesitate to fire those who fail to carry out plans.
It means someone who is willing to take unpopular decisions in the interest of the nation and not a politically well-connected elite group.
When the second term of President Pohamba started, we were told that he had given each minister a set of goals/targets to achieve. The mistake he made was that those targets remained confidential between him and the ministers.
If he had gone the transparent route of revealing each minister’s target, he would have been more empowered when taking steps against a non-performing Cabinet member.
As it is now, he can keep track of the delegated work, but who says that he is in fact doing that? How do we know that his non-performing ministers face his wrath? And what type of wrath is it that we don’t actually see?
Also, our next President should be someone who will not generalise targets but zoom in on them with short-term deadlines. Even though we have Vision 2030 as an overall goal, there are many short term solutions which can make it a success.
Only a seasoned navigator can steer the ship in that direction.
We have many candidates, some of them even outside the group I referred to earlier.
Therefore, if need be, the delegates must start to think outside the box.

Cabinet Needs To Keep Travel Allowances Down

OK, so the children are officially on holiday, fuel has gone up again to cut their travels, the budget should soon be rubber-stamped by politicians who spent six hours to say things they could in two hours, salary increases are about to arrive for civil servants, Windhoek’s traffic officers will be making a few thousand more through fines and outstanding warrants and all roads will probably lead out of Windhoek for the Easter weekend.

It was thus timely for the usually frank and straight-forward ‘mitiri’ (teacher) Prime Minister Nahas Angula, to send an early warning to peers in Cabinet about their travel and allowance claims.
More than six years and a month ago, I watched President Hifikepunye Pohamba making his best speech ever, shortly after he took office as the country’s second leader.
And, having been a minister before that, he did not mince his words when he spoke about unnecessary travel by ministers, deputy ministers and the general unrestricted spending by staff at the country’s embassies abroad.
He said ministers needed “to reduce drastically the number and frequency of their international travels”.
Political office-bearers were instructed to first obtain his permission before they travelled outside the country and then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marco Hausiku, was directed to ensure that “Namibian missions abroad represent the country at some international conferences and meetings to avoid waste and a duplication of efforts”.
Ministers took heed of Pohamba’s warning but for a short period only.
In fact, the President himself undertook regular trips towards the end of his first term, which created the impression that the directive was only aimed at others. He was not leading by example.
I know of some in Government and the private sector who started saying that Pohamba was only ‘visiting’ Namibia so frequently was he abroad!
The saying “do as I say and not as I do” had relevance here.
To convince a majority of us that his directive was serious and that he would not tolerate the behaviour of his ministers who go on trips left, right and centre, Pohamba thus needed to slow down his own travels to lead by example.
Last week it was revealed that Prime Minister Angula has now been tasked to haul in his peers and, it seems, he has taken it on with both hands.
Angula is concerned about the huge spending on subsistence and travel (S&T). For this financial year an amount of almost N$400 million will reportedly be spent on just that.
I have no problem with ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries, directors or any other people travelling as long as such trips are coordinated and we see the returns.
Some of the ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries and directors have made it their goal to travel at least 10 days in a month as the S&T became an integral part of their domestic budget.
I am not very sure about the current S&T rates but when I did a story on it some 10 years ago already, ministers were collecting anything between US$350 and US$500 a day for travelling to countries with well-established economies. That is between N$2 500 and N$3 500 a day and for 10 days it will total to N$25 000 and N$35 000. Who couldn’t do with that kind of money as an extra for the month?
But to promote the integrity of our public institutions – especially those responsible for our legislation – our leaders need to stay clear of such practices.
The travel cut should not be only on foreign trips. A weekend away like the Easter weekend should not be claimed if it is for private business.
I know ministers and others have access to Government vehicles and fuel. That’s enough of a luxury already. Stay away from the cash and let it be spent on other people such as those affected by the floods!
Our leaders owe it to the masses to keep Government expenditure down.