Pohamba Is Wrong On Succession Debate

PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba’s decision, endorsed by Swapo leaders, to put a lid on the succession debate outside party meetings is backward, to say the least.
In the absence of a vibrant opposition, the wider community need to have a say in the type of leader they would like Swapo, as the ruling party, to have.
The call for debate should be about what Namibia needs after Pohamba, rather than who should replace him and this should be encouraged and echoed both inside and outside the ruling party.
In any case the footsoldiers of Swapo politics will talk while toiling the mahangu fields, over lunch hour on a corner of Independence Avenue or in Eveline Street’s shebeens, about who they would like to see in power and how to help him or her to get there.
In other words, the debate will not be limited to Facebook sites or to be re-opened when Kazenambo Kazenambo loses it again while addressing a bunch of school pupils on a courtesy call before touring South Africa.
I am not for public bickering among party leaders and the trading of insults between members of the ruling party. But we need a robust debate that is characteristic of a democratic society.
Such a debate should centre around the qualities of those available and not about their tribe, sexual status or in which camp or from which clique such a person hails.
When President Pohamba and Swapo’s Central Committee put a lid on the debate the President spoke about “reactionary tendencies that wish to portray” the party as divided and plagued by factions.
“We should not wash dirty laundry in public for all to see,” he said.
I would like to rewind to 2004 when Pohamba was elected as presidential candidate for Swapo. The race started in May for a congress which took place in November.
The campaign was on at several levels from unions to party wings.
What was wrong then was the mudslinging and character assassination which bordered on defamation and not the actual debate on the question of a successor to former President Sam Nujoma.
I am aware that during that time Pohamba tried very hard to keep out of limelight.
In fact, when The Namibian wanted to run a story on alleged conflict of interest related to the presidential race, Pohamba refused to answer questions and instead threatened to sue if a story was written about him. The conflict of interest related to allegations that he was in charge of a committee that was preparing the 2004 extraordinary congress to boost his candidacy.
The 2004 race was the first of its kind for Swapo in an independent Namibia and there were bound to be mistakes made in what was a learning process but at the end Swapo had one candidate who won by more than 70 per cent in the national elections.
In addition, while for much of his time as Swapo leader Nujoma was criticised for stifling debate within the party and the country at large, by attaching negative labels to those with whose views he differed, Pohamba was seen as being open to constructive criticism as well as promoting debate.
His ascendency to power was therefore hailed by commentators and political players alike as having brought about a more open and tolerant climate for debate, not only within the ruling party, but also in Government and the society as a whole.
Just as he hit the ground running by promoting a free-market over a command economy as the route to growth, commentators saw him as promoting a free market of ideas as the path to the party’s stability.
Ultimately, stability in Swapo can lead to a good environment for investment in Namibia. Meet any foreign diplomat and among the first things they ask is about the succession debate in Swapo! They want to know where the country is heading for and, for now, the character of the person who will take over from Pohamba is central in that destiny.
As such, any succession debate in Swapo, as long as they are the ruling party, cannot be limited only to those sporting the colours of blue, red and green.
It is therefore a real sea change to see Pohamba putting a lid on the debate after the progress the party made to open such debates from within.
We should all be talking constantly and loudly, about the kind of person we would like to see in charge of the party (and in all likelihood, the country) come the time for Pohamba to exit.

I’ve Got A Feeling It’s Over Between Ithana And Geingob

ONE of Gregory Abbott’s most well-known songs is entitled ‘I Got The Feelin’ (It’s Over)’ and he sings about the “funny feelin’” he had that his relationship with a girl was on the rocks.

I got the same impression over the past couple of days about the relationship (not love, but camaraderie) between Swapo secretary general Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana and the party’s vice president Hage Geingob.
The two were close allies for years and many regarded Ithana as a protegee of the former Prime Minister.
In fact, her support for Geingob was tested to the limits in 2002 when he refused to accept a lesser position of Local Government Minister and was frozen out by former President Sam Nujoma. Both were prominent figures in the party’s inner circles as Prime Minister and the country’s first female Attorney General respectively.
Geingob’s differences with Nujoma resulted in him plummeting in the party top structure and within a month he failed to be re-elected to the Politburo. The same congress also rejected Ithana to an extent that she was placed 23rd in the election for the Central Committee seats. Worst was when she failed to make it to the Swapo Party Women’s Council executive committee, of which she was an almost automatic choice for many years.
Reading the latest reports about the feud between Ithana and Sport Minister Kazenambo Kazenambo, you get the impression (and “funny feelin’” as Abbott put it) that she is on a very clear mission to become president of Swapo at all costs – even if it means pushing Geingob out of the way.
I know that Ithana has rejected claims that she was on a collision course with Kazenambo (better known as KK) and that she attempted to get him fired because of a remark he made about prostitution.
But I believe the news report that appeared in a weekly newspaper.
First, Swapo has the tendency to deny such sensitive stories very quickly if they are not 100 per cent true- which the party’s top structure did not do for days.
Secondly, the story was broken by a newspaper whose top structures are known to be close to both Geingob and Ithana. As a result, they would not have reported on the issue unless they were ‘dead sure’.
I believe Ithana’s attempt to get KK fired as a minister was not provoked by the statement about prostitution. It had all to do with his previous statement about wanting a non-Owambo Swapo president.
He is a known Geingob supporter. In fact he is one of the main proponents for his presidency.
And because there is the illusion that Ithana is very powerful in the party, she tried to push for KK’s demise at the top-four level.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she had not also tried to use other party instruments, such as the Youth League, Women’s League and Elders’ Council before attempting at it at the highest level.
The fact that KK didn’t even get a rebuke from the President tells it all.
Ithana has shown that she does not have the authority to dictate appointments or dismissals and that she is just another minister.
In fact, KK’s political resilience was boosted in the process.
But what is more harmful to Ithana is that she has not only disclosed her presidential ambitions very early (something that is not advisable in Swapo) but also possibly isolated herself in the process.
While already dealing with the undeclared ‘cold war’ with Jerry Ekandjo from the same Omusati-clique stable, Ithana has added more enemies by isolating herself from those who supported her through Geingob.
Ekandjo must be having a good laugh!
Ithana can also not expect any favour from the Ndonga group in the party, who want Nahas Angula as the party’s next president.
The end result is that her actions might lead to a complete realignment of allies and powers within the party while, in the broader scheme of things, I have the feelin’ it’s over between her and Geingob.

Kazenambo right to rebuke ‘struggle kids’

YOUTH Minister Kazenambo Kazenambo’s reaction to the ambush laid by ‘children of the liberation struggle’ on his office this week was refreshing and honourable with lofty intentions which patriots would do well to applaud rather than criticise.

I have waited for this day for quite some time but many of the ruling party’s leaders have diplomatically avoided telling the children ‘in the face’ how they feel about their manners and attitude towards what Government is trying to do for many young people in the country.
Namibia has been independent for more than 20 years, enough time for some of those ‘struggle children’ to have lifted themselves from the misery they find themselves in – if they had really tried to do so and not waited for Government handouts.
Like many others, I recognise the contribution made by the parents of those young people in the liberation of Namibia. I am also fully aware of the fact that many of them had to start from scratch when they returned to Namibia in 1989 and that some did not even have basic documents like Namibian identity cards.
They faced a serious uphill battle in the struggle for identity and survival.
However, they have been riding on the ‘liberation struggle’ ticket for too long now.
So many other children also lost their parents in the struggle – some even within the country – while the past 20 years have seen many white children also marginalised in terms of things like bursaries, as Government intensified efforts to correct the wrongs of the past. Some are still paying for the wrongs of apartheid masters as they are denied certain rights through affirmative action and black economic empowerment policies.
Therefore there is no reason for the ‘children of the liberation struggle’ to be selfish and arrogant as they had been over the past few years. There are thousands of other black children who do not carry the ‘struggle’ tag, who are in the same boat as those who have been accommodated and fed at Berg Aukas – they have no jobs and no free food.
The group of eight who met Kazenambo on Tuesday claimed they had given him enough time (less than three months) since his appointment to act on their demands. The demands include jobs in Government and education opportunities for those who wish to study.
I found this to be unfair to the Minister but also very arrogant on the part of the ‘children’ – some of them already parents themselves.
Last year the Police were forced to use teargas on some of the ‘struggle kids’ in the North after they occupied a bridge as part of their demand for jobs. Others had also camped at various places such as in the centre of Windhoek for months.
Some of those from Berg Aukas are the same young people who last year, when Cabinet announced it has set aside N$2 million for them, said the Government could keep its money and instead give them jobs or bring their deceased parents back from the dead!
I have no objection when people demand their rights but the arrogance displayed by a small group of youth compared to the thousands who drop out of school each year and are left stranded due to lack of opportunities or many others who are discriminated against because of their colour must also be considered at the same time.
A few weeks ago Defence Minister Charles Namoloh announced that 600 of them would be recruited into the army. Many others had been given places in the Police while hundreds of others were taken up in Government.
Last year we were informed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Dr Peingeondjabi Shipoh, that the ‘struggle children’ could cost the Government up to N$300 million through jobs, education, training and assistance in becoming self-employed.
Last year Swapo Party Secretary General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana said the struggle children must accept that they are part of a bigger challenge and that even some of the people who did not go into exile did suffer for Namibia’s independence.
Until now the struggle children have continued to cock a snoot, not only at Government but also at fellow youth who have been denied similar opportunities as well as law abiding citizens who respect laws such as not loitering in city centres and urinating in public!
Somebody needed to call them to order and Kazenambo was right in the way he did so.

* This article first appeared in The Namibian