Executive Mayors: Shouldn’t Be A Jobs-For-Comrades Scheme

IT seems like it is a given that executive mayors will soon be appointed to run cities and towns alongside chief executive officers on a full-time basis.

I have my reservations about the pace of introduction, how the appointments will be made, affordability of the position as well as how the reporting channels would work.
Local Government Minister Jerry Ekandjo this week again announced his intentions to push through the appointment of executive mayors in full-time positions.
Local authorities are also pushing for the appointment of full-time councillors but that’s non-negotiable in my view. To do precisely what when there are already so many council employees? I’m not prepared to entertain the possibility.
Some countries have executive mayors but they come with very strict working conditions and goals.
I believe that Namibian councillors, especially in the management which is supposed to have a bird’s eye view of council operations, operate in a ‘meeting councillors’ environment. Their only major task currently is to attend meetings and many do not have an in-depth knowledge of the workings of councils.
Getting a full-time executive mayor will thus be slightly more affordable rather than put councillors on such terms.
Such a mayor should run with the implementation of decisions in tandem with a chief executive officer (CEO). If the two operate well together, it could improve the speed of implementation of decisions by the administration.
Currently, we have management committees but they are part-time and their monitoring of the implementation of decisions is limited to the times they meet.
Because of the dynamics of local authorities, I prefer that executive mayors be elected instead of being appointed by a Minister or the President. They must be accountable to the voters.
Having said that, it might be difficult for reporting systems because voters will have a tough time to measure the success of such a person since they do not always have access to information which will help them to do so.
However, if they are appointed directly by either the Minister or the President, clear goals can be set and regular assessments conducted to measure the implementation of such targets.
Currently, the President appoints regional governors.
My problem with the appointment of the governors is the lack of clarity on their accountability.
We have no idea about the goals set for them, how they are measured and what will happen if they are not achieved. Basically the same which applies to the Ministers, whom, we are told, supposedly report to the President (appointing authority) at quarterly intervals.
For transparency’s sake, President Hifikepunye Pohamba needs to reveal the targets he set for each Minister and governor upon his or her appointment. Are they just appointments or performance contracts, for instance? If someone does not perform, what happens to them? Can they be fired or will they continue to collect fat cheques until the five year cycle is completed?
If we don’t know their targets, they remain solely accountable to State House and not to the electorate.
When such circumstances prevail, governance becomes pathetic.
It is partly the reason why some regional councils as well as ministries operate on an ‘auto-pilot’ system. You hardly hear what some governors, for instance, do.
With executive mayors, we need to bring in efficiency.
For starters, get people with good educational backgrounds who will drive the economy of a town and have a good world-view.
You can’t give someone with a narrow view millions and expect them to deliver! You might lead them into corruption. In other words, we need to scale up big time to get better outcomes.
I must hasten to caution that the negative to an executive mayor would be that they can become too powerful through either close links with the CEO or staff members. In the process they can destroy a council.
Others could be engaged in constant in-fighting with staff or CEOs and this could be to the detriment of the entire council.
But what is certain is that we don’t need a jobs-for-comrades scheme or to just get cadres of the ruling party in a opposition-dominated council. That also shouldn’t be the objective of executive mayors.
Those in authority need to think thoroughly before pushing through the changes to the appointment of executive mayors.

Succession In The Opposition: Time For Some To Make Way

IN less than four years Namibians will head back to the polling stations to elect a new president.

But too much time is spent on the Swapo succession race when there are other parties which need to get their houses in order.
The Rally for Democracy and Progress, DTA of Namibia, United Democratic Front of Namibia and the National Unity Democratic Organisation all need new leaders if they are to be agents of change in the coming elections.
Together with Swapo, the political parties need not only to look for a younger president but also involve youth in the country’s mainstream politics.
Currently Namibians are preoccupied with everyday worries from the scores of people flocking the rubbish dumpsites to make ends meet with what other people see as health-hazardous garbage, hundreds of thousands who don’t have jobs, or enough to eat, or clean water, or a roof over their heads, or access to quality education and safe neighbourhoods and access to healthcare.
So a debate about a presidential candidate, especially in the opposition political parties, will probably be eclipsed by concerns about these tough economic times and how people struggle just to hold on to what they have.
But politics is also a bread and butter issue.
Whoever takes office as a leader of the country, in most cases, decides the path the rest of the country takes in future.
Thus, even if, judging by the current political environment, it might not look like the opposition will take over State House in three years’ time, there is nevertheless a need for introspection for those parties.
Before I look at what’s available and throw in some younger names as possible options, I need to point out that opposition parties need to move away from ‘opposition politics’ which is built on statements and rallies focussed mainly on criticising Swapo rather than rallying the masses to provide change from grassroots.
That is also one of the main reasons why many parties are dying a slow and painful death. Most will look like the real ‘new kid on the block’ for a year, or at most three, but quickly start to fade away, giving voters very little, if any, optimism.
Thus, unless opposition parties get beyond the attitude of criticism to build an alternative that will resonate with the majority, Swapo might well rule until “Jesus comes back”, as one of the party leaders recently said.
At Independence the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance was Namibia’s main opposition with 21 seats in the National Assembly. Today they have only two.
The party went on a serious backwards slide.
Current leader Katuutire Kaura (70) took over in 1999 after Mishake Muyongo went into exile following the Caprivi secession.
Under Kaura the support base did not only gradually thin out but the National Unity Democratic Organisation and Republican Party left the DTA.
Kaura is a well-oiled speaker and someone with good ideas, but his time at the party’s helm is up.
In 2005 the young McHenry Venaani prematurely challenged him but Kaura managed to see him off in style.
In fact, Venaani’s challenge also cost him the party’s secretary general position and ultimately a seat in the National Assembly where he had made mature input during debates.
With the experience he picked up, Venaani could be a good candidate who will not only draw votes from his tribal background, but also from people, young and old, who want intelligent debate and action.
Another leader whose time is long up is Justus //Garoeb (69 year in December) who heads UDF since 1989.
//Garoeb is a respected politician by both friend and foe in the National Assembly but he is hardly there!
Also, under him the UDF has lost appeal – losing members of the alliance as well as a number of seats in Parliament.
UDF has a couple of leaders they can rely. Among them is Sebastian !Gobs (43) – the regional councillor for Khorixas and someone who has shown vigour.
Another candidate would be the Kamanjab constituency councillor Dudu Murorua (who will be 53 in a few days). The former governor of Kunene has shown the leadership required to rejuvenate the party. He is far from the truck driver and farm foreman that he was at some point during his youth.
I also believe that the next ballot papers should not carry the image of Kuaima Riruako (76).
Not only is he the oldest Member of Parliament, but there is a need for the Nudo leader to follow his age-mate President Hifikepunye Pohamba when he retires.
Even though Arnold Tjihuiko (61) is not so young anymore, he has been very vocal in the National Assembly and could push on for a few more years.
I am sure that, just as Nudo surprised us with Tjihuiko appearing second on their list in 2004, they have other candidates in the offing.
If Hidipo Hamutenya (72) harboured aspirations of forming an own party or leading an opposition party, the Rally for Democracy and Progress came a bit late for him.
The former Minister, with many years of experience in international diplomacy, was followed out of the party by a host of his supporters. Even before he left, Jesaya Nyamu (three years Hamutenya’s junior) became the first senior Swapo figure to be expelled since 1990.
Nyamu took the beatings for his former high school mate Hamutenya but the former Minister of Trade and also Mines, who defended Epupa and Ramatex vigorously, is not exactly young enough to take over the leadership.
Again, RDP also have scores of more youthful leaders waiting in the wings.
But the youngbloods can only emerge once others have made room.
It makes sense, and it is the right time, for the above leaders to make way.

Messing With The Press

THERE is a disturbing new trend in town. Journalists, already registered and accredited by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, are forced to get additional licensing for access to almost every event.

It’s one communication that Namibian journalists don’t want to get of late: a notice for accreditation. But that’s happening increasingly - almost on a fortnightly basis.
What those who do it don’t know is that it is illegal to demand accreditation to conferences. There is no law permitting the authorities to demand that journalists have those unnecessary cards which pile up on their desks every week.
Not only are the cards unnecessary because the journalists are already accredited with the ICT ministry, but also because it is such a hassle to get them.
Government argues that the registration and accreditation of journalists is undertaken to ‘empower’ them. It means they can access certain places such as State House with reasonable ease.
However, it is of no help when they have to re-do the process with the visit of every Head of State, Prime Minister, Minister or other foreign dignitary as well as almost every other local conference where they receive ham-handed treatment by organisers or those employed to facilitate the process.
Shouldn’t we embrace media coverage? If so, don’t curb it by making it difficult for journalists to have access to information.
In any case, the next morning, all those who made it such a mission for journalists to cover their events, still buy newspapers on their way to the offices to read about themselves or sit patiently in front of television each evening hoping to see coverage of these functions. They seek fame like bees seek honey but will not grant those who will afford them such a chance easy access to information.
I tend to think that such people have political agendas that appear to be media headline driven while they are hyper security-conscious. For what reasons, I don’t know, because the closest a journalist has got to attacking a leader in the recent past was by throwing a shoe at George W Bush!
In most cases the accreditation process is so disorganised that the event starts or is over before the accreditation is finalised.
This because of faulty machinery, bad planning and unnecessarily tight security contributing to reporters struggling to secure their accreditation for admittance to such venues.
Personally, I have witnessed instances where several accreditation forms were submitted by people who were not even journalists! We call them spies or spooks.
I have no grudges if journalists are asked to get accreditation for a visiting Head of State or other Very Important Person (VIP) as our Government, like others the world over, is probably worried about terrorists or foreign intelligence operatives infiltrating such venues.
But there have been cases where even intelligence personnel circumvent security checks by supplying details of journalists or pretended to be working for certain institutions such as The Namibian and got away with the cards.
So why not use the already existing media cards? These are checked over time by the Ministry of Information and since we are a small population with an equally small group of scribes, almost everyone knowing the other. In any case, even the intelligence already have the details of most (controversial) journalists!
Judging from the amount of accreditation going on in the country, I have started wondering whether someone is not getting a kickback for giving out the job to a certain company.. Or who is making money from printing the cards which no one even looks at once conferences start?
The media, like any other profession, should abide by the laws of this country but we have the right to defend our turf when something illegal is imposed upon us and licensing is one of them.
As it is now, the accreditation process is just time-consuming, negatively affects production and deadlines and is just an outright waste of public funds.
Let's do away with it.

Of Rights And HIV Status

BENEFICIARIES of Lironga Eparu – Namibia’s biggest organisation of people living with HIV and AIDS – are struggling to make ends meet after funding was withdrawn due to alleged mismanagement while those who took the decision are guilty of the same practice but continue to live in luxury.

I was touched this week to read about the plight of people who used to benefit from Lironga Eparu (meaning ‘Learn to Survive’) but can no longer take their antiretrovirals because they go hungry.
These are the same 45 000-odd people who visit a health centre and wait almost a whole day for treatment as they must deal with an inconsistent primary healthcare system. They continue to face discrimination from relatives just because they decided to come out publicly about their status and daily face inequity in the society.
At the centre of everything is the fact that some in Lironga Eparu were accused of corruption and mismanagement.
Among others, it was alleged that the top management of the organisation earned “outrageous” salaries. The top three reportedly collected N$37 000, N$25 000 and N$18 000 a month. That is N$80 000 in total.
The Lironga Eparu board claimed that the withdrawal of Global Fund support was the result of personal grudges against its executive director, Emma Tuahepa-Kamapoha, and not necessarily mismanagement.
Earlier this year Moses Ikanga, the organisation’s board chairperson, said they were instructed to review the management structure, but that it has allegedly emerged that there was in fact a vendetta against Tuahepa-Kamapoha.
I have no reason not to believe Ikanga and it is a pity that we seem to have turned our backs on an organisation started by HIV-positive people. It feels like we have turned our backs on universal access to HIV treatment at this vital time when Namibia was and is seen as a model for access to HIV drugs in the world.
For me, the withdrawal of funding to Lironga Eparu means we have two parallel systems according to which we not only judge but also run the health system in Namibia. Unfortunately it is not only limited to health but is also seen to be taking place in other sectors.
Six months after Lironga Eparu leadership was accused of mismanagement reports emerged about a gravy train in the Global Fund Project Management Unit.
According to preliminary findings of a salary survey, the PMU’s operations manager earns N$105 116 while the head of finance in the same unit collects N$78 488. That is almost the same amount as the combined salary of the top three at Lironga Eparu.
The reason for the high salaries, we are told, is that the PMU staff wages were not part of the Global Fund grant negotiations with Namibia.
But it is morally wrong to withdraw funding to an organisation like Lironga Eparu and accuse them of mismanagement while nothing is basically done against those who are being paid even more money.
And why should Lironga Eparu pay peanuts for salaries just because those heading it are HIV positive?
I have always argued that HIV is not a death sentence.
A recent study by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS, and Canada’s University of British Columbia, has provided proof of this during the first of its kind research in Africa.
The study which focused on patients receiving therapy found that, by receiving antiretroviral treatment, a patient can expect to live a near normal life. But, crucially, the results applied only to people who had a healthy lifestyle and used their medication as prescribed.
Healthy lifestyle means, among others, eating before taking the medicine.
So taking away important funding to organisations such as to Lironga Eparu makes one wonder whether those who take such decisions actually go to hospitals or homes in Katutura, Tseiblaagte, Epako etc and see the almost lifeless bodies of our brothers and sisters fighting to breathe or do they remain in their air-conditioned offices and make such decisions? Do they have a clue about the impact of such decisions?
I am not saying that we should ignore corruption. Not at all.
But should government close down GIPF or the SSC because millions were mismanaged?
Why should the CEO of the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund earn around N$100 000 for managing and passing on Government (read ‘donor’) money while it is seen as wrong for Emma Tuahepa-Kamapoha – the poster girl of HIV in Namibia – to earn around N$37 000?
If one is (morally) wrong, all should be treated the same.
The Namibian Government has demonstrated commitment to meeting the treatment and prevention targets.
It would be a great pity if such political commitment to tackle HIV was undermined by events such as what is happening at Lironga Eparu.

Leave National Security Out Of It

‘TWO wrongs don’t make a right’, my colleague for the past 18-plus years, Jean Sutherland, always reminds us. It is wrong for Police Inspector General Sebastian Ndeitunga to declare the hidden cameras at the seal colony ‘a national threat’.

Ndeitunga drove almost 400 kilometres to the coast last week to hold a media briefing where he declared that the planting of cameras to film the culling of seals “was a threat to the sovereignty of the country”.
“If they managed to hide the cameras there, what stops them from putting a camera in a military base, at State House or near a Police station?” he was quoted as saying.
Come on General! You should and do know better than that.
As you rightly admitted the place was unguarded at night and anyone could go in to set up cameras. I don’t believe that part needed a sophisticated operation!
Now the Police are on alert and will guard the place at night!
There are more serious criminal activities going on. Undercover Police can, for instance, be deployed in areas known for attacks on citizens instead of them being fruitlessly deployed to freeze next to the sea at night, waiting for people who now know they should not enter that area.
By the way, Police and intelligence were tipped off about the Caprivi attack by newspaper reports, yet did not act quickly enough. And that was a national threat.
Ndeitunga missed the point big time. His first question should have been why people had set up the cameras in the first place.
His reaction should preferably have been to address the issue of access to the place and consequent free filming of the culling.
What is there to hide? Why do we not open up the place? Particularly since we justify the cull.
If the culling is done the right way and Namibia is the transparent country we are led to believe, it is the journalists and those with interest in the matter that you need to convert first.
The more we keep the curious people away, the more we create inquisitiveness and suspicion and drive them to install hidden cameras.
As it is now, a simple issue like seal culling is attracting the world’s attention. We have other important issues which could also attract such high level of interest.
Yup, that’s what it is. You are taking a country with truckloads of issues, finding the one it doesn’t have, and turning it into an issue.
Not that I agree with the campaigns of those who oppose seal culling in Namibia.
I have come across many activists who devote zillions of hours on causes such as animal rights protection and they do it in a manner which basically forces respect from governments.
But instead of dealing with the concerns of those who oppose the culling and educating others on the process followed to kill the seals, Ndeitunga has taken the route of a trick we have come to know from politicians because it’s easier to talk about national sovereignty than it is to deal with the mundane subjects of that same issue: transparency, access to information, openness and honesty.
Yes, the Constitution commits the Government to the “... maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes and biological diversity of Namibia and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future ...”
The Ministry of Fisheries thus claims culling of the seals falls within the ambit of sustainable utilisation.
Others perhaps feel that culling is a source of revenue through the sale of the seal penises to countries in the Far East. The penises are dried, shaved, sprinkled with herbs and sold as aphrodisiacs. Apparently they fetch as much as N$7 000 a pound but there are questions over whether Government actually benefits from the sales.
Be that it may be, regarding the seal cull filming as a threat to the country’s safety is going overboard.
The Government or the Ministry of Fisheries have forced those who planted the cameras to the extreme.
In the past The Namibian applied for permission to go into the area but was denied access and told that no filming would be permitted during the harvesting of seals.
“If the Government decides for the coverage by the media, such a project will be awarded to State media institutions of which terms and conditions will be drafted and agreed upon in writing,” was the response of then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Fisheries, Frans Tsheehama.
So far the Government cannot quote any clause of the Marine Resources Act of 2000 governing media coverage of marine areas to justify the ban from the area.
It is this type of attitude which force others to resort to illegal activities such as filming with hidden cameras. But Ndeitunga’s response in calling it a national threat was equally wrong.
Two wrongs do not make a right!

Team Namibia: What Type Of Players Do We Need?

SWAPO has banned a public debate on the succession issue but discussions over who should take over from President Hifikepunye Pohamba continue in public places such as football pitches, bars and shebeens, shopping malls and mahangu fields.

It is the way it should be!
We cannot allow the party, undoubtedly the main political grouping in the country, to keep the debate away from non-members. There is a likelihood that the elected leader will be the person to steer the country's boat for five years and decisions taken by such a person will affect us all and not only Swapo members.
It is against such background that I have decided to throw in my ten cents' worth by looking at collective (team) leadership for the next five years.
I suggest that, instead of looking at individuals, aka Hage Geingob, Marco Hausiku, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, Jerry Ekandjo, Utoni Nujoma or even Nahas Angula who has declared his intentions to retire, we look at the kind of team Swapo needs to re-energise itself and which will inspire Namibians.
In any case, and whatever people might think of former President Sam Nujoma's leadership style, he did have a team, although it included some questionable characters.
Nujoma was surrounded by the likes of Geingob as first Prime Minister, the calming influence of Pohamba and the late Hendrik Witbooi but also fiery ones like another departed comrade, Moses //Garoeb, while he even brought in someone like Otto Herrigel in the beginning to take care of the country's finances.
He would use someone like Pohamba to talk nicely to the white community but when things were getting tough, motor-mouth activist //Garoeb would go in to shout, threaten and make noise. That was when Nujoma chose to stay away only later to step in as a peacemaker!
I am not saying that Nujoma's team was brilliant. At times some characters in his team could best be described as political gangsters or their performances were an epic lesson in political buffoonery.
But there was still a sense of a team whose aim was, especially at the beginning, to create an environment of peace through national reconciliation, democracy and tranquility, as Nujoma would selectively point out from time to time.
Once Nujoma was about to move out, the team started falling apart and some, like Hidipo Hamutenya and Jesaya Nyamu, resigned to form their own political party. They claimed victimisation and lack of democracy within the party.
Swapo needs to think carefully about what it wants for the country now.
Do we want a team with extreme business skills and economic interest at heart; traditionalists who will only pander to the whims of the ruling party, or a group who will blend economic development of the country with what the majority of the voters wish for.
Do we want Hage Geingob, of late seen taking huge business delegations (including some questionable characters) on foreign trips, with the likes of Sven Thieme and Haddis Tilahun (both complete outsiders vis-a-vis Swapo leadership or Iivula-Ithana alongside Joseph Diescho, Boniface Mutumba and John Walters (to mention a few) or Abraham Iyambo leading Richard Kamwi, Saara Kugongelwa-Amadhila and Tom Alweendo. The last group are already in Cabinet but tend not to be associated with camps. They are mainly seen as go-getters.
In South Africa, Jacob Zuma came up with a new team and it seems to be working, albeit still with some minor problems.
What Namibia needs is a group of hardworking, prosperous and shrewd people (team) who love the country and its people. They should be able to inspire Namibians and re-energise Swapo, but not be seen as apparatchiks.
I think of a team with like-minded people. Currently we have a few sharp minds but they seem to operate in isolation.
There are bound to be squabbles and divisions if the Swapo traditionalists start thinking along those lines and I might be accused of promoting cliques or camps. I am not for playground politics of the most immature sort!
I just want Swapo to think about whether a debate around a team will not be appropriate at this moment.
The ball is in the party's court.

Hey Bra, We Are Failing Our Youth

“HEY, Bra Gazza... It’s me Sam Nujoma. Your number one outie ...,” a casual former President Sam Nujoma says in township slang in a rap and kwaito CD released by a Swapo company prior to the 2004 presidential and national election.

At that stage, no one expected Nujoma (even in our wildest dreams) to feature in a rap and kwaito CD but here the normally very serious politician was apparently chatting to one of the country’s most popular musicians.
Swapo had gone all-out to get votes of the youth.
Other political parties also bent over backwards to win the souls of the youth, especially during the 2009 elections when the motto of almost everyone had something to do with born-frees.
It seems politicians go all out to get whatever they want. And they have ways to mingle with businesspeople because they know that funding will come their way if and when they want it.
That is why I was not surprised to see our Founding Father sandwiched between two Brazilian samba dancers at a ceremony to mark the arrival of an oil company from that country in Namibia.
But how I wish politicians would also go to the same lengths for the upliftment of our youth.
I was not a delegate to the education conference and neither did I take time to attend it, I must confess.
But I was hoping that, since organisers spoke about holistic education, they would pause and, even if briefly, discuss what is there for our youth in terms of entertainment and leisure.
We scorn them when they attend rough and excessive parties such as the one recently organised by Gazza and which featured South African multimillionaire Kenny Kunene who is better known as ‘Sushi King’. For those who missed it, Gazza and his SA friends celebrity guests arrived in posh cars and they drank champagne off the semi-naked body of a young woman.
Of course Gazza justified the actions by stating afterwards that it was a business platform and that they looked past the models in bikinis!
But the point is, Gazza and like-minded others (how wrong it might be) are exploiting a niche market that’s there for the taking.
Although we spend so much time pouring scorn on them for attending such parties and other binges, we have failed our children and youth who sometimes need a break from books.
Take a stroll into the city centre or anywhere else in the rest of Namibia on a Saturday afternoon and see for yourself.
Do we have any decent place for the youth to relax? To borrow a term from my daughter: ‘duh’! If your answer is yes, young people will probably tell you to get a life.
I am not talking about a church youth gathering on Friday evening or a matinee disco Saturday afternoon where drug abuse is the order of the day but real entertainment young people will enjoy and which will enrich them emotionally, physically and educationally while with friends.
We had a few activities before like putt-putt in some towns, but they are now gone.
Such absence of entertainment is partly the cause of driving our young people into drug abuse and other wrongdoing while those with money will continue to act in their own interest and increase their power and influence over the youth such as the sushi (champagne) kings.
As for our politicians, from city fathers to national leaders, their bellies are not threatened until the next election when they will come up with some schemes to lure the youth with false promises to the polling booths.
My impression is that we are failing the youth and we shouldn’t be surprised by or condemn many of the things the young people do to entertain themselves.
I just wonder what the future holds for our country.