THE dark clouds that resulted in the presidential inauguration and Independence Day celebration moving indoors at the last minute could be a long-lasting feature of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s presidency.
A decade-long debilitating drought ended with a deluge that disrupted the planned open-air inauguration, shattered bridges along the main artery to South Africa, where 70% of Namibia’s commodities come from, and swept away the lives of those who live in makeshift housing structures in riverbeds on the outskirts of cities and towns.
The 72-year-old liberation struggle veteran, diplomat and perennial Cabinet member since the early 1990s will have to pick up a country struggling to wade through the effects of over a decade of drought, deep economic inequality, a sluggish economy, a land and housing crisis, and increasing unease about her party’s inability to improve the lives of ordinary Namibians, many educated but part of record-high youth unemployment numbers.
There’ll also be backlash and pestering for deployment from Swapo comrades who would have lost cushy positions and others who would question the direction that her choices signal. With the backbenches no doubt bursting with disgruntled wannabe Swapo grandees, she would have to keep Parliament on a tight leash for any moves to loosen the Executive’s tight grip on the Legislature.
Revealing her new Cabinet on Saturday, she said her government is tasked to enhance food security, improve the health of the people, deliver affordable housing and quality education and create job opportunities for thousands of unemployed Namibians.
This crisis has killed any hopes of even the most fleeting of honeymoon periods.
She also takes over as president of a ruling party that is performing just above the margins of failure in elections as November’s regional and local elections loom large. It is also her responsibility as party leader to ensure that the party is back on its feet for the 2029 election. Swapo lost 12 seats in November 2024’s National Assembly election, stumbling to 51 of the 96 elected seats. The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) won 20 seats and is the new official opposition.
Nandi-Ndaitwah won 57% of the vote in chaotic elections that were challenged in court.
DECLINE
The seasoned politician “is inheriting a country in decline,” said Namibian Sun editor Toivo Ndjebela.
He argues that schools are worse today than they were in the 1990s and points to stationery being provided to students on the first day of school then. The responsibility of stationery and almost all other costs has been pushed onto the parents. Many schools cannot even afford toilet paper today.
“Under the political lie that is free education, parents actually spend more on schooling,” shouted the veteran journalist and TV presenter.
She is inheriting a declining country where joblessness today is higher than it was 10 years ago, and as much as the government has spent billions on brand new ministerial headquarters in recent years, infrastructure needs massive investment.
Urgent intervention is needed to realise jobs for Namibia’s unemployed youth because the spillover effects from job insecurity can be felt in various socio-economic aspects of life, such as access to quality health services, food security, housing and sanitation.
The new president seems to be aware of the challenges, as she asserted during her inauguration speech that education and training will continue to be a priority to ensure that the country develops the technical and managerial skills and work ethic required in the labour market.
“We will therefore promote continuous improvement of our education system from pre-primary, primary, secondary, tertiary as well as vocational levels,” said Namibia’s first female president during her inauguration on Friday.
The Namibian economy is showing signs of recovering to above its pre-Covid levels, but many sectors, including manufacturing and construction, are still struggling. The early phase of this recovery has begun maturing, and there is a distinct improvement in general optimism over the last 18 months.
The fiscal position has also improved drastically over the last few years – with the improvements in revenue collections owing to the establishment of the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA), economic growth, better commodity prices, and the brief uptick in SACU revenues. The general outlook remains positive, especially given the backdrop of the past decade and the prospects around hydrocarbons, asserts Robert McGregor, head of research at Cirrus Capital.
Namibia spends around 20% of its budget on education. However, schools are struggling because roughly 35% of Namibia’s budget goes to the public sector wage bill. In recent years, talk of reducing the size of the civil service has not been met with action. In fact, former finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi has altogether stopped talking about it.
The army, police and correctional services have in recent years recruited thousands in what seemed like attempts to reduce skyrocketing unemployment numbers instead.
“What Namibians, and particularly young people, want to hear and see in practice is how their economic well-being is being prioritised by the incoming administration,” said Rakkel Andreas, a local political analyst.
Esther Mbathera, editor of the Windhoek Observer online publication, believes addressing wealth redistribution to narrow the gap between rich and poor should be the new administration’s preoccupation. She said the new president must move beyond rhetoric and outline how redistribution will be made in a just and sustainable way.
And instead of just empowering the politically connected few, this administration should also ensure that reforms benefit marginalised communities.
“During her first press conference following her election, she acknowledged these issues and promised a ‘radical shift’ in addressing poverty and unemployment. This commitment is encouraging, but there is a need for a clearer articulation of how it will be led through policies and immediate action,” said Mbathera.
“Quite simply, we need jobs to be created,” insisted McGregor.
He suggested that the government’s focus should include a revitalisation of its core functions and what gaps can be better filled by the private sector. Job creation is a clear answer to this question.
A campaign promise that Swapo has failed for three decades. No wonder the unemployment figures were deemed too sensitive to release as part of the full census report in late 2024 as the election campaign season reached fever pitch.
The country, with a population of about 3.3 million people, has one of the highest official unemployment levels in the world, standing at 36.9% in 2023, from 33.4% in 2018, according to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA). However, the NSA excluded discouraged workers, making the actual number of people without jobs around 54%.
With such a young population, 71% under 35, a growing number of youth enter the labour force every year, with many unable to find gainful employment.
None of Namibia’s challenges can be addressed without a marked increase in employment.
“This should be a priority for the government – but not simply by hiring more workers or spending on new buildings. McGregor’s concern is that “we will take the wrong approach” in looking to address the most pressing of challenges.
He said the last 10-15 years of the government’s attempts to get directly involved in the economy and dictate to the private sector what it should do have backfired and calls instead for the private sector to be allowed to grow and create jobs.
He offers the country’s housing crisis as a clear example of state-led solutions having little to show for this after a decade.
The government’s N$45 billion mass housing project, through which 185 000 houses were supposed to be built between 2014 and 2030 at a cost of N$45 billion, was stopped in 2017 because of a slow pace of delivery and rampant corruption.
By 2023, only around 4 000 houses were complete.
To compound the crisis, the National Housing Enterprise (NHE). The state-funded company that has provided just over 21 000 houses countrywide since its inception in 1993 boasted about constructing 506 houses during the 2023/24 financial year.
Namibia needs over 300 000 houses, while the company’s own waiting list has over 120 000 people.
McGregor said Namibia needs fewer new ministerial headquarters and more hospitals, transport infrastructure, solutions to water supply, and rehabilitation/maintenance of existing infrastructure like schools and hospitals.
“A more proactive, less direct approach is needed – ensuring that the provision of serviced land is affordable with fewer middlemen and less bureaucracy, and a revamp of building regulations. The danger is that the government will again see itself as the solution to all problems, even though there is no quick and overnight solution, something which was tried in the past and the results of which we have been paying for over the past decade,” said McGregor.
Ndjebela warned about cronyism that fuels inefficiency.
MAKING THE CONNECTION
“We have become a country of connections. Cronyism is exactly why the Swapo party is on the decline.
“People with little to no regard for people, for the well-being of our society, rush to Swapo. These people know that as long as you have a sticker of that ‘mannetjie’ on the back of my SUV or attach that flag to my trailer, the visibility of that is important in being recognised for future opportunities.
But in a new focus on the ruling party’s manifesto, Nandi-Ndaitwah’s team has developed an implementation plan, which will be the blueprint of the new government. They hope the implementation plan will be a catalyst for economic growth and job creation through economic diversification while at the same time prioritising education and youth empowerment investment.
Quoting revered anti-colonialist Julius Nyerere in her inauguration speech, Nandi-Ndaitwah said corruption should be treated as treason.
Having run on an anti-corruption and efficiency ticket, she announced a much smaller Cabinet than her predecessors. Her 14 ministries and seven deputies are an eclectic selection of old hands, youthful wildcards and some technocrats.
The new president combined ministries and functions to improve coordination and focus on implementing Swapo’s election manifesto’s principles of “unity in diversity; natural resources beneficiation and youth empowerment for sustainable development”.
Her office takes control of the emerging oil and gas sector while combining the industrialisation and mines ministries. Hitching her job creation plans on the beneficiation of mining products and the creative industry, her first 100 days in office will be pivotal in addressing the 250 000 jobs Nandi-Ndaitwah promised during her presidential campaign. Surprisingly, there is no mention of the previous administration’s primary preoccupation, green hydrogen, in the new president’s statements so far.
