National unity, economic development, accountability, doctorates, torrential rain and the absence of vetting have emerged as central themes for NNN’s first week in office.
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s week started on a high as a public holiday on a Friday but rain almost cut Windhoek off from its main artery to South Africa, where 70% of Namibia’s goods come from.
The inauguration was moved to State House from the dilapidated Independence Stadium as last minute mitigation for more torrential rain that would have spoiled meekulu’s doek. The government events organising committee that seem to specialise in schoolboy errors and chaos had “slay queens enjoying front row seats” while drizzled ambassadors had to watch from an adjacent tent on TV. And the rains never really came.
A hallmark of the new administration seem to be late or rescheduled events and while she positively mentioned the media in her first week, President NNN has yet to call for questions from the press and has been quiet about all the controversies around her Cabinet picks. Choosing to ignore questions on the vetting process, among others and using Dr on official documents while she does not have a PhD are cute peculiarities.
Her inaugural speech and other public appearances highlighted the responsibility of leading Namibia and that she’ll remain blinkered in implementing Swapo’s manifesto. She focused her administration’s roadmap on accountability, efficient service delivery, development, unity and liberty.
And ethics…
“Corruption is treason,” she said, echoing the granddaddy of African granddaddies, Julius Nyerere. The inauguration speech widely quoted her predecessors, and Nangolo Mbumba, but no women.
Namibia’s first female president’s Cabinet appointments were much more balanced but had more than just new health minister Dr Esperance Luvindao’s eyelashes aflutter.
Even before the announcement, allegations about members of her envisaged Cabinet’s scandals; including cooking online numbers, buying useless awards, final warnings for billion dollar public fund mismanagement and even rape cases were revealed.
The ‘clean candidate’ revealed a dashboard would track progress on projects and a three-month performance review for her new lean, fresh-faced team.
“No business as usual” was often touted but, intelligence services could be excused for giggling in the face of these pronouncements as vetting for new appointments seems to have been done by a local Sunday school.
It wasn’t just journalists who waited for their inquiries to pass the biltong-making stage at State House, many former VIPs waited in vain for a call from Auasblick as seven new governors were appointed, answering the call for more Damaras in high positions.
Utoni’s exit as MP meant Sam Nujoma Jr got fast tracked from city councillor to Khomas governor so the founding family remains in the national mix.
The new administration also announced new reciprocal visa rules for US, UK and other countries who also see us as questionable arrivals. And before you could say N$106 billion, the budget speech was over, complete with copy and paste errors that the former Khomas governor would have been proud of. And our debt servicing cost outperforms almost every other vote. The week ended with more rain to wash away a decade of drought that has bridges wobbling in tapestries of lush green fields and blooming wildflowers.
