Is the President reshu ing his Cabinet?

We have very nice legislations that even mandate and empowers H.E. the President to appointment Cabinet Ministers, Governors and Diplomats etc. We have it on good authority that the President has plans to re-shuffle his Cabinet. However, it is inept and virulent to re-shuffle them at this crucial juncture. We uphold and honour President Pohamba’s good corporate ethics and the attempts for inclusiveness.

While I applaud the President for his appointment of Honorable Governor Bernadus Swartbooi, I am baffled by the rumors of his transfer to another region. I think the President had good reasons, why he has decided on him as the most suitable candidate for the Karas, which was claimed to have been excluded from the main economic stream. I reason, Governor Swartbooi was appointed for the credentials that he President saw in him to articulate his intelligence, activism, negotiation skills and his sense of justice to give the region an absolute facelift. He is a cadre that defends and articulates the interest of the communities of the region meaningfully, as a son of the soil who grew-up here.

He knows the needs, expectations and aspirations of the people and can transform them into reality. However, policy implementation is one of the critical areas that impede the overall performance of the government. All political appointees are being given assignments, whether it is based on their leadership qualities, experience and qualifications or not. They need adequate time to carry out their assignments, which are many times jeopardise by bureaucracy and the availability of resources. In the case of the Regional Governors, they were roughly in the office just for one Financial Year and what could they have achieved in that short period of time.

It is worth mentioning that some of these political appointees are serving more than one term of office. They have of course had adequate time to evaluate their performance to take stock of what is happening in their respective offices. In some cases the major capital projects that they have identified would only be implemented during this financial year. Against this background, we entreat the high office to grant the newly appointed Governors at least one full term of office to achieve two or three of their major projects. In my view as direct representatives of the electorate they should be groomed for the Central Committee on the basis of their performance in the regions.

I think the President must stand his ground and not be moved by incessant advises of some elements with hidden agendas for personal gain. This type of subterranean activities could muddle the performances of newly appointed politicians. The point I seek to emphasize is what happened to the coherent reasons on which President Pohamba appointed these Regional Governors, if he has to re shuffle them within a space of one and a half year. I am afraid that Hon. Kazenambo’s invective outburst could have contributed immensely to this move as the time is just not right for the Cabinet re shuffle. I am strongly of the opinion that this exercise should rather b e left solely in the capable hands of the successor.

Last but not least, it goes without saying that the Government has an enormous task with regard to proportional tribalism in terms of job recruitments, tender allocations, political appointments, economic development and resources equity in general. Very little Is being done or has been done to narrow the gap between the have’s and the have not’s. This is a clear testimony that Namibians are generally a peace-loving society, they would see that something is wrong, but would not necessarily say something immediately or act on it immediately, but are very difficult once they are fed-up with something.

Thus, do we beg the President to give ample time to some of these prolific leaders to translate their visions into virtuous economic growth for the good of our respective regions and the electorate in general? It would be naïve to turn a blind eye on corruption, nepotism, regionalism and tribalism in this country as the presidents was also not very successful in his aversion towards these obscene practices.