By Kuvee Kangueehi
1. Swapo Party Congress
The Congress of the ruling party was the single news event that dominated the local media and provided a number of sideshows. Although the three-day congress itself was an anti-climax, the build-up to it was dramatic and saw two motions in parliament, the resignation of party leaders, the formation of a new party and the election of a new party leadership.
– The National Assembly debated two motions, one on ‘respect for elders’ and another on ‘national reconciliation’. The two motions which created interesting debate were strongly linked to the Swapo Party Congress.
The first motion was triggered by a wave of attacks on the former Swapo Party President.
Some people believed that the attack was meant to tarnish the image of Nujoma in order to minimize his influence on the outcome of the congress.
The debate resulted in the well-documented fallout between Minister of Information and Broadcasting Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Deputy Minister of Regional and Local Government Kazenambo Kazenambo.
In the heat of the fallout, the party chief whip Ben Amathila resigned from parliament. The submission by the NSHR to the ICC to investigate Nujoma created a huge debate on National Reconciliation and led to the issue being discussed in the National Assembly.
– With the writing on the wall that Nujoma was going to make a clean sweep at the Congress, party leaders who eyed the presidency but faced defeat decided to jump ship. One of the party stalwarts and former cabinet minister Hidipo Hamutenya resigned from the party. He was followed by some of the people who supported him during his presidential candidate campaign at the Extraordinary Congress in 2004.
– A new party, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) was also finally registered and launched by former Swapo Party Cabinet Minister Jesaya Nyamu. Although the party shows signs of the potential to seriously challenge Swapo Party, it is still early. However, the allegation that it is tied to a tribal base could seriously undermine its growth.
– The congress ensured the peaceful handover of power from the Founding President Sam Nujoma to new President Hifikepunye Pohamba. First Prime Minister Hage Geingob was the ‘comeback kid’. He now occupies the Vice President position after he successfully scooped the position he lost to Hendrik Witbooi almost a decade ago.
2. The Fall of the CoD
The official opposition party gradually dismantled itself during the last couple of months and come next election in 2009, the CoD will struggle to gain a single seat in parliament. The party which promised so much got embroiled in infighting since 2004.
This year, the infighting came into the public domain and this destroyed its image. An extraordinary congress in Keetmanshooop which was expected to revitalize the party proved to be its undoing.
The congress was marred by a walkout led by former CoD vice president Nora Schimming-Chase who strongly contested the outcome of the elections.
The subsequent events included party leaders laying criminal cases against each other, character assassination and a wave of resignations from the party.
A court case set for January 2008 is largely being seen as the last kick of a dying horse and 2008 could become the year we finally say goodbye to CoD.
3. Labour Unrest
By the time the new Labour Bill was passed both by the National Assembly and National Council the country had experienced a number strikes particularly in the mining sector, hospitality industry and retail sectors. The Scorpion Zinc Mine at Rosh Pinah witnessed a two-week long strike while another industrial action at the Windhoek Country Club almost brought activities at one of the biggest hotels to a halt.
The issue around the industrial action was mainly about the job security of casual workers and general working conditions of employees.
In tabling the new labour bill, Parliament literally outlawed labour hire in an attempt to provide job security to many casual workers especially in the retail sector.
The passing of the bill was received with mixed feelings and the Namibia Employers Federation criticized Government claiming that it would lead to poor production.
Another issue which led to labour unrest was the restructuring process at a number of State Owned Enterprises such NHE and the Agricultural Bank. The NUNW strongly objected to these processes and claimed that Government was doing very little to protect people from losing their jobs.
The workers’ union claimed that some of the companies are structured in order for the CEOs to improve their packages.
4. Energy
Following South Africa’s announcement that in future it could no longer guarantee Namibia and other SADC countries electricity, Namibia has stepped up its efforts to secure electricity.
Namibia’s power utility NamPower has signed agreements with Zimbabwe and has invested millions in an ailing power station in that country in the hope that it could guarantee Namibia electricity in future.
With Namibia’s electricity demands and the desire to source electricity from neighbouring countries the only realistic hope for the near future, other means such as the Kudus Gas Project and wind energy are still far from realization.
Namibia could not escape the global fuel price increase and the price of fuel has gone up almost every second and the price of petrol is now more than N$7per liter.
5. State Visits
Namibia hosted a number of presidents during the past year. The most prominent visit was that of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
China being the fastest developing country in the world, his visit to Africa was seen as important and Namibia was one of the eight countries.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, Angola’s Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia also visited Namibia. Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba on his part visited the United States, Angola, South Africa, Malaysia, Germany, France as well Zimbabwe.