After over 40 years in the public service, Cabinet Secretary George Simataa believes the Namibian public service is one, if not the best in Africa.
Thanks to his steadfast faith in the principles of integrity and unwavering commitment towards service delivery, Simataa has led an impactful career.
New Era’s Edward Mumbuu recently sat down with the seasoned bureaucrat to unpack a buffet of issues about his job, some hits and misses over the years, and his advice to those aspiring to join the civil service.
We also took a deep dive to get to know George Simataa beyond public life.
Origins
Simataa is a family man, a passionate farmer and an ordinary Namibian, who made it from humble beginnings in a village called Kabbe in the Zambezi region’s Kabbe constituency, some 60 km from the Botswana border. “That’s [Kabbe] where I stayed most of my life, but was born in the town Katima Mulilo. Since my father was a teacher, we were more town dwellers,” the modest Simataa said. This is where his journey, which would catapult him to the pinnacle of Namibia’s governance architecture, begins.
While he spent most of his childhood days in Kabbe, Zambezi’s regional capital, Katima Mulilo became the next stop for academic reasons.
Simataa was born in Katima Mulilo on 21 February 1960.
Family
Simataa was born into a family of nine.
His father was a polygamist, and Simataa reminisced about equating the number of siblings he has to a rugby team with a chuckle.
“My father had three wives, and I think he took a fourth one. I cannot remember. But in total, we are like a rugby team – 21 with reserves. So, from my mother’s side, we were nine – and from my dad’s, we were seven. We grew up together as a very close nuclear family,” he said.
Growing up, the Simataas also had a tight-knit relationship with the Bernard Mukendwa family.
Mukendwa and Simataa senior were close friends – so much so that the two families did everything together.
His father and Mukendwa got married on the same day in 1953, and witnessed each other’s weddings.
Simataa’s personal story gets even more interesting.
“Their children were all born in the same year.
The third born of the Mukendwa family, Sylvester, became Simataa’s childhood friend. The two were inseparable.
“We went to high school together until he went to exile, which is another story in which we will discuss how he went into exile and how I was left behind. But I remained, and completed my schooling. But Sylvester had been my primary and high school friend,” Simataa narrated.
His other friend was the late Chrispin Kabajani, who later became the education director in the Kunene region.
At home
Simataa epitomises the meaning of bookworm. At home, he spends most of his free time reading and studying.
“Reading is what I do most – doing some research and finding out things. I watch TV and discuss with the family,” he said.
He also tells the New Era crew he is a grill cook, and enjoys eating.
“I love food. My wife cooks well, and we eat. I enjoy red wine, and maybe I should invite you once so I can show you how I braai meat. Braaing is also my specialisation. I cannot cook, but I can braai. Someone else must do the pap, and someone else must do the salad,” he said.
The farmer
Being from the Northern Communal Area, north of the notorious red line, Simataa became a communal farmer moons ago.
“I farm with Brahman cattle. Every three weeks, I go to the farm and look at the animals. We have goats there. It’s not an easy job, but it is an enjoyable one,” he said.
He continued: “When I leave here (office) on Friday, I always have difficulty coming back home to Windhoek because you have this thing here that needs to be fixed. So, yes, I enjoy farming. When I see cattle or hear a calf, it is a very good experience”.
Like most farmers, the drought that has its grip firmly tight on most parts of the country has not spared Simataa.
So far, the government has set aside N$825 million to soften the impact of drought on Namibians and their livelihoods.
Some quarters of society, including regional governors and farmers’ unions, have called on the government to go further by declaring a state of emergency due to the drought.
The Cabinet secretary is alive to this reality.
“I share the same worries with farmers. First, from the point of view of rain, that is not coming the way it used to in the past. It has been very difficult – even for me, who has had a job for the past few years, particularly two years ago, and now my farm is dry,” he said.
Simataa continued: “I see areas of Otjiwarongo, Otavi and Tsumeb, where I drive through, that are traditionally rainy places. It is not as good as it is supposed to be”.
The good news is, as chairman of the Office of the Prime Minister’s disaster risk management committee, “I already know that there is a problem in our country, and we need to prepare how we can help, particularly the communal farmers. If the situation in Otjiwarongo and Otavi is as bad as I see it, it will be worse in areas of Aminius and in areas of Otjinene, where rain is bad. So, it worries me”.
For Simataa, the importance of agriculture cannot be overstated.
“Agriculture is the key to feeding the nation. It is the key to creating employment. At my level, I have 10 people who work for me. You can imagine a place like Uvhunguvhungu, Shidokongoro. If they were in full production, how many people could they employ?
“But in the absence of good agricultural activities, which are enhanced by rain, you have problems with food security – and also with the employment of people. So, rain and the rain patterns we’re now getting in are very worrying,” he said.
Public figure
Simataa has been the secretary to the Cabinet since 24 March 2015.
In the civil service, Simataa has come full circle.
Before he was appointed secretary to Cabinet by the late president Hage Geingob, Simataa was a permanent secretary of the ministries of works and transport, as well as labour and social welfare.
His career in the public service spans 44 years. He held several non-managerial positions from 1979 to 1993, and became the deputy director for Namibia’s electoral commission in 1994.
He then became the senior special assistant (director) to Namibia’s first prime minister, Geingob, in 1995.
Simataa also had a stint as director for human resource (HR) management and then as undersecretary of the Department of Public Service Management in the office of the prime minister before moving to the Social Security Commission as general manager for human resources in 2005.
Since 1995, George has performed critical HR roles, covering full spectrum duties in both a strategic and hands-on capacity.
As undersecretary for public service management in the Office of the Prime Minister, he helped to enhance functional performance through appropriate advice to permanent secretaries and accounting officers of various government offices, ministries and agencies, as well as the facilitation of robust and integrated people management tools and processes.
What is more, Simataa has performed several HR assignments, including the human resources audit of the Social Security Commission at the request of the Presidential Commission of Enquiry in 2002.
He also taught at the University of Namibia on a part-time basis in the areas of human resources and public management.
He was appointed by former president Hifikepunye Pohamba from 2006 until 2015 to a commission that investigates and considers matters relating to the remuneration, benefits and other conditions of service of political office bearers.
He has also given public lectures in human resources, including facilitating strategic planning sessions, both at home and abroad.
Awards
Simataa is a recipient of numerous awards, including the vice chancellor’s medal as the best student of master’s studies in the Faculty of Economics and Management Science at the University of Namibia in 1998, and as the best non-final year student in the same faculty at the same university in 1990.
Back in 1993, he was awarded a United Nations Development Programme scholarship to study a three-month programme in regional development and planning in Nagoya, Japan.
He also participated in and won an essay competition on ‘Individual Freedom and Liberties’, sponsored by the American Cultural Centre in 1991.
On the academic front, Simataa holds a Diploma in Public Administration from the University of Zululand (South Africa), obtained in 1983; a Bachelor of Administration Degree from the University of Namibia, obtained in 1991, as well as an Honours Degree in Public Administration from the University of South Africa (UNISA), obtained in 1994.
He also holds a master’s degree in public administration, completed at the University of Namibia in 1998.
He obtained a PhD degree in management from South Africa’s Rhodes University in 2017.
We also put a series of questions to Simataa to hear from the horse’s mouth. The full interview can be found on the various New Era online platforms [YouTube and Facebook].
Here is a condensed version of that interview:
New Era (NE): Your journey in the public service spans over 40 years now. It’s quite an extensive journey, if one looks at it – and it’s very difficult to pinpoint some of your successes. From where you sit, what are some of your major achievements that you can point to?
George Simataa (GS): I started working for the government service of Namibia [South West Africa] on 1 December 1979. That is a long time – about 44 years now. If you stretch your memory for 44 years, it’s not easy. It is not easy to summarise now, but if I can just quickly say, I worked all over. My first assignment after independence was in Omaheke, where I was stationed as a chief control officer. If you go to Gobabis today, you will see 50 houses that were built by the Dutch government. Brave Tjizera and I, who was the regional commissioner of Omaheke at the time, negotiated that agreement. Those houses are there, and today is one of the achievements I can count on. We did a lot of other built-together houses. Then I moved to Oshakati. It was also a very difficult place, which, of course, is a much bigger area. At that time, we didn’t have all 14 regions, but Oshakati was regarded as one area, which is what you call today the ‘Four O Regions’, which was around 1993.
Again, we had significant improvements in many things. We continued with the Build Together programmes. Many people who were not housed became housed. Ongwediva, which was a village, then became a town because of the activities of the ministry of local government, of which I was part.
Then I came back to Windhoek as deputy director of elections, moving into very serious high tides. That was in 1994. That’s when we’re doing the integration of Walvis Bay into Namibia. Professor Gerhard Tötemeyer, may his soul rest in peace, allowed me to conduct elections. That was a milestone, a very peaceful election, and it was my first assignment of that nature. I knew that this was a heavy responsibility that [founding] president Sam Nujoma had given me because the appointment to be a returning officer was done by the president on the recommendation of the director of elections. I knew that this was where I should make it or break it. God willing, we delivered successful elections.
Then I moved to the Office of the Prime Minister, and I’m told that [then] prime minister [Hage] Geingob saw me during the 1994 elections doing a good job, and that’s why he invited me to join him. I think, when I came to join the prime minister, that was when the whole machinery of government started. The laws that you see today – the Public Service Act and the Anti-Corruption Act – are so many of the enabling legislations, as we heard during the funeral of president Geingob.
We were assisting him in bringing together the research papers and the things that were needed. I then moved to the department of public service management, which is a department under the Prime Minister’s Office, and we call that department the engine room of the public service because that’s where we write policies, the staff rules of government.
You’ll see from 1998 or 1997 that many of the staff rules in this country were under my signature as undersecretary at that time. We had serious negotiations with the trade unions at that time, maintaining peace in the absence of industrial violence, which we prevented by negotiating peacefully with the unions. The unions were not very peaceful during those years, and it was not an easy thing to accept our offers, but we did so.
So, when you talk about achievements, there are quite a lot of them, and that is why I decided to write a book about my life journey in public service to spell out to the people what the issues are.
Many people perceive the public service as a useless employer. But I want to bring to the attention of the readers that public service is a very important employer in the world or any country.
It enables civil society. It enables the private sector to do what is supposed to be done. There are many things that the private sector cannot do out there that can only be done by the public sector.
NE: Do you have any political ambitions, perhaps?
GS: No. My current contract as a Secretary to the Cabinet ends on 20 March 2025. However, should the new administration that would take over on 21 March 2025 see me as worthy to assist, I would be available to offer my services to the government.