By Nahor //Gowaseb
I want to offer my free advice and opinion, in my personal capacity, in various areas.
From the onset, I must admit and emphasize that these are my personal opinions.
Subject : NAC proposed construction of the new airport. I believe that those who constructed this airport chose to do it far away from the Windhoek City with one main idea in mind, and that is make provision for the future expansion.
As a qualified Senior Air Traffic Controller and having worked at the Hosea Kutako and Eros airports for many years, I would suggest that we simply expand the airport because neither the aircraft movements nor size of air travelers warrant a new airport at all.
Clustering of many airports in close proximity to each other is a safety hazard and the Government having recently just installed an expensive new radar system at this airport makes it even more compelling to simply upgrade the current airport and extend the runways.
On 50/50
I personally see no significant difficulty with these systems. Say, 72 Members of Parliament are elected, all you need is 36 males and 36 females competing equally.
The man with the highest number, for instance, takes first spot and followed by the woman with the highest number and they “Zebra” each other.
Where there is a tie between say, man and woman having equal votes, surely we just check the preceding candidate above who had no tie and if he is a man, for instance, the woman will take next spot and man thereafter.
Therefore, even if there are equal votes between a man and woman, the system works out perfectly. For example, after the election the outcome of votes are as follows: Maria 75, Anna 80, Charles 63,Petrus 65, Martha 60 and Imms 60. With 50/50 gender, it will be 1. Anna, 2. Petrus, 3. Maria, 4. Charles, 5.
Martha and 6. Imms. Therefore, in these scenario women make way for men but equally men will also make way for women.
On the Vice Presidency, I think LRDC can consider the abolishment of the Prime Minister and D/PM posts and replace it with Vice President and D/VP.
Usually, ruling party’s VP will be the most likely candidate for the Country’s VP.
The SG can be considered for the Minister Without Portfolio or even for the Deputy Vice Presidency because he/she is required at Cabinet meetings to assist with co-ordination and the implementation of the Government Policies, which originates from the Ruling Party’s Election Manifesto (of which SG is the main person behind it as Chief Party Administrator). In most countries, PM appoints Cabinet Ministers with Ceremonial President.
But in our context, it is the President as elected by the Namibians who carries out that function.
So it means we can shift all the functions of the PM and D/PM to VP and D/VP respectively.
If at Party level there is top three then surely the same can be copied to National level to ensure continuity and extension of the same respect and authority at all levels to these top three.
Protocol and security wise, it will be easy for all involved. There is further no harm to consider Deputy SG for the Deputy Minister without Portfolio. The situation should be tailored to meet our needs on the ground.
These are my personal opinions, my email address ngowaseb@yahoo.com.
Major Nahor //Gowaseb