A recent article about an exchange between the President and the opposition leader caused such annoyance in some quarters of Namibia.
This caused several young people to write an article entitled ‘PDM, Venaani on the wrong side of history’, in New Era, Friday 28 April 2023, in various newspapers to denounce what they saw as the opposition leader’s seemingly unacceptable comments to the President’s speech in Grootfontein. What is interesting for a cursory observer is that these young people – many of whom are often silent about important issues – saw it fit to speak out about issues that were disturbing to them about the conduct of Venaani.
It was wonderful to see that young people in positions of power and influence are around and active in issues that matter. Most of the current political discourse in Namibia is often driven by elders, except for the few vocal young members of the opposition. The young people in the ruling party and parliament are not as vocal in articulating their views about national issues. Thus, we should be forgiven for assuming that they have views on pertinent issues in our society.
The recent letter, while it was primarily aimed to denigrate the comments by the opposition, gives us hope that the young people in the parliament (and those in the regions), particularly those in the ruling party have a role to play in the discussions about important issues that affect the voters.
It will equally be appropriate for those who attacked the opposition leader about historical issues to use the same energy to address a couple of pertinent issues that affect our society and country because most of them have been conspicuous in their absence (and silence) when important issues are raised.
Similarly, these young people ought to share their opinions with the nation about current issues, so that we can understand their thinking and where they stand today. With that in mind, I would like to ask the writers of the opinion piece, to share their thoughts about the following:
Sanitation crisis
Recent newspaper reports highlighted the plight of our people who live in squalor in the various informal settlements including DRC (Swakopmund), Ombili and Okahandja Park (Windhoek), Vyf Rand (Okahandja), and many others. Many of these people are fellow Namibians and voters who live below the poverty line and inhumane situations. These people have no proper sanitation facilities and defecate in the most disgraceful manner. They have lived in these settlements for five, 10, and 20 years, with our government doing nothing, but giving empty promises. Before independence, generally, there were hardly any informal settlements, and most towns and villages had toilets in their backyards, or a few cases – Otavi comes to mind – the communal toilets were at the end of the road. If even the racist South African government recognises the importance of dignity that is inherent in having a toilet, what has stopped our government after 33 years to provide a decent sanitation facility to its people?
Education
In the same article, we were told about how our government is addressing the mess caused by DTA/PDM and the South African regime in education. When I was growing up under that same apartheid government, I never paid for primary education and secondary education. I cannot ever remember paying for pencils, pens, books, and textbooks. Every year in January, all the books, textbooks pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, and erasers were delivered to the schools, two or three days after the start of the academic year. A few years, when I visited schools in the south, I found that the materials required by students in January were being delivered on April 1st, when those schools started classes on 13-14 January of the same year. My question is: if the evil South African regime could provide free education to a black Namibian child in the early 1970s, and 80s, why are our grandchildren struggling without any pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, or lack of classrooms in the post-apartheid Namibia under our own rule, especially when our leaders had 33 years to address these issues? Why are children still being taught under trees?
Healthcare
It is an open secret that our healthcare system is in the ICU. The recent medical supplies tender debacle shows that even simple procurement of basic medical and pharmaceutical products has become very difficult while we allow connected individuals to siphon hard-earned taxpayer money through illicit deals. Today, many medical facilities run out of medicines and other supplies, not because Namibia does not have money to pay, but because for years middlemen and women used their connections to steal from ordinary people. When it comes to healthcare, what middlemen want has become more important, and those tasked with the responsibility to provide for our medical needs, turn a blind eye. What do the young people who are vocal about Venaani’s opinions on history have to say and what do they intend to do about the shambles in our healthcare sector?
Tribalism
The writers of the article pointed out that those who led DTA/PDM were tribal leaders, who were puppets collaborators. The insinuation here is that new Namibia is an inclusive, non-tribal society, where all are part of the Namibian house. For years the slogan “One Namibia, One Nation”, was used to say that we are a united nation. That cannot be further from the truth. Today, Namibians are not what we remember about the old Southwest Africa in the 1970s and 80s, where comrades worked as a diverse team alongside Nanso to help provide scholarships and support various projects to uplift the Namibian people. The diverse team of young people during the early days of Nanso in the 80s was certainly a place where people from different tribes worked together as a team. While they were aware of their tribal or cultural differences, the diversity was a strength and not a curse that it is today.
The Namibia of today is a far cry from the team of young and old who worked together for the common good irrespective of which tribe they came from. Can the authors of the letter tell us, why it is that every opportunity that is afforded to Namibians young and old today is tribally divisive, whether those are scholarships, tenders, jobs at government and SOE or appointments to international bodies?
As people who are vocal about the historic events, I challenge the young people in and outside the parliament to debate the current bread and butter issues and tell us how they intend to use the same vigour and energy they used to attack Venaani, to take on and solve the above issues. It is people like themselves that should solve the mess that some of our leaders left us with. Of course, they can choose to remain silent about these issues which are not the easiest to address.
If we can talk about what we disliked about the past, it should not be that difficult to talk about what we dislike about the present and find ways to bring about what we like about today’s Namibia. Today Namibia should be a place where all children are given equal opportunity, where all Namibians hold hands, and where people of the south, east and west are regarded as equal to those from the north, where we mean it when we say we care about each other, where resources are not sold to the highest foreign bidder, but reserved to serve the needs of Namibians before anyone else. This Namibia is possible, if people from regions without resources stop being afraid of those with resources and allow mutually beneficial arrangements where the north and south work together successfully in harmony and friendliness, not in fear and hostility. That is the Namibia that we were promised, that is the Namibia we want, that is the Namibia that is possible if we hold hands.
*Seth !Nowaseb is a teacher. He is passionate about seeing Namibians use all their human resources to build an equitable nation, where tribal discrimination like racism is outlawed, and where every community controls its resources and affairs. He can be contacted at: spnowaseb@yahoo.com