As the nation heads to yet another decisive poll in November, a glance in the rearview mirror provides a glimpse into how Namibia has fared under its three presidencies.
From Founding President Sam Nujoma, who had a mammoth task of uniting a nation fresh from war, to gentle giant Hifikepunye Pohamba, who is credited with stabilising the country’s hard-earned peace and unity, to the towering Hage Geingob whose presidency, despite his demise with little over a year to go, would be marked by his favourite catchphrase of strong institutions, processes and institutions, Namibia has witnessed a mixed bag of presidencies over the past three decades.
Each presidency had its distinct characteristics, hits and misses.
In so doing, experts with an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of Namibian politics, about the three presidents, and the political, economic environment and political circumstances which characterised their tenures, provided their inputs.
The experts also delved into key policies overseen or driven by the presidents or governments [social climate and gains]; their characters as individuals; and how the presidents could resonate with ordinary citizens who catapulted them to the highest office in the land.
Nujoma presidency
For political scientist Rui Tyitende,
Nujoma confronted the most tumultuous climate of Namibia’s political landscape at the dawn of independence in 1990.
He had to lead a country which just emerged from a divisive apartheid regime. Nujoma also had to unite former warring foes.
“More so was the fact that there were warring factions across the political spectrum which were determined to galvanise their respective constituencies for their own nefarious aims. The politics of reconciliation that Nujoma preached seemed to have staved off the imminent threat of political instability or violence,” Tyitende said.
His analysis reverberated through another political commentator, lawyer Natjirikasorua Tjirera, albeit with reservations.
From his microscopic vantage point, there is nothing much to choose from the three leaders.
“They had the same ideological outlook on issues, and were primarily guided by their desire to appease Swapo. Truth be told, Swapo found a functional state in place, and the first President had a smooth sailing into office. The economy of the country has been challenged significantly by corruption in Namibia,” Tjirera said.
He reiterated that “the economy performed best right after independence, and that was because of the functional state that was in place.”
However, like Tyitende, political pundit Ndumba Kamwanyah said a mammoth task lay ahead for Nujoma at independence.
He hastened to say the three leaders had their distinct approaches to leadership, demeanours and strategic functioning in dealing with national questions and structural issues which have confronted the country over the years.
“Although all three made some important strategic choices, overall, Namibia lacks strategic leadership that clearly understands what’s wrong with our society, and how to remedy the situation. Nujoma’s strategic choice is probably the policy of national reconciliation. This was important and needed because he took over when the country just emerged from bitter war and divisions,” Kamwanyah said.
He continued: “The policy of national reconciliation was an important strategic choice. You needed strategic leadership which could bring people together so that they did not revert to divisions or conflict. It’s important to note that although he (Nujoma) was preaching reconciliation, that policy is not written. It is a stated policy. As a result, in some situations, it was used as a threat to silence people who were questioning certain things.
There was thus a culture of silence under Nujoma’s reign”.
“Ministers and members of the public were afraid of him. So, from that perspective, we can say his leadership was from the top to bottom. But the extent to which he understood the policy issue, one cannot say he had a sufficient understanding of policies. He relied heavily on his Cabinet, including the prime minister [Geingob], who was an administrator and a technical person,” he observed.
This, Kamwanyah said, also deterred members of the executive from engaging in corruption. He also credited Nujoma with introducing Namibia’s grand development plan, Vision 2030, on whose bedrock national development plans and Geingob’s christened Harambee Prosperity Plans would later emerge.
Haunted legacy
While Nujoma remains Namibia’s most charismatic leader, according to Tyitende, questions still linger.
“A good number of people still want answers as to what happened to their loved ones during the dark days as people mysteriously disappeared, others being tortured, maimed and killed. That remains a chapter that we will have to open for positive peace to prevail,” he said. What is more, the biggest flaw in Nujoma’s administration was its clandestine acceptance of the jobs-for-comrades call, which came back to haunt the nation, Tjirera charged.
“President Nujoma’s appointment of a Swapo secretary general as minister without portfolio to enable Swapo functionaries to operate at the State’s expense, was
something that was not in line with national interests,” the lawyer said.
Social progression
At the social and economic level, the government had during Nujoma’s era embarked upon numerous reforms and policies to ensure that imbalances of the past were addressed.
“Such policies resulted in a good number of black Namibians entering the formal school system, and tertiary institutions producing black graduates in the pursuit of economic development for the majority. Despite these progressive changes, economic benefits largely benefitted mostly those who were close to the corridors of power, and State institutions which were meant to counter corruption and malfeasance were mildly greased to ensure their efficiency and effectiveness,” Tyitende said.
Moreover, the City Savings Bank debacle and the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF)’s N$650 million scandal and a litany of other commercial crimes – all which took place under Nujoma’s watch - did not result in the demise of the prominent perpetrators, the political scientist lamented.
“In some cases, they were rewarded with upward mobility in the political arena. Notwithstanding these challenges, progressive policies such as rural electrification and the development of the country’s roads network are things we should commend the first president for,” Tyitende said, before rating Nujoma’s presidency at 6/10.
“Nujoma was the most charismatic leader Namibia had, as he was both feared and loved by his inner circle and citizens alike. He has a Machiavellian style of leadership, and practices this type of politics to the fullest,” he said in wrapping up.
Pohamba presidency
From the trio, a commonality could be deduced when it comes to the Pohamba presidency.
“Their demeanours were different. Whereas president Nujoma appeared to be the man in charge of this country and party, president Pohamba was perceived as a proxy of president Nujoma. This was because there is a great belief that he was handpicked by Nujoma to fend off the presidential ambitions of late Hidipo Hamutenya,” Tjirera stated.
The lawyer continued: “Pohamba was more of a headman than a president, and he just made sure that he completed his term.”
Tjirera’s sentiments were echoed by Tyitende.
“In short, he never wanted to be president. He was a victim of circumstances [Swapo factions] that propelled him into the presidency of the country. The results of the Swapo congress in 2004 disadvantaged him politically as he could not step out of the shadow of Founding President Sam Nujoma, who has always been portrayed as a visionary, powerful and charismatic leader of the Namibian revolution,” said Tyitende.
For him, Pohamba had no pretence to be an intellectual.
“He was more of a village headman, very humble, tolerant and down-to-earth. At the same time, he was outstandingly and perpetually indecisive when it came to burning issues that affected the citizenry, especially on matters pertaining to corruption.
“Having been our CEO for 10 years, it is very difficult to find the archaeology of Pohamba. In other words, most of the government’s plans and programmes such as the construction of regional feeder roads, upgrading of ports and rural electrification emanated before he became president,” Tyitende noted.
TIPEEG
Additionally, the political scholar said: “Those significant projects that happened under his watch, such as the Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (TIPEEG), mass housing and the Neckartal Dam, have all suffered negative publicity. And this could be attributed to his relaxed leadership style which could not be felt among his subordinates.”
In the Southern African Development Community (SADC) context, president Pohamba was highly respected for his mediation efforts in Lesotho and Madagascar, Tyitende credited. This, he said, was “mostly so because of his personality which can enable him to inculcate a culture of trust and cooperation among conflicting parties. Sadly, we never gave him credit for those accomplishments.”
The creation of the Veterans Affairs ministry will also go down as one of Pohamba’s chief achievements, he added.
“President Pohamba established the ministry to cater for those who sacrificed their lives for our country’s independence, something which Nujoma was reluctant to do, as he believed people joined the struggle on a voluntary basis,” he continued.
Whereas Nujoma is credited with uniting a divided nation, Kamwanyah said Pohamba’s legacy will be remembered for advancing economic initiatives. “Pohamba is a person who listens attentively and actively. He is very approachable.
The strategic choice he made in terms of leadership was on the economic initiatives to address challenges facing Namibia [at the time]. One of those initiatives is the TIPEEG that he implemented to address the unemployment issue in the country. It was a very good and concrete initiative, but he did not pay attention because he left everything [implementation] to his team, the ministers. As a result, TIPEEG ended up failing because its implementation was completely wrong, and people started looting,” Kamwanyah reasoned.
He added that the theft of public resources, unfortunately, thrived under Pohamba.
“It [corruption] escalated under his watch. A second strategic choice for Pohamba was the mass housing project. The intention was good, but he did not pay attention to implementation. So, because of his softness, I think his team took advantage of that, and turned to looting the resources,” he said.
Geingob presidency
With an 87% approval rating at the ballot in 2014, Geingob was by far the most popular president among the three leaders, the analysts opined.
However, his popularity with the electorate waned during his bid for his second term in office to just over 50%.
“President Geingob was, however, the flamboyant president who exhibited a high degree of perceived arrogance. Despite his perceived arrogance, he was the one more engaged with the greater public. He was the people’s president,” Tjirera said.
It is further his assertion that those closer to the corridors of power benefited greatly from the country’s opulence, at the expense of the greater populace.
“Rating them, I would personally say that they dismally failed the motherland because of their policies. Their allegiance to Swapo was more than their allegiance to the motherland, and because of that, their policies were not driven by the greater interest of the motherland. Their collective desire to create a select group of wealthy individuals at the expense of the nation made their respective presidencies not very successful,” Tjirera opined. He had a justification for the tie between Nujoma and Geingob.
“Despite rating both presidents Geingob and Nujoma the same, I would say president Geingob’s presidency was better. He had a clearer vision for the country, was more tolerant to divergent opinions, and he respected the institutions of State more,” Tjirera justified.
Systems, processes, institutions
Meanwhile, Geingob had a mixed legacy.
It can be characterised as over-promising and under-delivering, Tyitende stated.
“Since he came into office, Geingob had aroused the expectations of ordinary Namibians. Having secured an overwhelming 87% of the presidential vote on 28 November 2014, Geingob was the most popular president of Swapo since independence. Even though he hails from a generation of the ‘first struggle’, his political and career journey is different from that of his predecessors,
namely presidents Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba,” he said before delving deeper into the Geingob presidency.
During the nine years of his presidency, the proverbial Namibian house became accustomed to the late Geingob’s themed years, he recalls.
“Being at the apex of State power, Geingob’s public utterances have been replete with annual slogans and phrases that are meant to inspire hope and confidence, and the metaphorical ‘Namibian house’ in which ‘no one should feel left out’. Throughout his presidency, Geingob announced a theme at the beginning of each year, accompanied by a speech of hope, shared prosperity and a sense of national unity. However, these have not translated into prosperity for most of the population. With 1.6 million people living in poverty, and close to a million living in shacks, his signature development programmes,
the Harambee Prosperity Plan, especially
the pillar on social progression, failed to live up to expectations,” Tyitende said.
However, the safety nets tremendously benefited old people, orphans and vulnerable children and people living with disabilities under Geingob.
“In contrast with his two predecessors,
he was easy-going and inviting, and often opened to people. He held community meetings across the country to listen to the public’s concerns, and invited opposition politicians to meet with him at State House. He would dance at political rallies, and attend soccer matches,” Tyitende recalls.
During his burial in February, speaker after speaker described Geingob as ‘the people’s president’, and credited him with playing a pivotal role in laying Namibia’s lauded governance architecture, or rather “systems, processes and institutions”, as he would eloquently say.
“As an individual, I think there’s no equal to Geingob in terms of his character, in terms of his persona, in terms of his ideals - that zest of life within him,” Tyitende noted.
Geingob died on 4 February this year. He was 82.
Ambition
Similarly, Kamwanyah believes that
Geingob dared to dream, and envisioned a prosperous Namibia.
“He came in with a lot of expectations from Namibian people, and that was also demonstrated by the high number he obtained as a presidential candidate during his first term,” he recalls.
According to the analyst, Namibians expected more from Geingob, “because Namibians were unhappy with the
direction the country was headed in, more particularly the issues of corruption and an economic situation which did not improve for the majority.”
Kamwanyah also highlighted Geingob’s signature prosperity plans – HPP1 and 2.
“It was a good initiative, although I feel he did not articulate it clearly in terms of it in relation to other existing plans, like the NDPs and Vision 2030,” he said.
He added: “As a technocrat, Geingob tried to lead the country at a technical level. That’s why he came up with advisors [A-Team], whom he needed advice from on various issues, including economics and youth-related matters.”
“He really governed at a technical level. His background as prime minister and as
an administrator under the founding father, and his democratic approach, including relying on outside people whom he brought in to advise him… sometimes those people did not understand the situation and context in Namibia. But he thought when you bring in big people who are at an international
level, it would make work easier. But we have seen that it did not really materialise. His strategic choice is the Harambee plan, but we also saw him trying to bring in investors and the green hydrogen that has potential, although the government has not explained it, or has not been transparent enough,” Kamwanyah emphasised.
He rated Geingob the highest amongst the trio.
“His emphasis was on institutions, processes and systems, although I feel the institutions, processes and systems failed him because they are implemented by people, and people had their own agendas. That’s what happened with the Fishrot scandal. His over-reliance on institutions,
processes, systems to some extent made him a little bit weak, although I think his focus on building those institutions, processes
and systems was good,” he said.
Anti-corruption
Tjirera furthermore stated that it was under Geingob’s term in office that the anti-graft fight reached new heights.
“Corruption has been a part of the ruling party and its operatives in government
across all three presidents. But it was only during the time of president Geingob that prominent political figures were held to account for their corruption,” he said.
“The fact that prominent political leaders who were deemed to be on Hage’s side faced the law speaks volumes to his determination to fight corruption, and to allow the courts to operate without fear or favour.
The independence of the Judiciary was under its severest threat during the time of president Nujoma. He and other prominent political leaders would show contempt for the judiciary if judgements went against them,” Tjirera said.