Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe 

The President of the Republic of Namibia’s parliament opening speech did less than inspire confidence in the leadership of our country, but instead, revealed itself to be nothing more than a cop-out from the failing administration that has been at the helm of our government for the last two terms. 

For almost a decade, President Hage Geingob has had the privilege and mandate to select and organise his own cabinet members that will ultimately enact the laws "that are effective at buttressing the safety and security of our citizens, protecting the most vulnerable members of our society, enabling the growth of industry, as well as promoting investment and economic trade", as per his speech. The President goes on to say "our laws should instil the confidence in our people, investors and visitors that Namibia is a country where the rights and human dignity of all is respected and protected." 

As much as the speech highlighted why lawmakers need to inspire confidence, it ignored the critical ingredients needed to catalyse the imperative changes that will inevitably strengthen our democracy, beyond inspiring confidence. It ignored the lawmakers the President appointed himself whose responsibility it is to fulfil the aspirations of ordinary Namibians but instead, over the past eight years, and for some more, have offered nothing more than trite and ineffective solutions to moving this country forward. 

Under Geingob’s administration, the appointment of cabinet ministers, who vehemently oppose reforming and advancing laws that speak to the very nature of inspiring confidence, must serve as an ironic and underwhelming reminder to the President that parliament is not formed in a vacuum. Through an electoral process that provides every ordinary Namibian with the right to vote leaders into service, the other crucial reality remains that the President is also responsible for the different set of members, not elected per se, but chosen to represent and fulfil the aspirations of the citizenry. Cabinet members, under Geingob’s administration, in the past decade, have been charged with corruption under the infamous Fishrot banner, have been shuffled between ministerial posts despite the fact that they have proven to be facetious and extremely hateful towards the LGBQI+ community. The very same cabinet members, our purported lawmakers alike, have removed protections of LGBTQI+ rights in amended and proposed bills, abused their power in office to infringe on the dignity of same-sex families and children and continue to use their religious positions in society to oppose reforms for apartheid laws such as the ‘Abortion and Sterilisation Act of 1975’ and oppose the abolishment of the ‘Common Law Offences of Sodomy and Unnatural Sexual Offences’. It is also his cabinet member that refuses to take accountability for the 81% failure rate recorded in recent matriculation results. Alas, the list goes on and on. 

According to ‘Perspectives on the Context and Future of Namibia’s Supreme Law’, a book published by the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID) and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), our Constitution was put together by 72 elected members of the Constituent Assembly. In the founding perspective presented by former prime minister Nahas Angula, he recalls that "parties who won the elections appointed members to the drafting committee and Swapo had a draft constitution of its own. Luckily enough, the Constituent Assembly committee decided to use Swapo’s draft as a basis to draft the national constitution." It is no wonder that members of his own cabinet continue to claim ownership of our constitution, that even the attorney general of Namibia, appointed too, by the President, being the chief legal advisor of the President and is responsible for upholding and protecting our constitution, fervently and obtusely recites, "one of the founding fathers of our nation publicly explained that the drafters of the constitution did not intend to include sexual orientation", in his answers to the affidavit brought forth by Friedal Dausab currently challenging the constitutionality of Namibia’s sodomy offences targeting LGBTQI+ Namibians. 

The AG continues to underwhelmingly make reference to parliament, stating "if anything, public views, as represented by the activities of parliament, have become stronger against homosexual conduct." Is this the same parliament expected to inspire confidence as per the President’s speech? 

Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe is an award-winning activist, author and tech entrepreneur