Edward Mumbuu
Newest National Assembly member Ephraim Nekongo is mincing no words, saying repealing retrogressive laws - including the removal of the red line - and making progressive ones, will enjoy his heightened attention.
He will have just a little over two years to achieve this, with the current parliamentary term ending in March 2025.
Nekongo was appointed as member of parliament by President Hage Geingob yesterday, replacing former public enterprises minister Leon Jooste.
He has no voting rights.
The news found the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) secretary in the Ohangwena region while on an official party mission.
While extending gratitude to Geingob, Nekongo hastened to steer away from making promises.
“In my nature, sometimes, I don’t promise things, but rather say I am going to do everything in my power to discuss issues of concern to contribute to the wellbeing of Namibians, including the youth,” he said in a telephonic interview with Nampa yesterday.
Issues on his agenda are unemployment, social inequality and economic recovery.
He will do this through “repealing old laws that are making our lives difficult, or to make new laws that will make the lives of yourself and other Namibians conducive”.
For Nekongo, the veterinary cordon fence, infamously known as the red line, has negative ramifications on Namibians finding themselves north of that fence.
“The red line is one of them [making our lives difficult]. The Swapo youth league has been advocating for it (the red line) to go. During the land conference, the resolutions were clear. It is only for us to go and advocate for those resolutions to be implemented.”
Asked how he will strike a balance between his SPYL job and his new role, he replied: “That is why we are leaders. We must have sleepless nights and do what people require of us.”
Jooste resigned from his Cabinet and National Assembly posts in March, following the dismantling of his ministry.
He was one of the eight presidential appointees in the National Assembly.
Ever since Jooste took over as founding minister in that portfolio, a daunting task lay ahead of him in reforming Namibia’s tax dollar-sucking parastatals, where bailouts are the norm, with little to no accountability.
He had to take tough decisions later on, for which he was loathed and loved in equal measure. The collapse of Air Namibia embodies this enigmatic stint.
For the first five years, without the public enterprises’ governance legislation in place, Jooste had always maintained that his hands were tied.
Eight years down the line, his ministry would cease to exist, based on a recommendation by the presidential high-level panel on the economy. It is now a department within the finance ministry.
-Nampa