The trouble with Namibia (Part 2)

PROFESSOR JOSEPH DIESCHO WRITES:Nelson Mandela established the edifice of a post-apartheid South Africa upon the dictum which he articulated in the dock when, more than conscious and ready to be sentenced to death, he said: “During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Mandela’s vision was amplified on two occasions. First, 30 years later in May 1994, he was sworn in as the first democratically elected President of South Africa and he said: “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.” Second, in his last statement to the Parliament of South Africa in 1998 when he said: “If one day the ANC Government treats South Africans in the same manner they were treated by the apartheid government, I urge them to rebel against the ANC.” With the myriad of challenges South Africa faces, the nation can always return to the vision of Mandela and feel beckoned back to what needs to be done. LACK OF VISION Namibia does not have a well-articulated vision at all. What is paraded as visions are cut-and-paste statements by the Swapo leadership in exile when the liberation movement had borrowed slogans from the Soviet Union and its satellites. Hence after the half-baked Marxism-Leninism that Swapo mouthed during the struggle got discredited, the big Swapo leaders became born again capitalists with insatiable greed to get rich overnight. They are now looting in concert from the meagre resources of the nation in the name of the liberation struggle. The sad fact is that the founding President himself has not articulated a vision beyond independence or beyond Swapo triumphalism, wanting us to forget that Namibia’s independence was a culmination of international solidarity on the African continent and beyond. After independence it was a continuation of liberation rhetoric with cut-and-paste mimicry from earlier African leaders. Swapo developed no coherent vision of and for Namibia tomorrow. Vision 2030 was not a vision, it was a response to the United Nations programme that compelled African leaders to say that they have a vision with which to raise funds from the international community that was in turn weary of African leaders stealing development aid money and depositing it in foreign accounts. Our own once-respected liberation leaders then moved fast to colonise Namibia and are now hard at work turning the whole country into a political cult, with themselves as high priests of debauched capitalism with their Chinese sponsors. Had the founding President had a vision, he would have risen above sectarian party politics such that Namibia would have at least one elder statesman for all Namibians. Our “heroes” are all in political party uniforms as if the war had not ended thirty years ago. The country is bleeding and descending very fast. Namibia is without a vision and is rudderless. Our “honourable” leaders are only looking after themselves financially and would not care less about what happens to the citizens. Other democracies would have seen a rebellion when the nation’s top leaders are looting as if there is no tomorrow. It cannot be right that leaders in the executive and Parliament are involved in real estate instead of governing the country. Only immoral leaders use their political influence to own houses which they rent out to poor people just to make a profit and get richer. Like Obama asked corrupt South Africans last year: “How much can one eat, how much can one wear?” Namibian leaders’ stomachs cannot be the vision. They are busy stealing the future away from the youth who will inherit the mess they are leaving behind. Their children will bear the brunt of being hated in their own country. The current leaders whose visions do not stretch beyond their stomachs is the trouble. Like in all things, what goes around, does come around.

The trouble with Namibia (Part 2)

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The trouble with Namibia (Part 2)

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