Geingob defends Noa’s reappointment

CHARMAINE NGATJIHEUE and SHELLEYGAN PETERSENPRESIDENT Hage Geingob says Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) director general Paulus Noa’s reappointment for another five years is legal and constitutional.

The president on Friday denied seeing a letter by the anti-graft boss pleading not to be replaced and claiming his replacement could affect high-profile ongoing corruption cases.

on Friday reported that Noa motivated his appeal in a letter to Geingob as the appointing authority, and copied to the National Assembly earlier last month.

Noa will be at the helm of the ACC for 20 years by the end of his new term, in 2026. His deputy, Erna van der Merwe, has also been reappointed for another five years.

Geingob, who was responding to questions at a Covid-19 briefing on Friday, said he will not respond further on the Noa reappointment because what transpired in the National Assembly was constitutional and legal.

He further said if Namibians are planning to demonstrate against the reappointment, it is their democratic right to do so.

“Unless I can be shown a letter that was apparently written to me by Mr Noa to beg me to appoint him, I will not discuss that issue. First bring the letter being said in The Namibian he wrote me to beg to be reappointed, what a shame. So, until then, I am asking for that letter to come that I have never seen, I do not discuss that issue. If Namibians demonstrate because of what happened in the parliament legally and constitutionally, that is their right, let them demonstrate.

“We fought for that, that people must demonstrate freely, peacefully. Demonstrate, complain, that is their right. If they violate the laws, there are law enforcement agencies. I do not see anything that has gone wrong, illegally or so on. If they want to demonstrate, that is their democratic right,” the president said.

Political analyst Graham Hopwood said although the process followed is legal in the sense that it is in keeping with the Constitution and Anti-Corruption Act, the problem is that those laws do not set out a clear and transparent recruitment process for the positions of ACC director general and his deputy on which parliament should have the final say.

Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Hopwood said the opposition parties argued that the NA session called last week to deal with this matter was somehow illegal.

“I doubt whether that is the case but if they are serious then they should go to court. In short, we need to reform the Constitution and other relevant laws to make sure that offices that should be independent such as the ACC, Ombudsman, Auditor General and ECN have open and transparent procedures for recruiting top officials over which the executive cannot exercise undue influence,” he explained.

Another political analyst, Ndumba Kamwanya, highlighted two perspectives.

“First, the chaos we saw in parliament is the consequence of having an outdated ACC Act. The current act as it is lacks clear transparent mechanisms and procedures on how the head of our corruption buster body should be selected, nominated and appointed.

“Such a critical institution to our economy and democracy cannot be left to a political-driven recruitment process like what happened with the current reappointment,” he said

On Noa’s reappointment, Kamwayah said it was a done deal because of Swapo’s numerical superiority in the National Assembly.

“Past performances, experiences, skills and competencies were thrown out of the window. I think an independent recruitment process should be sought to avoid the weakening of a critical institution such as the ACC due to politics. Parliament has been dragging on coming up with bills that needed reform and the result of that inaction is an appointment of a public institution head that has divided the nation along politics. Not a good recipe for a functioning democracy,” he said.

He further pointed out that the reappointment also exposed the weakness in Namibia’s constitutional doctrine of three separate and independent branches of government.

“In this reappointment, parliament showed vulnerability in terms of its balancing functions. It seems the executive branch, relying on its political dominance in the chamber, easily bulldozed the processes without regard to transparency. Institutions like the ACC, ECN and Ombudsman are technical and efforts should be made not to subject them to a political recruitment process,” he added.

Landless People’s Movement national assistant spokesperson Joyce Muzengua yesterday said in a statement Noa’s reappointment sends out a clear message that Namibia has no intention to appoint investigators with integrity who will uphold the dignity and protection of its people and resources.

Muzengua said Geingob and Swapo are fully aware of Noa’s failures, deliberate ignorance and reluctance to prosecute those accused of grand theft and corruption for more than 15 years.

“As long as the ACC has people like Noa in key positions, the thievery of state resources will continue unabated. We are worried that the reason Geingob reappointed Noa is to allow the Firshrot case to go cold, be blocked or die in eternal oblivion like many other cases,” she noted.

She added that the ACC continues to be underfunded, which continues to weaken its ability to do its work, adding that it has become the tendency of the executive to interfere in the affairs of the legislature.

“The people of Namibia and the opposition parties ought to unite to make it clear that the muscling of our democracy and the fast autocratising of our state should not be tolerated. We need to mobilise our people to reject Noa’s appointment because his stay at the ACC has run its course,” she added.

Popular Democractic Party leader McHenry Venaani last week said they will approach the High Court on an urgent basis to nullify the rushed decision.

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