Head to head with Hidipo

Two of the Swapo Party’s presidential candidates, Foreign Affairs Minister Hidipo Hamutenya and Lands Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba, have not yet responded to a list of set questions sent to all three candidates. However, Minister Hamutenya last week agreed to be interviewed by The Namibian’s TANGENI AMUPADHI …

Interviewer: Thanks for the time … HH: Nahas was saying that even if it’s only for the expansion of his CV, it’s still all right.’If I don’t make it, I can always say I have been a candidate for the Presidency.’Q: Congratulations.Did you expect to be nominated?HH: I wasn’t sure, but it happened.Some people asked me that if I agree that they would nominate me.I said fine, so they went ahead and did that.Q: Many people believe, me included, and I see New Era has written it, that you have been campaigning to be president for the past 40 years.I wouldn’t take it as far but many people …HH: They had it wrong.I want to correct the New Era report.I was on tape [and] anyone who saw my interview will know that New Era twisted the story.I said that I have been in the leadership of the organisation for more than 40 years, and that, as a question of campaigning, all those who followed my story will know that I’m part of the leadership, [and] that I was nominated shouldn’t surprise anybody.That’s all I said.In essence I said that.But New Era said I have been campaigning for 40 years, not only for the presidency, instead of saying I said I was campaigning, [but] not for president, but to be part of the leadership.Q: Many of us believe you have been campaigning behind the scenes at least for the past few years, are we correct about this?HH: No you are not correct.The people assumed that I was, but I don’t think anybody has evidence that I was.Q: Well, when President Nujoma made a statement at the Central Committee meeting that there were – I think this is what he said – people campaigning and it could be divisive for the party, again we assume it was you and former Prime Minister Hage Geingob.What would you say about that?HH: That was your assumption [chuckle].But truly speaking, I was not campaigning.Q: How strongly did you believe, or expect, to be nominated?HH: Well, I knew it depended on others.It was not up to me.If I was to say I want to be president and project myself that way, then I would probably have known better, but others said we’ll ask you to stand.It was in their hands.Q: Your admirers and detractors alike have used these terms – an astute politician, shrewd, cunning – to characterise you.What do you say about this characterisation?HH: Well, I don’t know that I’m shrewd.I don’t think I’m cunning.They probably need to explain what they mean by all that.When you are in a public position as I am, people will have all sorts of perceptions about you and you have no control over what they say about you.So, I don’t know what they are talking about, being shrewd, being …. whatever they are saying, I’m not sure.Q: You say that when you are in the public domain,people form perceptions about you.I think one of the perceptions one will often hear about Minister Hamutenya is a sense of fear among people.Sometimes it is not really articulated … Has this reached you that there is a sense of fear among some people?Why do people fear you?HH: Yes, I have heard about that.I think that people fear me because they don’t know me, because they have not come close enough to me – apparently they have that fear.I do not know what’s the cause of it.One of the reasons is that I tend to be economic with what I say, with whom I speak, and people think that I have a lot of things to hide, so that behind this lack of outspokenness is probably [some] evil intention.I don’t know.But I think all those who come closer to me and have come to know me, will not have that perception.Some do admit that ‘we did not know you but, apparently, what people say about you is not really what you are’.Q: Could this perhaps have been fuelled by … around 1989, people who were detained by Swapo have accused you personally and other people of having been among the architects of this so-called Swapo spy drama.I don’t know if I ever heard you comment about those accusations.HH: Because I have never been accused directly.It was just talk up in the air.Nobody has ever said ‘you were responsible’ because if somebody was to do that, it’s a lot of [inaudible] to give me how he or she knows that and what evidence they can produce, and I can tell you that if anybody is saying I was instrumental in his or her detention, that person had to be a liar.And there were more than 40 000 Namibians in exile.I think they know the story better than some people in the country.Of course I was part of the leadership of Swapo.Like anybody else who was in the leadership, one cannot exonerate him- or herself from what was happening in Swapo.Q: Could that kind of talk be [happening] among those that fuel the suspicion about you?How do you hope to get the message across that ‘you guys are wrong about me?’HH: Quite frankly, I don’t see myself duty bound to explain because I have not played any role different from that of anybody else who was in the leadership.And I know that we were not hiding in some corner, we were up there in defence of thousands of Namibians.I think they know the story better.You’ll be hard put to find anyone to clearly state that Hidipo was the architect of the defence of the revolution and he has gone to excesses in doing a, b, c, y or z.I don’t think you can find anybody who can sincerely and honestly say that and be able to justify the statement.Q: Another issue is that you say you are not afraid to take risks.There have been a few projects that you tried to undertake that didn’t take off.They landed you in quite a lot of controversy, Pidico notably.One could mention the Development Brigade [Corporation], a N$10-million dollar Italian pipe manufacturing project in Walvis Bay.Now we are told Barden International is not doing so well and you are also being mentioned as having been instrumental in bringing them to Namibia, or may be not instrumental, but having presided as trade minister.How would you respond to this perception that you seem to like courting controversy.HH: Pidico, Italian and what?Well, Pidico was a venture of businesspeople who wanted to come here.I did not invest a cent.I did not have any shares in it.Now, if a businessman comes here and he says he wants to put up a business, and he says I want you to help me to identify a place, not I as an individual, but the Ministry of Trade and Industry was charged with that.How would I refuse and say ‘no, I know you are going to fail.Therefore, I would not recommend that you be given land’.Pidico was an agricultural project.When they came here first, they were dealing with the Ministry of Agriculture and I know that they had a project in Mozambique.The Ministry of Agriculture sent a deputy minister and a deputy permanent secretary to Mozambique to look at those projects.They came.They gave a report, a favourable report, saying that ‘yes, the company could be considered as a viable company’.So it went.When they came they wanted land.We said sure, why not.We looked at Kavango, I mean Caprivi and Kavango and finally we settled for Lake Liambezi as a place [where they could do business].And they landed 15 tractors in Grootfontein.The tractors were shipped to Caprivi.Then the quarrel about who owns the tribal land is how the thing was torpedoed.That [inaudible] Coetzee and others jumped on it and said what they wanted to say … One group in Caprivi agreed to it, and one opposed it later and then the media storm.So with the media storm, the people who were behind Pidico said their arrangement, the credit lines they had arranged internationally could not get off the ground.Q: How did it end up with you?Anybody who talks about Pidico here will forget about agriculture.HH: It’s the question.And all those tractors were confiscated by the Ministry of Agriculture.Tractors, 15 of them, were all left and picked up by the Agriculture Ministry.They said that, okay; the import tax was not pa
id so they were going to confiscate all of them.I think up to now, they still have them; I don’t know where they are.Yet you would want me to be responsible.That was the time of the [late] Minister [Gert] Hanekom.So that’s that.The Italian – I’d say was with the NDC (Namibia Development Corporation).The NDC is a company, which was very much independent, was not getting directives from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.They pick and choose.They hire qualified professionals who evaluate projects.Not the Ministry.They don’t need an okay from the Ministry to proceed with any project.And I do know that the MD of the NDC at that time, Issy Namaseb, did travel to Italy to see whether they were indeed producing the pipes that they said they were producing.He went, he came up with the report and he said ‘yes, they are’ and [they] have the equipment they wanted to bring here.The only [“mistake”] that I committed was that I was head of the Ministry of Trade and Industry under which the NDC falls.Professional men and women were in charge of NDC.They made a decision.They travelled to Italy; I didn’t travel to Italy, just like I did not travel to Mozambique.I cannot be responsible for that kind of decision.Q: On this one, I’m sure you remember the time when Amcom was closed down The MD of Amcom, Mr Siyambango, was saying you did indeed personally recommend or push the hand of the NDC to advance the loan.HH: The only person who could say that is the MD of the NDC, Issy Namaseb… Of course, if the deal is not viable, and you want to be a professional, you would say no.So, it’s a lie.But anyway, Siyambango was saying so many things … because he didn’t want Amcom to be liquidated.This is one …Now the DBC – it was a Government project.I was not managing it.I was a Government minister; I chaired the committee that was dealing with it.The committee was made up of several ministers.The problem with the DBC, I think, needs to be understood.We were trying to turn ex-combatants into people who are productive and also possibly businessmen and women.That’s not Hidipo, it’s the Government.People were experienced in fighting, how to carry guns and how to shoot.They were less inclined [on] how to be productive people, to produce goods – whether it would be [chairs inaudible] whether it would be food.In other words there were a lot of projects.There were agricultural projects in Kavango.There were some other projects in Grootfontein, brick-making in Ondangwa and so and so on.And also the management was there to manage them I think also they found it difficult, because these people had an attitude of being entitled to better jobs.The sense of entitlement negated what we were really trying to do, what we were trying to achieve.They wanted Government jobs, nothing else.They wanted to go into the army, but the army couldn’t be stretched.They [wanted] to go into the police.In the end we ended up turning them into this unit, what is it called now, Special Field Force.Few have remained.The unit that did well for the DBC had to do with security.That fitted in [with] the army mentality, carry a uniform and guard whatever you are guarding.So, but they were not attuned to producing things of value.The idea of a business concept was alien to them, to the majority of them, by and large.Now, imagine, at the time of the Development Brigade, the Government was also looking to reduce the size of the State bureaucracy.We created – out of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication – Telecom, NamPost, these parastatals.We created out of the Ministry of Agriculture NamWater, and then so forth and so on, so many units.Out of Works and Transport we also carved out the Roads Authority, Road Fund and what have you.The question of managing these institutions continues to haunt us up to now.It was not only the Development Brigade that was having difficulties.What is different is that when these ones went out they were given buildings, they were given monopoly status, and they were given capital.That’s now NamPost, Telecom [and] what have you.The DBC had not had the fortune of having a department of any Government [department hived off] to give to them as a department or parastatal.So, things seem to be discussed out of context.Now, Hidipo was not a manager for the DBC, I wasn’t managing any institution or business.A committee appointed somebody, not Hidipo, to go onto the Board.The Board, they are the ones who appoint an MD, other managers and so on and so on.I think they came up against a wall just to get somebody to drive these people into big productive units, effective productive units.That’s what spelled disaster, hardly anything to do with Hidipo.Q: So when people enumerate your failures …HH:They are talking rubbish actually.Most of the time they are talking rubbish (let’s rip a loud laugh).Barden – again I don’t know [how] it becomes my project.I did not negotiate an agreement with Barden.I did not approach Barden to come to Namibia.I was part of the team that visited Detroit where the original idea was discussed.We went there in the company of the President, in the company of the Prime Minister today, then Foreign Minister, and the issue was discussed and it took off from there.The details of the agreement [worked out – inaudible] with the Office of the Attorney General, Vekuii Rukoro.So, it is difficult to pinpoint that it is the role of Hidipo, if any.Q: That renders my question about people referring to the …HH: Well, all that I can say is those are carefully selected things and put at my doorstep.First, they don’t belong on my doorstep as Hidipo.Second, they are just some of the many projects that have failed.There was a project to establish a refinery here.It failed.There was a company that came here as Namco, looking for diamonds.It failed.We are talking now about millions and million of dollars.Several companies have failed, whether they went into textiles, whether they went into diamond mining.And then there was another one after Namco.There was a successor to Namco, Lev Leviev.It failed again.It is now the third time somebody is trying to pick up the pieces.So, one can go on and on tabulating the projects that have failed, both in the private sector and in the public sector.To try to lump them together and push them at the doorstep of Hidipo is way [too] sinister.Truly, it is sinister.Q: Let’s look at successes, at least so far, like Ramatex.HH: Well, again I don’t want to claim the sole achievement, that these are my achievements, because that would be a lie.I have not done anything single-handedly that I want to claim as my own.I happened to be the Minister of Trade and Industry.I happened to have a team that I was working with very closely, it was very dependable.That we used to sit together, put our minds together, and went for the projects.Ramatex – Ramatex was brought to our attention by one of our economic councillors in South Africa, and we advised him that he should send those people here.He is a good officer.He used to wake up in the morning and read the economic reports in the newspapers and magazines in South Africa.One day he came up with a report that Ramatex was having a problem with the South African authorities [in] East London where they wanted to put up a [factory].The question about land, the question about red tape, and so on.When they came over, I was not here, I was away, I think I was in the States.I directed that they be met by members of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Development and Parastatals.I asked that comrade Theo-Ben Gurirab chair the meeting in my place.So, it happened what the people arranged, they were met.The discussion didn’t go as well as they thought it should have gone.When I came back … others were negative.I then said; well we just check it out.I sent David Nuuyoma [Head of the Investment Centre in the Ministry of Trade and Industry] and [Abdul Sataar] Aboobakar, head of the Offshore Development Company]), to Malaysia to discuss and to answer questions Ramatex had put to our Government.One of the [questions] was a matter of something called [harbour fees] that you pay every time you use a harbour.Now, they wer
e saying if we don’t use Walvis Bay you would not get a penny from anybody.Just because we put through 10 containers we must pay about N$10 for every container.What is this?They said ‘we are an international company, we produce in several countries to export massive amounts and we are not being charged [harbour fees].Why is this?’ Apparently [harbour fees] were only a South African practice.So we were just claiming a South African tradition.We did a study.We took it to Cabinet and Cabinet said to hell with [harbour fees].It was not automatic.Some people were still resisting, I remember that Comrade President, former Prime Minister Hage Geingob, the present Prime Minister; they said, so we are going to forgo a project because of something called harbour fees.Which we don’t get if we don’t have anything to handle at the harbour.Does it make economic sense?The President said ‘no’; he decided to waive [harbour fees].From there, we carried the discussion further.Finally, Ramatex was here.Q: Are you happy despite the criticism of Ramatex?HH: Well, when you’ve got 10 000 people employed, you cannot but be happy.When you look at the general situation, it cannot be the best arrangement, but definitely is a deal that nobody can turn his back on, when you’ve got unemployment up to 35 per cent or even more.Q: Skorpion Zinc?HH: Yes, Scorpion Zinc, the same thing.It was first Union Mines, a British company that came and said ‘we will develop this deposit provided certain conditions were met’.And we sat down with my team, David Nuuyoma, Aboobakar and all those guys at Trade and Industry.We went over a range of issues.They wanted initially to bring in several hundreds of technicians from South Africa.They wanted to be given EPZ status for the value addition component of the operation.In other words they’ll pay tax on mining.And before they ship the material, they wanted to smelt and refine the zinc – that portion should be an EPZ.We said ‘fine’.And we kept arguing back and forth.Finally we signed an agreement and they started.Again, that is a success story that I have been identified with, but I cannot claim that it is my personal victory.It’s the team I worked with.We worked so well with the team.Q: Minister Hamutenya, the issue of poverty is ranked with HIV-AIDS as one of the biggest impediments to development – not only in our country – but also in the rest of Africa.How differently do you intend to deal with that if elected President?HH: Yes, it’s true, those are the two burning issues of the day.Poverty will need to be addressed in a holistic manner.First, we have to grow the economy.This means you have to address it in a multi-pronged fashion, the question of job creation.One needs to have a very clear and focussed programme to create jobs in all sectors.There’s room for expansion.If we can do something more in the mining sector to create jobs, we will encourage that to happen.If it’s a question of aquaculture, to expand the fishing industry … we will support that wholeheartedly.If it is a question of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), we’ll look at that.If it’s a question of foreign direct investment (FDI) we will do that, we’ll support it.(If it’s) a question of a green scheme, we’ll support it.I think it is by carrying out a simultaneous attack on all those fronts, that we’ll be able to make a dent in poverty.We address poverty … to the extent that we are able to create jobs.People will have an income, and they are able to do … things because they have an income for their families.Tourism should be added.Tourism has great potential.It will require streamlining of the management of our tourist facilities.There are those who handle the public.We need to think about a [questionnaire] for the tourists.What kind of things do they prefer to have in terms of accommodation, in terms of entertainment and so forth and so on.So, that has to be addressed as a matter of urgency.If resources cannot be found, we have to think about how to find resources.Industry – we cannot relent on that.I would be happy to have four more Ramatexes.I think with four more Ramatexes we’ll deal a serious body blow to poverty.It doesn’t have to be textiles, but textiles are the industry that has launched South East Asian nations into what is called industrialising countries.You graduate from clothing into electronics and into other things.But textiles are at the forefront of industrialisation.I think those people now who have been working for a year or two at Ramatex have a sense of an assembly line in a factory, how it functions – you do this, somebody does that and things are moving, and at the end of the line you can see a product being packed and shipped to go for export.So, with our EPZ, with AGOA market access, I think we can do more in this sector.Then we combine this manufacturing, whether it’s for leather goods, which we have the capacity to produce.If our tanneries were supplying certain products here in Windhoek, we would be producing a significant number of shoes and leather bags, which we can export in significant quantities.Now, we have the experience, but … the one is here the other one there, business in Namibia is so small, they are family businesses.That was okay in the past.Some people were running small businesses that were linked to South Africa.But if you want to go into the bigger market of the world you need economies of scale to make a difference.Q: To return to the issue of HIV-AIDS.Would your Cabinet consider, for instance, to publicise the identities of relatives who have died of AIDS or even to reveal their own HIV status?HH:Well, that’s fine.They can do that.I’m not so sure whether there will be a significant development in the combating of HIV.Everybody knows people are dying every day.It is not a secret that people are sick and people are dying and that you need to see somebody in a bed or on a stretcher.Maybe it’s okay, it’s relevant, but it’s not critical.What is critical is to intensify the awareness campaign in a much more focussed way.It is to provide access to drugs to prolong life for those who are infected.Q: The one long-running criticism of President Sam Nujoma is that the size of his Cabinet is bloated to the extent that it dominates the National Assembly.What do you say – is that a healthy situation or is it something that you thought you’d change?HH: Well, I have not paid sufficient attention to that, but you’d understand that President Nujoma presided over the first Cabinet.There were so many considerations to be taken into account.Various interests of different communities, consideration of many people who had devoted a big part of their lives to bringing about freedom and independence.So all those factors, I’m sure, influenced the President’s decision to have the Cabinet in the form and structure that it is now.I’m not sure that we have made sufficient progress, that we don’t need to look into the state of Government structure for jobs and for opportunities to serve the people.Obviously, some people now would like to go into business.Some have some savings.They will get their pensions.I wouldn’t be surprised if five of the former ministers and deputy ministers form the biggest company in Namibia to do something, to put up a shoe factory and viable tannery and produce shoe leather … so something more creative to do.After all, people are doing much better in the private sector than in the Government.So Government cannot be the alpha and omega of all of us from 1990 to the end of our productive lives.Q: So, will your cabinet be smaller, about the same, bigger… ?HH:It cannot be bigger, it cannot be bigger.As I said, I have not paid sufficient attention to it.It can only be smaller.It cannot be bigger for the reasons I gave you, that there were compelling circumstances that I think for now are not as compelling.They are relevant but they are not compelling.Q: And in what other respects would the presidency under Hidipo Hamutenya differ from the current one?HH: Oh well, the other one was under President Nujoma, this under Hidipo, that’s already a difference.We are two different people.President Nujoma is the founding fath
er.I will never be a founding father.He alone can be the founding father, the first President, the first chairman of the Cabinet of Namibia.Under those circumstances so many experiments had to be done.Maybe there would not be so much need for experimenting in the future as there was in the past.Q: Can you tell us about other differences?Are there some areas on which you would concentrate more than on others?HH: We have, as a Government, adopted Vision 2030.The implementation of Vision 2030 has not yet fully started.When it fully starts, [and that] will be soon, the priorities have to be recast to achieve the goals that we set ourselves for Vision 2030.We would probably look at priorities, we will adjust them, we will re-order them, but not by much, because most of the priorities are there now, and they are agreed on collectively by the leadership of the party and the Government.But there’s no problem to adjust, to re-order priorities, that can always be a possibility without necessarily deviating radically from what has been agreed upon already.Q: The issue of the building of the new State House that some of us criticise President Sam Nujoma for and even assumed that the old man didn’t want to leave and that’s why he was building such a grand place.What is your view on this?HH: You have to thank President Sam Nujoma for doing some of the things that people in Namibia don’t understand.President Sam Nujoma has been to [many] places across this globe.There is not a continent he did not walk upon.And in all these instances he was welcomed by the governments of those countries, and there were symbols of State power which he has been able to observe and witness.And he felt that when I’m supervising the new State of Namibia, I want to build some monuments of State power that will stay and serve the people who will be in place and people who will be visiting and so forth and so on.If people had looked at this project from that angle, there would not have been so much hullabaloo …Clearly this … here is not a monument, is not a State monument this one.It’s a little thing.We were in Pretoria yesterday.You look at the thousands of people who were in Pretoria yesterday from New Zealand, Australia, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe.Yes, some had to go to hotels, but a sizable group of about 30 Presidents and nine Prime Ministers and the entourages they move with, the hotels were also being stretched to the limit.So, you want to welcome your visitors in a dignified manner, and you welcome them in your State edifice.You go to the Union Building [in Pretoria] you see mammoth structures there.They don’t belong to Mandela, they don’t belong to Thabo [Mbeki], even De Klerk lived there.They are still assets of the nation.There has to be some cost.The issue is being personalised, the construction of State House.’Ja Sam Nujoma doesn’t want to leave, he has built himself a big house’.Now he is going, he says he is going, and he can keep saying that he just wanted to build that for the nation.Unfortunately, if you want great things, you have to pay for them.They do not come free of charge, and that one is not like Air Namibia.It is there to stay.It is not like money being put into Air Namibia, which we do not know how we can sustain it.This one, once finished, is a one-off project.Q: Talking of Air Namibia, over the past five years I think they have pumped a billion into it already.HH: Most likely.The question we are unable to answer is; we keep saying we want to reform it.We don’t easily seem to succeed at reforming it, but somewhere, at the back of our minds, we have a feeling that we will be able to turn it around if we find a strategic [partner] or something like that.But, clearly, Air Namibia is a problem of management, but is [also] important for the growth of our tourism industry.Without Air Namibia, it will be difficult to get tourism to grow.And a study has been done in the region.If you look at the countries that have no capacity to fly overseas, Namibia comes out (together with Mauritius and others that have airlines) … is doing much better in the tourism sector.But there is cost to this.If we can find a solution to the Boeing 747, which seems to be the main problem of maintaining and operating it, I think we’ll be okay.Q: Namibia led by President Hidipo Hamutenya – who will be our international allies or who will be our closest ally?HH: First our neighbours:Angola, DRC, Botswana, South Africa, all the SADC member states.Why?Because our destiny is tied together.If one of these countries is under pressure of destabilisation, it will show in our economy and our stability.So we value all these relationships.Then there are the major political and economic powers of the world with enormous resources.You need to be in their good books with them and to have cordial relationships with them.Whether it will be the USA or China, whether it is France or Britain and so forth.We need to maintain good relationships with them.Q: Ending the interview, now that you are a nominee, what are you doing, how are you campaigning to make sure that you are elected?HH: I’m talking to … for now, it is a competition among comrades and within the Swapo system.So, I do talk to Swapo comrades, those who will be at the Congress in particular, but all others are valuable, because they [can] put in a good word to somebody from the congress over a cup of tea or they meet at the congress or a wedding.The debate goes on.You talk to everybody and they come forth themselves wanting to know what would you do if you were elected.So you keep talking.Q: Do you find yourself having to accept more appointments now than before?HH: Yes indeed.Well, I think I could have taken them on before if there were so many coming, but definitely now that they are pouring in …Q: In case there is something I left out…HH: I know that if I was to be elected, I will be stepping into the very big shoes of Comrade Sam Nujoma.He is a very extraordinary man, a hard-working man, a determined man in pursuit of what he believes in.He has had the interests of the country at heart and that will always be [the case], I think, and [he is] one who has never been found wanting as far as the interests of the country are concerned.So, I would seek or elect to emulate those qualities.I will not be able to match them, but I can definitely strive to also emulate, to achieve, great things as he did.He is looking strong and healthy.He’ll be around.I will make it a point to consult him as often as seems appropriate.Q: President Sam Nujoma, we have learnt, has nominated Minister Pohamba and that he does not want you to become President of this country.Do you have the same feeling?HH: No.I think the President is a democrat and in democracy we have preferences.So, he has shown his preference by nominating Comrade Pohamba.At the same time he has shown respect for the views of others, for the democratic right of others to nominate other [candidates] and it’s how we ended up with three candidates.And he has accepted to live with the consequences of the decision taken by the Central Committee last month.So, I don’t think that President Nujoma has anything personally against me, but he clearly prefers to do his own thing.He has been with Pohamba for a long time … all these are things you have to understand.Q: I cut you short on anything to add.HH: What I can say – the question of peace stability and national unity are the issues that pre-occupy my mind.I know we have achieved that for the last 15 years.But I’m also profoundly aware that they can slip away in a matter of days and there are so many examples around us.A country called Ivory Coast was a shining example of African stability and progress.Liberia, Ethiopia – how they slipped and went back to square one.This reminds one constantly that the only guarantee of peace, security and stability is to remain constantly conscious that reversals are possible.Not only possible, but they can happen often.As a leader of the nation, one has to be constantly on one’s toes to ensure that one does not make an irresponsible move that will destabilise peace and plunge the country i
nto chaos and instability.So that is probably why you see young people ending up, in a few years time, looking very old.Because of the heavy burden that one is carrying to maintain peace and stability.HH: Nahas was saying that even if it’s only for the expansion of his CV, it’s still all right.’If I don’t make it, I can always say I have been a candidate for the Presidency.’Q: Congratulations.Did you expect to be nominated?HH: I wasn’t sure, but it happened.Some people asked me that if I agree that they would nominate me.I said fine, so they went ahead and did that.Q: Many people believe, me included, and I see New Era has written it, that you have been campaigning to be president for the past 40 years.I wouldn’t take it as far but many people …HH: They had it wrong.I want to correct the New Era report.I was on tape [and] anyone who saw my interview will know that New Era twisted the story.I said that I have been in the leadership of the organisation for more than 40 years, and that, as a question of campaigning, all those who followed my story will know that I’m part of the leadership, [and] that I was nominated shouldn’t surprise anybody.That’s all I said.In essence I said that.But New Era said I have been campaigning for 40 years, not only for the presidency, instead of saying I said I was campaigning, [but] not for president, but to be part of the leadership.Q: Many of us believe you have been campaigning behind the scenes at least for the past few years, are we correct about this?HH: No you are not correct.The people assumed that I was, but I don’t think anybody has evidence that I was.Q: Well, when President Nujoma made a statement at the Central Committee meeting that there were – I think this is what he said – people campaigning and it could be divisive for the party, again we assume it was you and former Prime Minister Hage Geingob.What would you say about that?HH: That was your assumption [chuckle].But truly speaking, I was not campaigning.Q: How strongly did you believe, or expect, to be nominated?HH: Well, I knew it depended on others.It was not up to me.If I was to say I want to be president and project myself that way, then I would probably have known better, but others said we’ll ask you to stand.It was in their hands.Q: Your admirers and detractors alike have used these terms – an astute politician, shrewd, cunning – to characterise you.What do you say about this characterisation?HH: Well, I don’t know that I’m shrewd.I don’t think I’m cunning.They probably need to explain what they mean by all that.When you are in a public position as I am, people will have all sorts of perceptions about you and you have no control over what they say about you.So, I don’t know what they are talking about, being shrewd, being …. whatever they are saying, I’m not sure.Q: You say that when you are in the public domain,people form perceptions about you.I think one of the perceptions one will often hear about Minister Hamutenya is a sense of fear among people.Sometimes it is not really articulated … Has this reached you that there is a sense of fear among some people?Why do people fear you?HH: Yes, I have heard about that.I think that people fear me because they don’t know me, because they have not come close enough to me – apparently they have that fear.I do not know what’s the cause of it.One of the reasons is that I tend to be economic with what I say, with whom I speak, and people think that I have a lot of things to hide, so that behind this lack of outspokenness is probably [some] evil intention.I don’t know.But I think all those who come closer to me and have come to know me, will not have that perception.Some do admit that ‘we did not know you but, apparently, what people say about you is not really what you are’.Q: Could this perhaps have been fuelled by … around 1989, people who were detained by Swapo have accused you personally and other people of having been among the architects of this so-called Swapo spy drama.I don’t know if I ever heard you comment about those accusations.HH: Because I have never been accused directly.It was just talk up in the air.Nobody has ever said ‘you were responsible’ because if somebody was to do that, it’s a lot of [inaudible] to give me how he or she knows that and what evidence they can produce, and I can tell you that if anybody is saying I was instrumental in his or her detention, that person had to be a liar.And there were more than 40 000 Namibians in exile.I think they know the story better than some people in the country.Of course I was part of the leadership of Swapo.Like anybody else who was in the leadership, one cannot exonerate him- or herself from what was happening in Swapo.Q: Could that kind of talk be [happening] among those that fuel the suspicion about you?How do you hope to get the message across that ‘you guys are wrong about me?’HH: Quite frankly, I don’t see myself duty bound to explain because I have not played any role different from that of anybody else who was in the leadership.And I know that we were not hiding in some corner, we were up there in defence of thousands of Namibians.I think they know the story better.You’ll be hard put to find anyone to clearly state that Hidipo was the architect of the defence of the revolution and he has gone to excesses in doing a, b, c, y or z.I don’t think you can find anybody who can sincerely and honestly say that and be able to justify the statement.Q: Another issue is that you say you are not afraid to take risks.There have been a few projects that you tried to undertake that didn’t take off.They landed you in quite a lot of controversy, Pidico notably.One could mention the Development Brigade [Corporation], a N$10-million dollar Italian pipe manufacturing project in Walvis Bay.Now we are told Barden International is not doing so well and you are also being mentioned as having been instrumental in bringing them to Namibia, or may be not instrumental, but having presided as trade minister.How would you respond to this perception that you seem to like courting controversy.HH: Pidico, Italian and what?Well, Pidico was a venture of businesspeople who wanted to come here.I did not invest a cent.I did not have any shares in it.Now, if a businessman comes here and he says he wants to put up a business, and he says I want you to help me to identify a place, not I as an individual, but the Ministry of Trade and Industry was charged with that.How would I refuse and say ‘no, I know you are going to fail.Therefore, I would not recommend that you be given land’.Pidico was an agricultural project.When they came here first, they were dealing with the Ministry of Agriculture and I know that they had a project in Mozambique.The Ministry of Agriculture sent a deputy minister and a deputy permanent secretary to Mozambique to look at those projects.They came.They gave a report, a favourable report, saying that ‘yes, the company could be considered as a viable company’.So it went.When they came they wanted land.We said sure, why not.We looked at Kavango, I mean Caprivi and Kavango and finally we settled for Lake Liambezi as a place [where they could do business].And they landed 15 tractors in Grootfontein.The tractors were shipped to Caprivi.Then the quarrel about who owns the tribal land is how the thing was torpedoed.That [inaudible] Coetzee and others jumped on it and said what they wanted to say … One group in Caprivi agreed to it, and one opposed it later and then the media storm.So with the media storm, the people who were behind Pidico said their arrangement, the credit lines they had arranged internationally could not get off the ground.Q: How did it end up with you?Anybody who talks about Pidico here will forget about agriculture.HH: It’s the question.And all those tractors were confiscated by the Ministry of Agriculture.Tractors, 15 of them, were all left and picked up by the Agriculture Ministry.They said that, okay; the import tax was not paid so they were going to confiscate all of them.I think up to now, they still have them; I don’t know where they are.Yet you would want me to be responsible.That was the time of the [late] Minis
ter [Gert] Hanekom.So that’s that.The Italian – I’d say was with the NDC (Namibia Development Corporation).The NDC is a company, which was very much independent, was not getting directives from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.They pick and choose.They hire qualified professionals who evaluate projects.Not the Ministry.They don’t need an okay from the Ministry to proceed with any project.And I do know that the MD of the NDC at that time, Issy Namaseb, did travel to Italy to see whether they were indeed producing the pipes that they said they were producing.He went, he came up with the report and he said ‘yes, they are’ and [they] have the equipment they wanted to bring here.The only [“mistake”] that I committed was that I was head of the Ministry of Trade and Industry under which the NDC falls.Professional men and women were in charge of NDC.They made a decision.They travelled to Italy; I didn’t travel to Italy, just like I did not travel to Mozambique.I cannot be responsible for that kind of decision.Q: On this one, I’m sure you remember the time when Amcom was closed down The MD of Amcom, Mr Siyambango, was saying you did indeed personally recommend or push the hand of the NDC to advance the loan.HH: The only person who could say that is the MD of the NDC, Issy Namaseb… Of course, if the deal is not viable, and you want to be a professional, you would say no.So, it’s a lie.But anyway, Siyambango was saying so many things … because he didn’t want Amcom to be liquidated.This is one …Now the DBC – it was a Government project.I was not managing it.I was a Government minister; I chaired the committee that was dealing with it.The committee was made up of several ministers.The problem with the DBC, I think, needs to be understood.We were trying to turn ex-combatants into people who are productive and also possibly businessmen and women.That’s not Hidipo, it’s the Government.People were experienced in fighting, how to carry guns and how to shoot.They were less inclined [on] how to be productive people, to produce goods – whether it would be [chairs inaudible] whether it would be food.In other words there were a lot of projects.There were agricultural projects in Kavango.There were some other projects in Grootfontein, brick-making in Ondangwa and so and so on.And also the management was there to manage them I think also they found it difficult, because these people had an attitude of being entitled to better jobs.The sense of entitlement negated what we were really trying to do, what we were trying to achieve.They wanted Government jobs, nothing else.They wanted to go into the army, but the army couldn’t be stretched.They [wanted] to go into the police.In the end we ended up turning them into this unit, what is it called now, Special Field Force.Few have remained.The unit that did well for the DBC had to do with security.That fitted in [with] the army mentality, carry a uniform and guard whatever you are guarding.So, but they were not attuned to producing things of value.The idea of a business concept was alien to them, to the majority of them, by and large.Now, imagine, at the time of the Development Brigade, the Government was also looking to reduce the size of the State bureaucracy.We created – out of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication – Telecom, NamPost, these parastatals.We created out of the Ministry of Agriculture NamWater, and then so forth and so on, so many units.Out of Works and Transport we also carved out the Roads Authority, Road Fund and what have you.The question of managing these institutions continues to haunt us up to now.It was not only the Development Brigade that was having difficulties.What is different is that when these ones went out they were given buildings, they were given monopoly status, and they were given capital.That’s now NamPost, Telecom [and] what have you.The DBC had not had the fortune of having a department of any Government [department hived off] to give to them as a department or parastatal.So, things seem to be discussed out of context.Now, Hidipo was not a manager for the DBC, I wasn’t managing any institution or business.A committee appointed somebody, not Hidipo, to go onto the Board.The Board, they are the ones who appoint an MD, other managers and so on and so on.I think they came up against a wall just to get somebody to drive these people into big productive units, effective productive units.That’s what spelled disaster, hardly anything to do with Hidipo.Q: So when people enumerate your failures …HH:They are talking rubbish actually.Most of the time they are talking rubbish (let’s rip a loud laugh).Barden – again I don’t know [how] it becomes my project.I did not negotiate an agreement with Barden.I did not approach Barden to come to Namibia.I was part of the team that visited Detroit where the original idea was discussed.We went there in the company of the President, in the company of the Prime Minister today, then Foreign Minister, and the issue was discussed and it took off from there.The details of the agreement [worked out – inaudible] with the Office of the Attorney General, Vekuii Rukoro.So, it is difficult to pinpoint that it is the role of Hidipo, if any.Q: That renders my question about people referring to the …HH: Well, all that I can say is those are carefully selected things and put at my doorstep.First, they don’t belong on my doorstep as Hidipo.Second, they are just some of the many projects that have failed.There was a project to establish a refinery here.It failed.There was a company that came here as Namco, looking for diamonds.It failed.We are talking now about millions and million of dollars.Several companies have failed, whether they went into textiles, whether they went into diamond mining.And then there was another one after Namco.There was a successor to Namco, Lev Leviev.It failed again.It is now the third time somebody is trying to pick up the pieces.So, one can go on and on tabulating the projects that have failed, both in the private sector and in the public sector.To try to lump them together and push them at the doorstep of Hidipo is way [too] sinister.Truly, it is sinister.Q: Let’s look at successes, at least so far, like Ramatex.HH: Well, again I don’t want to claim the sole achievement, that these are my achievements, because that would be a lie.I have not done anything single-handedly that I want to claim as my own.I happened to be the Minister of Trade and Industry.I happened to have a team that I was working with very closely, it was very dependable.That we used to sit together, put our minds together, and went for the projects.Ramatex – Ramatex was brought to our attention by one of our economic councillors in South Africa, and we advised him that he should send those people here.He is a good officer.He used to wake up in the morning and read the economic reports in the newspapers and magazines in South Africa.One day he came up with a report that Ramatex was having a problem with the South African authorities [in] East London where they wanted to put up a [factory].The question about land, the question about red tape, and so on.When they came over, I was not here, I was away, I think I was in the States.I directed that they be met by members of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Development and Parastatals.I asked that comrade Theo-Ben Gurirab chair the meeting in my place.So, it happened what the people arranged, they were met.The discussion didn’t go as well as they thought it should have gone.When I came back … others were negative.I then said; well we just check it out.I sent David Nuuyoma [Head of the Investment Centre in the Ministry of Trade and Industry] and [Abdul Sataar] Aboobakar, head of the Offshore Development Company]), to Malaysia to discuss and to answer questions Ramatex had put to our Government.One of the [questions] was a matter of something called [harbour fees] that you pay every time you use a harbour.Now, they were saying if we don’t use Walvis Bay you would not get a penny from anybody.Just because we put through 10 containers we must pay about N$10 for every container.What is this?They said ‘we are an
international company, we produce in several countries to export massive amounts and we are not being charged [harbour fees].Why is this?’ Apparently [harbour fees] were only a South African practice.So we were just claiming a South African tradition.We did a study.We took it to Cabinet and Cabinet said to hell with [harbour fees].It was not automatic.Some people were still resisting, I remember that Comrade President, former Prime Minister Hage Geingob, the present Prime Minister; they said, so we are going to forgo a project because of something called harbour fees.Which we don’t get if we don’t have anything to handle at the harbour.Does it make economic sense?The President said ‘no’; he decided to waive [harbour fees].From there, we carried the discussion further.Finally, Ramatex was here.Q: Are you happy despite the criticism of Ramatex?HH: Well, when you’ve got 10 000 people employed, you cannot but be happy.When you look at the general situation, it cannot be the best arrangement, but definitely is a deal that nobody can turn his back on, when you’ve got unemployment up to 35 per cent or even more.Q: Skorpion Zinc?HH: Yes, Scorpion Zinc, the same thing.It was first Union Mines, a British company that came and said ‘we will develop this deposit provided certain conditions were met’.And we sat down with my team, David Nuuyoma, Aboobakar and all those guys at Trade and Industry.We went over a range of issues.They wanted initially to bring in several hundreds of technicians from South Africa.They wanted to be given EPZ status for the value addition component of the operation.In other words they’ll pay tax on mining.And before they ship the material, they wanted to smelt and refine the zinc – that portion should be an EPZ.We said ‘fine’.And we kept arguing back and forth.Finally we signed an agreement and they started.Again, that is a success story that I have been identified with, but I cannot claim that it is my personal victory.It’s the team I worked with.We worked so well with the team.Q: Minister Hamutenya, the issue of poverty is ranked with HIV-AIDS as one of the biggest impediments to development – not only in our country – but also in the rest of Africa.How differently do you intend to deal with that if elected President?HH: Yes, it’s true, those are the two burning issues of the day.Poverty will need to be addressed in a holistic manner.First, we have to grow the economy.This means you have to address it in a multi-pronged fashion, the question of job creation.One needs to have a very clear and focussed programme to create jobs in all sectors.There’s room for expansion.If we can do something more in the mining sector to create jobs, we will encourage that to happen.If it’s a question of aquaculture, to expand the fishing industry … we will support that wholeheartedly.If it is a question of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), we’ll look at that.If it’s a question of foreign direct investment (FDI) we will do that, we’ll support it.(If it’s) a question of a green scheme, we’ll support it.I think it is by carrying out a simultaneous attack on all those fronts, that we’ll be able to make a dent in poverty.We address poverty … to the extent that we are able to create jobs.People will have an income, and they are able to do … things because they have an income for their families.Tourism should be added.Tourism has great potential.It will require streamlining of the management of our tourist facilities.There are those who handle the public.We need to think about a [questionnaire] for the tourists.What kind of things do they prefer to have in terms of accommodation, in terms of entertainment and so forth and so on.So, that has to be addressed as a matter of urgency.If resources cannot be found, we have to think about how to find resources.Industry – we cannot relent on that.I would be happy to have four more Ramatexes.I think with four more Ramatexes we’ll deal a serious body blow to poverty.It doesn’t have to be textiles, but textiles are the industry that has launched South East Asian nations into what is called industrialising countries.You graduate from clothing into electronics and into other things.But textiles are at the forefront of industrialisation.I think those people now who have been working for a year or two at Ramatex have a sense of an assembly line in a factory, how it functions – you do this, somebody does that and things are moving, and at the end of the line you can see a product being packed and shipped to go for export.So, with our EPZ, with AGOA market access, I think we can do more in this sector.Then we combine this manufacturing, whether it’s for leather goods, which we have the capacity to produce.If our tanneries were supplying certain products here in Windhoek, we would be producing a significant number of shoes and leather bags, which we can export in significant quantities.Now, we have the experience, but … the one is here the other one there, business in Namibia is so small, they are family businesses.That was okay in the past.Some people were running small businesses that were linked to South Africa.But if you want to go into the bigger market of the world you need economies of scale to make a difference.Q: To return to the issue of HIV-AIDS.Would your Cabinet consider, for instance, to publicise the identities of relatives who have died of AIDS or even to reveal their own HIV status?HH:Well, that’s fine.They can do that.I’m not so sure whether there will be a significant development in the combating of HIV.Everybody knows people are dying every day.It is not a secret that people are sick and people are dying and that you need to see somebody in a bed or on a stretcher.Maybe it’s okay, it’s relevant, but it’s not critical.What is critical is to intensify the awareness campaign in a much more focussed way.It is to provide access to drugs to prolong life for those who are infected.Q: The one long-running criticism of President Sam Nujoma is that the size of his Cabinet is bloated to the extent that it dominates the National Assembly.What do you say – is that a healthy situation or is it something that you thought you’d change?HH: Well, I have not paid sufficient attention to that, but you’d understand that President Nujoma presided over the first Cabinet.There were so many considerations to be taken into account.Various interests of different communities, consideration of many people who had devoted a big part of their lives to bringing about freedom and independence.So all those factors, I’m sure, influenced the President’s decision to have the Cabinet in the form and structure that it is now.I’m not sure that we have made sufficient progress, that we don’t need to look into the state of Government structure for jobs and for opportunities to serve the people.Obviously, some people now would like to go into business.Some have some savings.They will get their pensions.I wouldn’t be surprised if five of the former ministers and deputy ministers form the biggest company in Namibia to do something, to put up a shoe factory and viable tannery and produce shoe leather … so something more creative to do.After all, people are doing much better in the private sector than in the Government.So Government cannot be the alpha and omega of all of us from 1990 to the end of our productive lives.Q: So, will your cabinet be smaller, about the same, bigger… ?HH:It cannot be bigger, it cannot be bigger.As I said, I have not paid sufficient attention to it.It can only be smaller.It cannot be bigger for the reasons I gave you, that there were compelling circumstances that I think for now are not as compelling.They are relevant but they are not compelling. Q: And in what other respects would the presidency under Hidipo Hamutenya differ from the current one?HH: Oh well, the other one was under President Nujoma, this under Hidipo, that’s already a difference.We are two different people.President Nujoma is the founding father.I will never be a founding father.He alone can be the founding father, the first President, the first chairman of the Cabinet of Namibia.Under those circumstances so many experiments had to
be done.Maybe there would not be so much need for experimenting in the future as there was in the past.Q: Can you tell us about other differences?Are there some areas on which you would concentrate more than on others?HH: We have, as a Government, adopted Vision 2030.The implementation of Vision 2030 has not yet fully started.When it fully starts, [and that] will be soon, the priorities have to be recast to achieve the goals that we set ourselves for Vision 2030.We would probably look at priorities, we will adjust them, we will re-order them, but not by much, because most of the priorities are there now, and they are agreed on collectively by the leadership of the party and the Government.But there’s no problem to adjust, to re-order priorities, that can always be a possibility without necessarily deviating radically from what has been agreed upon already.Q: The issue of the building of the new State House that some of us criticise President Sam Nujoma for and even assumed that the old man didn’t want to leave and that’s why he was building such a grand place.What is your view on this?HH: You have to thank President Sam Nujoma for doing some of the things that people in Namibia don’t understand.President Sam Nujoma has been to [many] places across this globe.There is not a continent he did not walk upon.And in all these instances he was welcomed by the governments of those countries, and there were symbols of State power which he has been able to observe and witness.And he felt that when I’m supervising the new State of Namibia, I want to build some monuments of State power that will stay and serve the people who will be in place and people who will be visiting and so forth and so on.If people had looked at this project from that angle, there would not have been so much hullabaloo …Clearly this … here is not a monument, is not a State monument this one.It’s a little thing.We were in Pretoria yesterday.You look at the thousands of people who were in Pretoria yesterday from New Zealand, Australia, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe.Yes, some had to go to hotels, but a sizable group of about 30 Presidents and nine Prime Ministers and the entourages they move with, the hotels were also being stretched to the limit.So, you want to welcome your visitors in a dignified manner, and you welcome them in your State edifice.You go to the Union Building [in Pretoria] you see mammoth structures there.They don’t belong to Mandela, they don’t belong to Thabo [Mbeki], even De Klerk lived there.They are still assets of the nation.There has to be some cost.The issue is being personalised, the construction of State House.’Ja Sam Nujoma doesn’t want to leave, he has built himself a big house’.Now he is going, he says he is going, and he can keep saying that he just wanted to build that for the nation.Unfortunately, if you want great things, you have to pay for them.They do not come free of charge, and that one is not like Air Namibia.It is there to stay.It is not like money being put into Air Namibia, which we do not know how we can sustain it.This one, once finished, is a one-off project.Q: Talking of Air Namibia, over the past five years I think they have pumped a billion into it already.HH: Most likely.The question we are unable to answer is; we keep saying we want to reform it.We don’t easily seem to succeed at reforming it, but somewhere, at the back of our minds, we have a feeling that we will be able to turn it around if we find a strategic [partner] or something like that.But, clearly, Air Namibia is a problem of management, but is [also] important for the growth of our tourism industry.Without Air Namibia, it will be difficult to get tourism to grow.And a study has been done in the region.If you look at the countries that have no capacity to fly overseas, Namibia comes out (together with Mauritius and others that have airlines) … is doing much better in the tourism sector.But there is cost to this.If we can find a solution to the Boeing 747, which seems to be the main problem of maintaining and operating it, I think we’ll be okay.Q: Namibia led by President Hidipo Hamutenya – who will be our international allies or who will be our closest ally?HH: First our neighbours:Angola, DRC, Botswana, South Africa, all the SADC member states.Why?Because our destiny is tied together.If one of these countries is under pressure of destabilisation, it will show in our economy and our stability.So we value all these relationships.Then there are the major political and economic powers of the world with enormous resources.You need to be in their good books with them and to have cordial relationships with them.Whether it will be the USA or China, whether it is France or Britain and so forth.We need to maintain good relationships with them.Q: Ending the interview, now that you are a nominee, what are you doing, how are you campaigning to make sure that you are elected?HH: I’m talking to … for now, it is a competition among comrades and within the Swapo system.So, I do talk to Swapo comrades, those who will be at the Congress in particular, but all others are valuable, because they [can] put in a good word to somebody from the congress over a cup of tea or they meet at the congress or a wedding.The debate goes on.You talk to everybody and they come forth themselves wanting to know what would you do if you were elected.So you keep talking.Q: Do you find yourself having to accept more appointments now than before?HH: Yes indeed.Well, I think I could have taken them on before if there were so many coming, but definitely now that they are pouring in …Q: In case there is something I left out…HH: I know that if I was to be elected, I will be stepping into the very big shoes of Comrade Sam Nujoma.He is a very extraordinary man, a hard-working man, a determined man in pursuit of what he believes in.He has had the interests of the country at heart and that will always be [the case], I think, and [he is] one who has never been found wanting as far as the interests of the country are concerned.So, I would seek or elect to emulate those qualities.I will not be able to match them, but I can definitely strive to also emulate, to achieve, great things as he did.He is looking strong and healthy.He’ll be around.I will make it a point to consult him as often as seems appropriate.Q: President Sam Nujoma, we have learnt, has nominated Minister Pohamba and that he does not want you to become President of this country.Do you have the same feeling?HH: No.I think the President is a democrat and in democracy we have preferences.So, he has shown his preference by nominating Comrade Pohamba.At the same time he has shown respect for the views of others, for the democratic right of others to nominate other [candidates] and it’s how we ended up with three candidates.And he has accepted to live with the consequences of the decision taken by the Central Committee last month.So, I don’t think that President Nujoma has anything personally against me, but he clearly prefers to do his own thing.He has been with Pohamba for a long time … all these are things you have to understand.Q: I cut you short on anything to add.HH: What I can say – the question of peace stability and national unity are the issues that pre-occupy my mind.I know we have achieved that for the last 15 years.But I’m also profoundly aware that they can slip away in a matter of days and there are so many examples around us.A country called Ivory Coast was a shining example of African stability and progress.Liberia, Ethiopia – how they slipped and went back to square one.This reminds one constantly that the only guarantee of peace, security and stability is to remain constantly conscious that reversals are possible.Not only possible, but they can happen often.As a leader of the nation, one has to be constantly on one’s toes to ensure that one does not make an irresponsible move that will destabilise peace and plunge the country into chaos and instability.So that is probably why you see young people ending up, in a few years time, looking very old.Because of the heavy burden that one is carrying to maintain peace and st
ability.