How to hang a portrait …

PARLIAMENT might be faced with passing a law which will stipulate the exact manner in which the portraits of the President and the founding President are to be hung in official Government buildings.

Prime Minister Nahas Angula has told the National Assembly that directives issued by Cabinet last year on the way the pictures should be hung were only regarded as temporary measures and that a law could be in the offing to give legal effect to their display. He was responding to a question last week by MAG’s Jurie Viljoen on whether Government was satisfied that its current policy regarding the hanging of the portraits was being adhered to.”I would like to urge [you] not to be surprised when I rise in this august House to introduce a bill that will ultimately give legal effect to the display of the portraits of the founding President and incumbent President and all other Presidents of the Republic of Namibia,” he said.Angula told the House that following the inauguration of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, numerous questions arose from Government offices on how the portraits should be placed.He said Cabinet had been advised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had in turn learnt from the experiences of other countries, on the display of the portraits.Angula said other countries had Acts of Parliament to regulate the display of all the people who had served as presidents.According to the Cabinet resolution, the portraits of the founding President and the serving President must both be displayed in all public offices and buildings.The picture of the serving President must be displayed at the highest level within the room.The portrait of the founding President must be displayed across or opposite the portrait of the incumbent President.If circumstances dictate that both portraits have to be displayed next to each other, then the portrait of the serving President must take precedence – it must be placed higher than that of the founding President and to the left of his picture.He was responding to a question last week by MAG’s Jurie Viljoen on whether Government was satisfied that its current policy regarding the hanging of the portraits was being adhered to. “I would like to urge [you] not to be surprised when I rise in this august House to introduce a bill that will ultimately give legal effect to the display of the portraits of the founding President and incumbent President and all other Presidents of the Republic of Namibia,” he said.Angula told the House that following the inauguration of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, numerous questions arose from Government offices on how the portraits should be placed.He said Cabinet had been advised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had in turn learnt from the experiences of other countries, on the display of the portraits.Angula said other countries had Acts of Parliament to regulate the display of all the people who had served as presidents.According to the Cabinet resolution, the portraits of the founding President and the serving President must both be displayed in all public offices and buildings.The picture of the serving President must be displayed at the highest level within the room.The portrait of the founding President must be displayed across or opposite the portrait of the incumbent President.If circumstances dictate that both portraits have to be displayed next to each other, then the portrait of the serving President must take precedence – it must be placed higher than that of the founding President and to the left of his picture.