Kaapanda Is Struggling To Exist As The Government’s Top Spin Doctor

LET me preface this column by stating that I have always had a modicum of respect for Minister Joel Kaapanda. I have written articles commending the diligent manner in which he acquainted himself with his ministerial duties, first at regional government and later at the works ministry.

However, as Minister of Information and ICT, Kaapanda has been courting and displaying assiduously a succession of weaknesses, even sheer failures, such as the erratic handling of affairs at the national broadcaster, the NBC. The NBC’s leadership squabbles did not only turn into a sore soap opera, but Kaapanda has also been unable to articulate or defend a compelling vision of the NBC as a broadcaster encompassing the best of democratic values and practices. Second, he has shown a failure of nerve to articulate through the ICT act a vision that promotes an empowering citizenship as opposed to one that lives in fear of their telephone and electronic mail exchanges being scrutinised. It is also under Kaapanda’s watch that a board for the Communication Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), consisting of only Oshiwambo-speaking Namibians was recently appointed to oversee the communications sector. Shockingly, as Minister responsible for rolling out ICT, Kaapanda’s Ministry is run without a functioning website! It is a Ministry of Information and ICT without the rudimentary notions of what it means to be in the information age. All these faux pas illustrate that Kaapanda’s handling of the information portfolio has been less than convincing.So, what we heard, read and saw last week was just the tipping point in a laundry list of errors. Kaapanda’s startling decision to waste public television with rumours sounding as if they have been invented at a shebeen, unknown to the majority of Namibians, merely confirms the view that the Minister has taken a feudalistic posture of spin and what his work as information chief entails in a country with democratic pretensions. This is just but one of the many ways of trying to deconstruct this inexplicable blunder. We can look at Kaapanda the Information Minister, but the problem seems to be bigger than looking at matters at the unit-level. Another view is to take a structural analysis, questioning the elevation of information to ministerial rank. It is a mixture of both these structural and systemic factors that may allow us to locate Kaapanda’s latest stunt. It is true that Kaapanda is painfully trying to justify his existence in a system where many individuals speak for the ruling party and government. The Minister of Justice, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, in her capacity as Secretary General, now addresses press conferences with increasing regularity. The Swapo Party secretary for information, Jerry Ekandjo, is also an important voice on party matters and does so in a manner that provides more attractive fodder for media practitioners. In addition to this, ministers and permanent secretaries have voice over what is happening in their ministries. Therefore, apart from rehashing selected Cabinet decisions, there is no coordinated system or pattern of government communications and spin, including a clear delineation of what falls within Kaapanda’s ambit. Even if Kaapanda’s passionate, but inept defence of a retired president with a dedicated office serving him is most awkward, Kaapanda’s dilemma is certainly how to exist in this system whose functioning only point to a form of arrested and deformed state-party formation. On the whole, I don’t believe that Kaapanda lacks the necessary qualities to succeed as a technocrat. But Kaapandagate is just a potent reminder that the information ministry and the excessive Swapo Party-speak in which he tries to engage at every turn, are simply the wrong fit for him. Kaapanda is struggling to exist in party-inspired political propaganda and would do well to request President Pohamba to shift him to another cabinet position in the next government. * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.