Namibia Needs a Transformational Leader

LEONARD KANIME

IN 2024, NAMIBIANS WILL go to the polls to elect a new leader.

The ruling party, Swapo, which has been in power for three decades, has already had its leadership nomination congress to elect who will vie for the gateway position of vice president.

The candidates are environment and tourism minister Pohamba Shifeta, deputy prime minister and minister of international relations and cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.

Whoever emerges as the ruling party’s candidate, should already be working on a new narrative, one in which leadership is based on rooting out some of the country’s endemic dishonesties and lifting Namibians out of poverty.

There is an old adage “we don’t expect beans cooked in the same pot to taste different”. Namibia needs a candidate who will be transformational, a candidate with not only a grasp of economics, but who is strategic and a visionary.

As a norm, Swapo’s candidate must comply with its governing structures.

Whether the successful candidate will undertake a transformational approach or simply replace the old guard with loyalists will be determined not simply by her or his intentions, but by Swapo’s capacity to institute reform.

It will also be determined by the degree to which Namibians themselves demand fundamental change.

Some of the problems in our country happen by design, which underlines why Namibia needs a strategic and trans­formational leader who can shake off the dead leaves.

For many years, Swapo has seemed inseparable from power, deriving its legitimacy not just from the party’s history of resistance to apartheid and colonialism, but from its victory in the lengthy liberation war that ended in the late 1980s.

The liberation struggle squad has been largely unaccommodating and will never give up their posts unless health conditions or death do them part.

We need a leader who can institute a strategy that accommodates accountability, honesty, and commitment, not entitlement.

Hopefully, Namibia’s future leadership will not link their failures to apartheid.

Those embezzling funds from various government entities are not the people who colonised us.

Those abusing power, and those using connections to sidestep procedures or secure deals or tenders are not from the apartheid system.

Yes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Yes, vestiges of apartheid and colonialism still inform aspects of our lives but a victim mentality will not get us anywhere.

We cannot remain stuck in the past; we need to use the past to drive us forward.

Some countries are making a fist of it in the wake of colonisation.

Look at Zambia’s currency now, from grass to grace after a change of leadership.

The day we own our failures is the day we will begin the journey to building a better future.

It is our obligation to ensure that we elect the right leader, a leader who can effectively manage the government, natural resources, and human capacity development; a leader not afraid to step out of the shadows of the old guard and chart a new way of doing things.

We need a leader who is committed to candour, honesty, and the truth.

With a transformational leader, Namibia will be well placed to get to grips with past and current social impediments so that they too become history.

* Leonard Kanime is a social commentator

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