Oil is Slippery, Dear President

president netumbo nandi-ndaitwah (NNN) is correct to assert that her children have the right, like other citizens and as per the Constitution, to conduct lawful business in Namibia.

She was responding to media reports and an incident involving independent journalist Jemima Beukes reportedly being harassed by the president’s security detail for asking an impromptu question at the wrong time.

“With respect to the article headlined ‘President under fire for ‘family oil interest’’, written by Mr Eliaser Ndeyanale and Mr Martin Endjala and published in The Namibian newspaper on 3 February 2026, as well as the allegations attributed to Ms Jemima Beukes, I state categorically and without reservation that my children have no interests, direct or indirect, in the oil and gas sector,” a presidential press statement reads.

While we accept Nandi-Ndaitwah’s dismissal of the notion, we urge her to reconsider her headstrong attitude in deciding to run the oil and gas industry herself.

This could be a slippery slope.
The Presidency might well be planting a minefield around herself and her relatives in the long term.

That, in addition to what opposition parties have since last year criticised as the president usurping constitutional ministerial duties.

If the theft of public resources and corruption are the reasons why the president wants to control the upstream oil business, bringing it under her administrative control shows NNN is on the wrong path.

A good leader builds and strengthens structures and teams to achieve objectives.

The president while opening parliament this week asserted that she believes in the separation of state organs’ powers.

The move to hoard petroleum upstream business contradicts this statement.

It robs the parliament of the oversight role of being able to question ministers, since the president cannot be summoned and held accountable in the same way as other Cabinet members who are part of the legislature.

As for her relatives, how would the president approach the issue if they were to get involved somewhere along the value chain of the oil industry, considering the government’s push for so-called local content – the policy to reserve business dealings in petroleum for Namibians?

As seen in countries such as Angola under Jose Eduardo dos Santos, proximity to power gives politicians’ relatives and cronies an unfair advantage.

The granting of licences in sectors prone to rent-seeking, such as mining, oil, and fishing, as well as farm allocations are particularly rife in some countries.

By insisting on controlling the industry directly, the president risks an increase in nepotism and cronyism.

She may well put her relatives, friends and political comrades at a disadvantage as negative perceptions would be difficult to brush aside.

The President and Her Media Friends

SINCE assuming power, president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has been saying she is “a friend of the media”, recognising that the press is a key partner in Namibia’s governance.

“I’m a friend of the media,” she repeated this week as she was ambushed by journalist Jemima Beukes with a question about her family’s alleged role in the oil and gas sector.

The exchange between the journalist and the president ended in what State House seems to suggest was a security issue when Beukes was booted from the state property.

Beukes afterwards said security officers grabbed her by the elbow, forcing her out of the building while she was interviewing a minister.

The journalist reported that the security officers made sure she got into her car and followed her for at least a kilometre on public roads to a nearby shopping mall.

While the Presidency frames the incident as a security measure and an enforcement of “mutual respect and professionalism”, the extent of leading the journalist out and further on a public road suggests overreach and intimidation.

The president has not held a single press conference affording journalists sufficient time for a range of questions that have not been pre-arranged.

Beukes’ question may have been without base, but you cannot fault her approach of posing impromptu queries.

That is precisely how journalism should function: probing, provocative and unafraid to ask uncomfortable questions at any time.

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