One Year On: Face To Face With The President

On Tuesday, President Hifikepunye Pohamba will mark his first year in office as the leader of Namibia.This week he spoke to The Namibian’s Christof Maletsky about the challenges of the past 12 months, about farming, his family and, of course, the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle come next week.

CM: As you come to the end of your first year in office, you will doubtless be taking stock. How do you see the past year? HP: Well, maybe I should start about my life as a person.I was learning how to be a President of a country and that learning process, I must say, was a challenge.It was challenging to me because I am heading a Government and I am heading the State.I could easily understand the heading of a government having been a Minister.But being a head of state is very different.The combination of the two formed a great challenge to me.I have been learning and working, at the same time trying to implement the Swapo Party decisions made in the past.So, in short, it was a learning process and working process at the same time.I have, to a certain extent, enjoyed the challenges because by nature I like to do challenging things.But there are times when the situation becomes difficult, especially the difficulties like HIV-AIDS.People are sick and people are dying.We don’t manufacture drugs and the country has a shortage of medical personnel.That is not the only disease.We have many more.The case of AIDS orphans is also a challenge.We are trying to find ways how the children will survive.People have no work, yet we want to reduce poverty.The easy way to reduce poverty is by having people employed.If a house has a boy or a girl or both employed, within four months you detect the change.The young children eat before going to school and some go with lunchboxes to school – something that they have never done.So that is an improvement.Then you have the young people leaving school after failing Grade 10.These children have no hope of continuing their studies.They join the army of the unemployed in Windhoek, Walvis Bay and other towns.All these are challenges that I have been facing.At the same time you feel happy because there is implementation of some of the decisions taken by the Government in the past.Say, for example, we have seen the completion of the road from Opuwo to Makange and work on the one from Kamanjab has started.We are implementing, not decisions of Pohamba, but decisions of the Swapo Party Government.You have the railway from Tsumeb to Ondangwa.You look at the progress, which is very encouraging.Just to mention a few of the projects implemented during the last 11 months.CM: What has most surprised you about your first year in office? HP: Well, I expected to come to State House.But I was surprised because some of the things I used to do as a minister I cannot do any longer.For example, I used to do shopping with the family.Now I don’t do it.Maybe it is not a surprise.It is something that I knew was coming but I can tell you that I am missing going to the shops with my family.The other thing is the load of work.I deal with Government business but also problems confronting communities.Say, for instance, traditional leaders are coming with some kind of disagreement between communities.Each one is coming with a good story about how bad the other is and I have to mediate.It makes me feel happy when most of the mediation is successful.In a way that they were solved peacefully and without going to the press.Apart from that, I have to deal with the international situation.For the first time I had to travel to attend the UN meeting last year.It was an experience to be among the leaders of the world, kings and queens.I also travelled to the African Union meetings.I was surprised when fellow leaders asked me at the Commonwealth meeting in Malta to do the vote of thanks to Her Majesty the Queen.A new head of state of a small country like Namibia speaking on behalf of other heads of state.This is just to mention a few.I visited some great countries and spoke to great leaders of the world.I also went to one of the countries with a very long history with us, the Federal Republic of Germany, and to the People’s Republic of China – another country that has been very supportive to the people of Namibia.All this I did apart from concentrating at home.Here you might have been following my movements, visiting one region after another talking to communities and stakeholders.CM: So what has been most difficult part so far? HP: The most difficult part was last September in New York when my delegation and I had to convince donor countries that Namibia was not a middle-income country and needed their support.I was moving from one delegation to another trying to convince them.However, the outcome pleases me.For instance, the United States said Namibia should be a beneficiary of the Millennium Challenge Account.We were not supposed to be beneficiaries but because of the campaign, the Americans were convinced that Namibia should be assisted.One has to express appreciation for the understanding of the US Embassy and the recommendation they made for us.Then the EU member states have also been very helpful.Perhaps they have not done like the US, but I appreciate the continuation of the assistance they have been rendering to us.CM: Is there any aspect you have particularly enjoyed as President of Namibia so far? HP: Well, maybe I should not put it that I have enjoyed it.You enjoy when you go from one region to another and when people express their appreciation of your leadership.On the other hand, you get mixed feelings about optimism and whether you will be able to deliver what they expect.In that situation, you don’t feel that you are enjoying.At the same time, you know that your team of Cabinet members and Members of Parliament have been very supportive.Their support is a source of encouragement to me.CM: How do you view Government differently as President and Chairman of Cabinet as opposed to when you were a minister who always wanted more money, for example for resettlement? HP: When I was a Minister I felt all that I was presenting to the Cabinet should be considered as priorities.But when I came to this office, chairing the Cabinet and looking at all the problems we have in the country, I have realised that we should not think that way.The Ministers must select some priority projects and the funding must not be because it is a project of this or that minister.It must be projects that are important to the nation.For example, education, agriculture, rural development and electricity are all priority areas.If we create the infrastructure at rural level, it will attract development and the influx into Windhoek will be less.People come here to look for jobs and to do business because there are no facilities.If we can electrify rural areas and encourage people to put up agricultural projects there, people can be more productive.If they have roads, they can take their surplus produce to the markets.There are many projects we intend to start in rural areas.CM: With all the travelling that you just referred to, how is your farming doing? You are also a family man with grandchildren… HP: As a Minister I could go to the farm twice or thrice a month.I don’t have that opportunity any longer.It is true about the family.The children go to school early and when they return I am still at work.I go home at 21h00 or 22h00 and some feel that their grandfather is not in Namibia.There is that gap.CM: Every year we see at least 10 000 pupils not making it to Grade 11 and thousands more don’t make it to higher-learning institutions.The classroom shortage seems to reappear each year also.Can your administration make the difference and how? HP: Education is one of our priority areas.It is true that most of the Grade 10 dropouts and Grade 12s lose hope – the hope of going for further studies – and it is because we don’t have a lot of colleges.We are designing programmes to create hope for them.The Ministry of Youth, for instance, has drawn up a good programme but the challenge is infrastructure.It contributes to a schoolroom crisis each year and every year we deal with crisis management.Facilities are not built by talking.We don’t have magic power like the Almighty God – we say a word and things come into being.You need money for materials.The question is how will the money come? We get it when the economy is growing.If it is stagnant, we won’t get money.However, looking at the achievements over the last 16 years, you can see there are efforts to improve.If you are unable to see, you can go there and even touch the buildings.There was no university and now we have one.Today, of course, we have so many graduates coming from those institutions.But, maybe, we need to concentrate on building more classrooms in rural areas.CM: Recently at Luederitz you said something to the effect that “sometimes I fear that we are not going to make it …that things are moving too slowly …that if we don’t do something we are not going to be able to implement it”.Are you concerned about whether we have the necessary impetus to achieve the goals of Vision 2030? HP: Yes, that’s exactly what I was referring to.Like I have spoken about crisis management at the beginning of each year – having no classrooms for the pupils.That in itself hampers the progress of Vision 2030.When you talk about 2030 you are referring to a process to be embarked upon.If you have children not going to school, is that not causing a slow process? By 2030 we need our own qualified people.Having no children go to school hinders the process.This is part of the slow process I referred to.You also have other problems like the slow land resettlement.Things are not moving as fast as we would like.Yet, everything is done on land.The industries are built on land.Everything.So there is a need for us to move a little bit faster with the plans in the national development goals.CM: Having had an opportunity to work with the same group of people for almost 12 months now, can we expect any Cabinet changes come March 21? HP: Well, I don’t know what you mean by changes.Is it changes to have new faces in the Cabinet, or changes in the job that we are doing? CM: Both ways.Changes in terms of bringing in new blood, and also a reshuffle to position them better.HP: I don’t think there is a need for a reshuffle.If you say to position them better, I have not yet received any advice from anybody who says that the people are not positioned well.Maybe you need to do this.We say that we like transparency and want to see all the citizens talking to us.So far no one has come to me making some suggestions of reshuffles and convincing me with the facts that because of ABC a reshuffle is necessary.CM: We have heard that Honourable Hage Geingob might return to Cabinet.Will this happen? HP: Well, I don’t have comment on that.CM: You are also the Vice President of Swapo and there will be a congress next year to elect a new leader for the party.Will you stand as Swapo President? HP: Well, I will follow the Swapo structures.Within those structures you are told when to say and when not to say.At this point in time, I am not to say anything because the time will be coming.The organs of the structures, for example the Politburo, will start and pave way by asking people to start submitting their intentions to the party.It’s at that point that I will be making a submission to the party whether to stand or not to stand.But at this point in time, there is no invitation from members of the party to do that.But the time is coming.The time will definitely come.The congress has to take place next year.That is in line with the set-up of the constitution.Leaders will have to be elected.CM: When I interviewed you shortly after you became Swapo’s presidential candidate, you spoke about the importance of unity in the party.Will you agree with me that strains within the ruling party have been coming to the fore lately and do you feel this has affected your running of Government? HP: You see, in a party you have to have some differences.It’s more or less like you have in a family.Maybe you don’t have a big family.I have a big family and there are times you find the children quarrelling.Some of them even assault each other.That in itself doesn’t mean that the children are no longer part of the family.Ja, we have some differences here and there within the party but these are not serious problems.Unity is what we have been preaching.We must continue to preach unity within the party and also among Namibians.It’s only through unity that we will be able to keep peace and, having peace, will bring development in the country.Within Swapo too.For our party to be prosperous as a representative of the people, we must keep unity.Otherwise, if we are divided then we won’t be able to serve the people of this country.That is why we always say Swapo is the people and the people are Swapo.CM: But in some cases we hear that ministers are not communicating with their permanent secretaries because they sit around different party fires.Somebody at the meeting you had with permanent secretaries also spoke of differences with ministers.How do you tackle such differences? HP: Yes, indeed, this was said at that very important meeting I had with the chief administrators of the Government and we have addressed it.I think it is now something of the past and the situation is now very, very good.CM: Finally, when are you moving into the new State House? HP: Well, there are two stages of building the State House.They are busy with the construction of the offices but the residence has not yet started.Now, I don’t know if your question is about moving the office from here to there or moving from here to the new residential area.If it is about moving to the new residence, that is not in sight because the construction has not yet started.But the movement from here to the other offices we have not yet discussed.According to the information given to me by the Ministry that is responsible for the construction, the construction of those offices will be finished this year.So we will have to sit down and decide when the Office of the President will move to the new premises.CM: That’ll be it for our interview.HP: Oh, I am happy that you have come.How do you see the past year? HP: Well, maybe I should start about my life as a person.I was learning how to be a President of a country and that learning process, I must say, was a challenge.It was challenging to me because I am heading a Government and I am heading the State.I could easily understand the heading of a government having been a Minister.But being a head of state is very different.The combination of the two formed a great challenge to me.I have been learning and working, at the same time trying to implement the Swapo Party decisions made in the past.So, in short, it was a learning process and working process at the same time.I have, to a certain extent, enjoyed the challenges because by nature I like to do challenging things.But there are times when the situation becomes difficult, especially the difficulties like HIV-AIDS.People are sick and people are dying.We don’t manufacture drugs and the country has a shortage of medical personnel.That is not the only disease.We have many more.The case of AIDS orphans is also a challenge.We are trying to find ways how the children will survive.People have no work, yet we want to reduce poverty.The easy way to reduce poverty is by having people employed.If a house has a boy or a girl or both employed, within four months you detect the change.The young children eat before going to school and some go with lunchboxes to school – something that they have never done.So that is an improvement.Then you have the young people leaving school after failing Grade 10.These children have no hope of continuing their studies.They join the army of the unemployed in Windhoek, Walvis Bay and other towns.All these are challenges that I have been facing.At the same time you feel happy because there is implementation of some of the decisions taken by the Government in the past.Say, for example, we have seen the completion of the road from Opuwo to Makange and work on the one from Kamanjab has started.We are implementing, not decisions of Pohamba, but decisions of the Swapo Party Government.You have the railway from Tsumeb to Ondangwa.You look at the progress, which is very encouraging.Just to mention a few of the projects implemented during the last 11 months.CM: What has most surprised you about your first year in office? HP: Well, I expected to come to State House.But I was surprised because some of the things I used to do as a minister I cannot do any longer.For example, I used to do shopping with the family.Now I don’t do it.Maybe it is not a surprise.It is something that I knew was coming but I can tell you that I am missing going to the shops with my family.The other thing is the load of work.I deal with Government business but also problems confronting communities.Say, for instance, traditional leaders are coming with some kind of disagreement between communities.Each one is coming with a good story about how bad the other is and I have to mediate.It makes me feel happy when most of the mediation is successful.In a way that they were solved peacefully and without going to the press.Apart from that, I have to deal with the international situation.For the first time I had to travel to attend the UN meeting last year.It was an experience to be among the leaders of the world, kings and queens.I also travelled to the African Union meetings.I was surprised when fellow leaders asked me at the Commonwealth meeting in Malta to do the vote of thanks to Her Majesty the Queen.A new head of state of a small country like Namibia speaking on behalf of other heads of state.This is just to mention a few.I visited some great countries and spoke to great leaders of the world.I also went to one of the countries with a very long history with us, the Federal Republic of Germany, and to the People’s Republic of China – another country that has been very supportive to the people of Namibia.All this I did apart from concentrating at home.Here you might have been following my movements, visiting one region after another talking to communities and stakeholders.CM: So what has been most difficult part so far? HP: The most difficult part was last September in New York when my delegation and I had to convince donor countries that Namibia was not a middle-income country and needed their support.I was moving from one delegation to another trying to convince them.However, the outcome pleases me.For instance, the United States said Namibia should be a beneficiary of the Millennium Challenge Account.We were not supposed to be beneficiaries but because of the campaign, the Americans were convinced that Namibia should be assisted.One has to express appreciation for the understanding of the US Embassy and the recommendation they made for us.Then the EU member states have also been very helpful.Perhaps they have not done like the US, but I appreciate the continuation of the assistance they have been rendering to us. CM: Is there any aspect you have particularly enjoyed as President of Namibia so far? HP: Well, maybe I should not put it that I have enjoyed it.You enjoy when you go from one region to another and when people express their appreciation of your leadership.On the other hand, you get mixed feelings about optimism and whether you will be able to deliver what they expect.In that situation, you don’t feel that you are enjoying.At the same time, you know that your team of Cabinet members and Members of Parliament have been very supportive.Their support is a source of encouragement to me.CM: How do you view Government differently as President and Chairman of Cabinet as opposed to when you were a minister who always wanted more money, for example for resettlement? HP: When I was a Minister I felt all that I was presenting to the Cabinet should be considered as priorities.But when I came to this office, chairing the Cabinet and looking at all the problems we have in the country, I have realised that we should not think that way.The Ministers must select some priority projects and the funding must not be because it is a project of this or that minister.It must be projects that are important to the nation.For example, education, agriculture, rural development and electricity are all priority areas.If we create the infrastructure at rural level, it will attract development and the influx into Windhoek will be less.People come here to look for jobs and to do business because there are no facilities.If we can electrify rural areas and encourage people to put up agricultural projects there, people can be more productive.If they have roads, they can take their surplus produce to the markets.There are many projects we intend to start in rural areas.CM: With all the travelling that you just referred to, how is your farming doing? You are also a family man with grandchildren… HP: As a Minister I could go to the farm twice or thrice a month.I don’t have that opportunity any longer.It is true about the family.The children go to school early and when they return I am still at work.I go home at 21h00 or 22h00 and some feel that their grandfather is not in Namibia.There is that gap.CM: Every year we see at least 10 000 pupils not making it to Grade 11 and thousands more don’t make it to higher-learning institutions.The classroom shortage seems to reappear each year also.Can your administration make the difference and how? HP: Education is one of our priority areas.It is true that most of the Grade 10 dropouts and Grade 12s lose hope – the hope of going for further studies – and it is because we don’t have a lot of colleges.We are designing programmes to create hope for them.The Ministry of Youth, for instance, has drawn up a good programme but the challenge is infrastructure.It contributes to a schoolroom crisis each year and every year we deal with crisis management.Facilities are not built by talking.We don’t have magic power like the Almighty God – we say a word and things come into being.You need money for materials.The question is how will the money come? We get it when the economy is growing.If it is stagnant, we won’t get money.However, looking at the achievements over the last 16 years, you can see there are efforts to improve.If you are unable to see, you can go there and even touch the buildings.There was no university and now we have one.Today, of course, we have so many graduates coming from those institutions.But, maybe, we need to concentrate on building more classrooms in rural areas.CM: Recently at Luederitz you said something to the effect that “sometimes I fear that we are not going to make it …that things are moving too slowly …that if we don’t do something we are not going to be able to implement it”.Are you concerned about whether we have the necessary impetus to achieve the goals of Vision 2030? HP: Yes, that’s exactly what I was referring to.Like I have spoken about crisis management at the beginning of each year – having no classrooms for the pupils.That in itself hampers the progress of Vision 2030.When you talk about 2030 you are referring to a process to be embarked upon.If you have children not going to school, is that not causing a slow process? By 2030 we need our own qualified people.Having no children go to school hinders the process.This is part of the slow process I referred to.You also have other problems like the slow land resettlement.Things are not moving as fast as we would like.Yet, everything is done on land.The industries are built on land.Everything.So there is a need for us to move a little bit faster with the plans in the national development goals. CM: Having had an opportunity to work with the same group of people for almost 12 months now, can we expect any Cabinet changes come March 21? HP: Well, I don’t know what you mean by changes.Is it changes to have new faces in the Cabinet, or changes in the job that we are doing? CM: Both ways.Changes in terms of bringing in new blood, and also a reshuffle to position them better.HP: I don’t think there is a need for a reshuffle.If you say to position them better, I have not yet received any advice from anybody who says that the people are not positioned well.Maybe you need to do this.We say that we like transparency and want to see all the citizens talking to us.So far no one has come to me making some suggestions of reshuffles and convincing me with the facts that because of ABC a reshuffle is necessary.CM: We have heard that Honourable Hage Geingob might return to Cabinet.Will this happen? HP: Well, I don’t have comment on that.CM: You are also the Vice President of Swapo and there will be a congress next year to elect a new leader for the party.Will you stand as Swapo President? HP: Well, I will follow the Swapo structures.Within those structures you are told when to say and when not to say.At this point in time, I am not to say anything because the time will be coming.The organs of the structures, for example the Politburo, will start and pave way by asking people to start submitting their intentions to the party.It’s at that point that I will be making a submission to the party whether to stand or not to stand.But at this point in time, there is no invitation from members of the party to do that.But the time is coming.The time will definitely come.The congress has to take place next year.That is in line with the set-up of the constitution.Leaders will have to be elected.CM: When I interviewed you shortly after you became Swapo’s presidential candidate, you spoke about the importance of unity in the party.Will you agree with me that strains within the ruling party have been coming to the fore lately and do you feel this has affected your running of Government? HP: You see, in a party you have to have some differences.It’s more or less like you have in a family.Maybe you don’t have a big family.I have a big family and there are times you find the children quarrelling.Some of them even assault each other.That in itself doesn’t mean that the children are no longer part of the family.Ja, we have some differences here and there within the party but these are not serious problems.Unity is what we have been preaching.We must continue to preach unity within the party and also among Namibians.It’s only through unity that we will be able to keep peace and, having peace, will bring development in the country.Within Swapo too.For our party to be prosperous as a representative of the people, we must keep unity.Otherwise, if we are divided then we won’t be able to serve the people of this country.That is why we always say Swapo is the people and the people are Swapo.CM: But in some cases we hear that ministers are not communicating with their permanent secretaries because they sit around different party fires.Somebody at the meeting you had with permanent secretaries also spoke of differences with ministers.How do you tackle such differences? HP: Yes, indeed, this was said at that very important meeting I had with the chief administrators of the Government and we have addressed it.I think it is now something of the past and the situation is now very, very good.CM: Finally, when are you moving into the new State House? HP: Well, there are two stages of building the State House.They are busy with the construction of the offices but the residence has not yet started.Now, I don’t know if your question is about moving the office from here to there or moving from here to the new residential area.If it is about moving to the new residence, that is not in sight because the construction has not yet started.But the movement from here to the other offices we have not yet discussed.According to the information given to me by the Ministry that is responsible for the construction, the construction of those offices will be finished this year.So we will have to sit down and decide when the Office of the President will move to the new premises.CM: That’ll be it for our interview.HP: Oh, I am happy that you have come.