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Politics as a Site of Extraction

Namibia’s national elections in November, despite their shortcomings, brought Swapo and its presidential candidate, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, to power. 

The president-elect was quick to emphasise that Swapo’s 2024 Party Manifesto would be consistently and fully implemented. 

But what are the manifesto’s foundations? What informs it? Is it a framing that sees politics as a site of extraction? 

SWAPO’S 2024 MANIFESTO

The manifesto is premised on the assumption that Swapo – informed by the principles of solidarity, freedom and justice – is the only party that can deliver stability and guide Namibia towards achieving Vision 2030’s goals. 

This comes close to a moral justification of why Swapo should govern as it is widely perceived to have brought freedom and democracy. 

Based on its achievements since independence, the party is seeking a fresh mandate to continue its legacy of a peaceful constitutional democracy, a prosperous and stable economy and quality infrastructure, and the promise of improved living standards, through access to education and health, transparent and efficient governance and youth and women empowerment.   

The manifesto outlines Swapo’s commitments for 2025-2030. 

In order of priority, they are: Economic growth leading to a prosperous, industrialised nation; ongoing development of agriculture and water to ensure food, water security and land delivery; natural resources management and beneficiation; energy and infrastructure; sport development and youth empowerment.

All of these are laudable and necessary to propel the country and its citizens forward. 

However, none of these priorities will be realised unless the understanding of politics – and its complex interfaces with policy – changes profoundly. 

Politics is significantly more than a site of extraction. 

While extraction is part of it in the form of rent, taxes, patronage networks, corruption and natural resources extraction, none of the core commitments, realistic or otherwise, in the 2024 manifesto, will be comprehensively and sustainably achieved unless the politics is understood and practiced differently. 

ETHICAL, HUMANE GOVERNANCE

The difficult normative and practical challenge for Swapo – indeed for any governing party – lies in its ability and resolve to depart from politics as a site of extraction and its accompanying master narrative of supremacy and populism. The aesthetics of power and the grammar of ‘the mighty Swapo’ is a form of triumphalism that kills the emphatic imagination. 

It is the politics of the politically connected, of the powerful, privileged and the strong. 

Politics, as a site of extraction, banishes politics as a site of ethical, humane governance.   

Ethical and humane governance requires consistent and comprehensive adherence to environmental and people-centred integrated planning and policies. 

There will always be costs. But Namibia can  not afford weak planning legislation, wrong policy, or the inept application of its planning frameworks. 

Ultimately, plans amount to nothing. 

Planning is everything if it provides for Integrated Environmental Management (IEM). 

IEM must be based on open, participatory planning in consultation with interested and affected parties, informed decisionmaking, accountability for information on which decisions are taken, accountability for decisions and a democratic regard for individual rights and obligations.

AGENDA

IEM presupposes a broad understanding of the term ‘environment’ – one that includes physical, biological, social, economic, cultural, historical, political and symbolic elements. 

It amounts to significantly more than a party manifesto. 

All these elements need to be present in planning and implementation to ensure that negative impacts of development proposals and policy are mitigated and positive aspects enhanced in such a way that the social costs of development proposals – those borne by society, rather than the developers – are outweighed by the social benefits – benefits to society or communities as a result of developers’ actions.

These principles make sound environmental sense but there is a need to go beyond them: All real and potential synergies between different policy domains need to be explored. 

For example, agriculture, environmental, tourism, mining and investment policy need to be tightly connected in design and implementation. 

Education and youth policy need to be interfaced. 

The policy on the blue economy must be properly located within a raft of other policies such as fisheries, marine mining, tourism, heritage, maritime security, science and technology, foreign policy and environment.

Namibia urgently needs a robust policy culture of transparency, accountability and a clear consideration of the social costs of development proposals and policies, informed by their environmental and social costs.

However, it will be meaningless without ethics, finance and institutional capacity. 

All public officials and politicians should undergo a course in ethics and ethical leadership. 

Each ministry, office and agency needs to build meaningful policy capacity. 

As part of an agenda for the incoming government and president, it would make practical sense to do a thorough audit of parliament and its ancillary committees and to:

• revisit planning capacity at all levels of state

• improve human resources training and deployment of the civil service

• strengthen Namibia’s national integrity system

• instrumentalise a framework for interaction between civil society and the state

• improve environmental management

• review and strengthen education and health, and 

• fully harness the creative economy’s potential.

CONCLUSIONS

From an integrated environmental and social perspective, mega projects such as oil and gas and the potential negative aspects of green hydrogen, will not deliver the core requirements of politics as ethical humane governance. 

While politics as a site of extraction may win elections, it is unlikely to meaningfully improve the quality of life and dignity of all Namibians, nor ensure environmental integrity. 

That requires a more ethical and emphatic understanding of politics as humane governance.

* André du Pisani, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Namibia.

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