The Colour Of The Flag Matters More Than Professionalism

SHOWING the flag of an opposition political party while the Head of State is delivering his New Year’s message is indeed an error that is embarrassing to all of us as Namibians.

In fact, it is amateurish stuff. Consequently, Vezera Kandetu as the Head of the NBC should account for what happens under his watch. Also he should be the first person to draw conclusions from the episode, and perhaps face certain consequences.
Essentially that is what should have happened under normal circumstances. Under such ‘normal’ circumstances, I would have been among the crowd of those calling for the resignation of the Director General of the NBC.
Ordinarily in a country where certain professional values are applied with consistency across the board, I would have added my voice for the resignation of the DG.
In some democracies and non-democracies alike, the Minister of Information could have been a casualty too. But, it would be utterly unwise to call for the DG to resign, especially when one considers the tone in which we have been dealing with the matter. In the main, it is an error that should transcend the petty talk that has surrounded much of this discussion.
While the discussion should have been an enlightening one, it has been far from instructive. Two reasons are illuminating of my position.
First, the saga ought to have remained above politics.
Alas, much of the attention around this discussion has been excessively party-political. It is the default-mode of public discussion. I would have expected that the discussion would have been about the professionalism of the NBC as an organisation.
Additionally, it should have been an all-encompassing discussion about the manner in which governance across the board is conducted.
Thus, it would be naïve to look at the latest NBC fracas in isolation and not consider the political antecedents which underpin this discussion.
I am not too sure, if government officials would have made the same noises had it been the Swapo Party flag that appeared in the background. It would have certainly been considered a non-issue. After all, the NBC must serve as the transmission belt of the Party!
So, the overall concern on the part of those who have been calling for Bob Kandetu to resign have shifted their attention from what should be the main discussion, notably the lack of professionalism on the part of the NBC employees concerned.
It is exactly this hypocrisy which suggest that calls for Kandetu to resign should not enjoy the support of citizens. As long as the reasons are shifting to the person of the DG, in particular the conflation of his previous support for Hidipo Hamutenya and his current strategic position, it leaves us with no option but to question the party-political motives behind the latest calls for Kandetu’s head.
Second, calls for Kandetu to resign, in particular for these reasons, can’t be dissociated from a context in which such precedents don’t exist.
Leadership of institutions in Namibia has been in a default mode for a while now. I can’t recall any previous cases in which individuals have been asked to resign for professional blunders.
Sadly, our administration is littered with individuals who ordinarily should not serve in public office when one considers the gravity of the professional errors committed under their watch. But, nothing has been done to let these individuals account for their actions.
Millions of Namibian dollars disappeared during the ODC saga, yet there have been no calls on the part of Ministers or party apparatchiks for individuals concerned to be fired.
A case in point: NBC officials beamed pornographic scenes into our houses under Gerry Munyama’s watch, and no calls were made for him to resign. Even after he resigned for allegedly defrauding the NBC, he has been rewarded as one of the ‘wise men’ of the Swapo party.
So, Kandetu’s only crime under these abnormal circumstances is that he does not have a political patron. And as the saying goes: ‘In Africa those without political patrons tend to be victims’.
Kandetu was Hamutenya’s cheerleader during what was a normal democratic process (which has now turned out to be abnormal). It is now some sort of a Frankenstein.
Therefore, he must pay the price for the coincidence of Hamutenya’s RDP flag appearing behind the Head of State, while he is the head of the institution.
For taxpayers, the party to which Kandetu belongs to or does not, should be immaterial. He must execute his duties well. Period! Calls for him to resign are therefore shortsighted in the absence of an audit of his performance.
On the contrary, the only call that should be made is for a sense of normality to return to our politics and governance.
Implied in this view, is to argue that the colour of the flag or flags, including the political parties individuals belong to, should not matter more than the professionalism that should underpin the governance of the public.

* Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.