Who is Piet van der Walt?

The Namibian interviewed Piet van der Walt, a businessman about to turn politician. Van der Walt (42) is one of five candidates representing the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) at this weekend’s Swapo Electoral College.

Who is Piet van der Walt?I was born in the Otjozondjupa Region and grew up on a farm in the Okahandja district. I went to Okahandja Primary School, then the Higher Technical School (HTS) in Windhoek. I attended the Windhoek Technical College where I obtained my trade diploma as a Diesel Mechanic, with a distinction – this was around 1985-6. Because of my studies I had to apply to Home Affairs for exemption from doing national service in the army or the police. But after I completed my diploma, I got a phone call from the Police; they said they wanted to employ me because of my diploma. They immediately gave me the rank of sergeant. So I went to the Police College and after that I went to Oshakati.I know you guys received phone calls that I was a Koevoet. A Koevoet I believe is somebody who shoots in the bush. I was in the mechanical-technical department at Oshakati. There was only one workshop for the whole of the North and it was in Oshakati. That was from August 1987 to December 1988. I resigned and I bought myself out of the Police because I didn’t like being there, but I didn’t finish my duty so I told my father I wanted to go to South Africa to join the air force. Then I applied for the air force in February 1989. I was accepted at the LNS Snake Valley Pretoria, also in the technical department. I worked there until November the same year, then Independence was coming so I thought now I don’t need to do any service anymore. I resigned and I came back to Namibia. As a technical man, how did you start your businesses?My father was a farmer and he was surrounded by a lot of German people. They believed a man must work with his hands and my dad also believed that. So he said to me one day you are going to become a farmer so you must go to a technical school, I want you to develop the skills because you are going to farm one day. It was actually never my interest, but if your dad tells you then you listen and I’ve done it but it was never my interest. My interest was something different. After Independence I decided that this is not me, so I applied for a job with Old Mutual, I was 23 years old. The standard those days was that you needed matric, you needed to be older than 28 and you needed to have a family established, meaning a wife and kids. I had the matric but I didn’t have a family and I was too young. But fortunately they gave me the job. I went on a course in Cape Town, I succeeded and I became an insurance representative. Four years later I became regional manager for Windhoek. At the end of 1999 I resigned, because I had the opportunity to take over this service station which was bankrupt at the time, it wasn’t easy. But I started my business activities while I was with Old Mutual. I use to sell soft drinks, which I imported from South Africa, to shops. I was travelling in my bakkie and sleeping in it. I also started a business called Cash Deliveries, were I did house removals and garbage removals. At that stage I also did part-time farming. Then when I took over my service station I saw the land around it. I said to myself I needed to improve it and nobody believed in this area, people thought I was crazy, but I said I want to put up a little motor city around my service station. I didn’t have money, I needed a lot of money from the banks but I dreamt, I dreamt. I had the support of Willem Hugo of Select Cars. He first rented the building from me, then I bought more land around the service station and then I developed my motor city. So all this land is yours?What happened then is that I realised that I need successful people around me as anchors. So I sold some off to Willem and some of the property to Spes Bona Motors, so I am now in the middle. Then I invested money in farmland. I have a family farm at Hochfeld and one in the Rehoboth area, on the Klein Aub road. That is my business life as far as I am concerned.When did you join Swapo?My life with Swapo started when I started at Old Mutual. When I came back from Cape Town I was very young and I was sitting in my office and I said to myself, I am going to phone the ministers, deputies and permanent secretaries in Government to see if I will get appointments with them. To my surprise they gave me the appointments. So I did a lot of business with Swapo, and then I became familiar with Swapo and I learned to understand its people and we became friends, since then I was working with Swapo. I was never looking for a job in Swapo, never. For me the most important thing was that Swapo had to give us a free environment, a stable economy, freedom, peace and stability, that is all I wanted from Swapo. But at the end of the day they decided differently, then they started inviting me to more functions and two years ago one of the ministers asked me for my CV then I realised something was going on. Then I became a board member of Donor Investment, affiliated to SPYL, last year and then this year became the Treasurer of the Reverend Michael Scott Branch of the Swapo Party. I am involved, but I never expected to be in a position to become a Member of Parliament. What will you do to get Afrikaners more involved in what is happening in the country?Do you know why I am Swapo? Because they make it easy for me. Swapo allows me to be an Afrikaner, I am not scared of Swapo because they allow me to be who I am. They respect my culture, respect that I am a Christian, they respect my values. I will come up for the Afrikaners in Parliament and for the white people, in such a way that they will come closer to Swapo, that they will see that there is nothing wrong with Swapo, they don’t have to be afraid of Swapo. Swapo allows you to be who you are if you are honest. I want the Afrikaners to get closer to Swapo, Swapo is not going to take things away from them. We have to work together, this is our country, all of us.Why do you think they have been quiet and not involved and we only hear about De Waal, Viljoen, Mudge and Pretorius and these are all politicians?Since 1990, I believe everybody has learned a lot of things. The Swapo leadership and the Namibian citizens, all of us have learned a lot. Things don’t happen overnight. A lot of people criticise Nujoma, Tatekulu Nujoma, who appointed His Excellency Hifikepunye Pohamba. Swapo got the versatility in its leadership to create synergy in this country. That is why they allow me, an Afrikaner, to be who I am. I tell Tatekulu Nujoma who I am and I don’t hide who I am. I tell the people that I am a proud Afrikaner of Namibia. But I want to see all our Namibians together as one nation and we can do it. People who still want to fight, we don’t need them. They are destructive, not constructive. I am not a politician; I am a businessman. People say I am not experienced in politics; yes they are 100 per cent right. I can’t be experienced in everything, I am a worker, a doer, leave the politics to our leaders, the top four and the Father of the Nation. I will do my work, I will concentrate on the job they give me if I get there.There has been concern about young white people who are not contributing to the economy and once they finish school they leave the country. Do you think that is causing a brain drain in the country and what will you do if you are in Parliament to try and change that?My main concern will be to make the white people aware of the fact that they don’t have to be afraid of Swapo, to get closer and get involved. To build trust, to build relationships and then what you are asking now will happen by itself. I will make people understand our leadership more and understand Swapo more. A lot of people thought that Tatekulu Nujoma will never retire and he retired. He is not a rich man, I don’t know if you guys have visited his house – he lives like me and you. Money is not important to that man and that is what I like. I want the white people to see that there is a future for us in this country, we can work together with Swapo, we can make Namibia a better place for each and every Namibian. The more the young people get involved, the more they will be part of Namibia and come back and develop our country.I am sure you are aware of the differences between the party youth wing and the leadership. You are backed by the youth wing. How will that affect your relationship with the leadership and whose agenda will you be carrying?I carry my own agenda! I am Swapo and for me Swapo is like a big family. There are squabbles in families too. But the grandpa doesn’t always favour all the grandsons equally and the father doesn’t always favour one son as equal as the other, one will inherit more than the other. The same with Swapo, there will be differences, it is a huge family. I believe that respect is most important for the eldest and the youngest. I am not favouring anyone. Yes SPYL has a lot of brilliant ideas and they are still young. For me, I am just another tool in this toolbox and if I can in my simple way contribute to the betterment of the people and my country, I will do my utmost best. If you had a chance to change a part of this economy or Namibia for the better, what would it be?Everything you start from the top is your grave. The only way to change Namibia is to start with our children’s education. Everybody must be educated then the country will change itself. It is like in golf, the fittest wins. If you look at Tiger Woods, that man is in the gym every day, he has trained to be where he is today, he is fit that is why he is winning. The same with our country, money will come if you do the groundwork right. The main thing here about the people in poverty is that we have brilliant people out there who don’t have the opportunities. I will put a lot of effort into that to make sure that we need to educate our children to develop and make Namibia a better place for all.Which areas of government would you be interested in working?That is for the President to decide. I believe he did his homework already, they know who I am, what I have got and what I have done. These people don’t just appoint people, they know what they are doing. Whatever they decide will be the right choice, I have a lot of trust in their decisions.Will we be seeing you campaigning for the party?Of course, one must never hide from what you are. How can I be in the newspapers and say yes I accept this while I am not campaigning for Swapo? I will do it for my country, for myself as well, it is a huge privilege to be involved in this, but I want to get more people involved especially the Afrikaners. It does not help that they sit there and criticise. But I want to ask those guys criticising where were you when we needed you? I will have a lot of critics but I believe I am right. … (At) the end of the day I hope that some of their eyes will open and admit they were wrong.Should you be elected and not go into Parliament on the President’s ticket, does that mean reconciliation is working? Of course, of course. You know in the beginning the Old Man had to take certain people. How things have changed. I would be very honoured if the President gave me the ticket, but I’d feel more comfortable if the people voted me in.What do your parents think of all this?My parents are fine, I don’t know if you realise that former President Nujoma opened my father’s art exhibition a month ago. As I said, things have changed a lot over the past 20 years. My family support me, that is why the Father of the Nation opened his exhibition.With the Republican Party falling apart, do you think you can get votes out of them?Do you know what is so interesting and that is why I am doing what I am doing is that, show me any party in this country which does not need black votes. MAG needs black votes to make a stand; the Republican Party needs black votes to make a stand. Now what is wrong with the Swapo Party? That is the point I want to make to my people that there is nothing wrong with Swapo. I am fortunate that I have known Swapo since 1990-1, it’s not that Swapo discovered me yesterday and wants to give me a ticket to show the white people in Namibia that vote now for Swapo because Van der Walt is there. No, Pieter comes a long way, 19 years, with Swapo.