NSHR

I am just loosing words to describe this so-called 2010 Parliament in Namibia. Firstly, it was forced upon us as it is under a cloud of “rigged” elections.

Its legitimacy is being disputed in Court. Secondly, it consists of a mostly recycled clique (as MPs and Ministers) of the past five years which was tainted by political party worshipping, dozing, absence without official leave (awol), passing the ill/un-researched and unconstitutional laws, reading for leisure, chatting (whispering), passing notes and interrupting other lawmakers during the deliberations.

I wonder why President Hifikepunye Pohamba chose to retain/recall some of these good-for-nothing honorables into the Executive and Legislature. The only good reason being to maintain “unity” in Swapo Party than the effective and efficient delivery of services to the nation. I call upon Informanté newspaper to re-publish the last year’s picture of the “sleeping, bored and sick” ministers for the public to see how many are still ‘hanging’ in there!


As if their legitimacy is not doubted enough in the public eye, they are even more useless than before. The budget debate was used as a tool to worship and praise-sing for their political allegiance, exaggeration and manipulates the truth at the expense of immunity.

The opposition party Members of Parliament seem to have joined the sinking ship just to get a share in ‘digging the gold’. There is no sense in what is going on in that August House. I could not believe my eyes when I read and saw Minister of ICT, Joel Kaapanda, busy reading the newspaper, again, while the proceedings of the Parliamentary debate is going on. This is the same Minister who is threatening the ordinary people as “insulting leaders” and investigative newspapers with his Spy Bill as “misleading the public with the unsubstantiated rumours” and “publishing whatever they want”.

Can Kaapanda be told that he is serial betrayer of the Namibian people? First, he is a Cabinet Minister and Spokesperson of the Government. Secondly, he is an MP. Thirdly, he is deputy Secretary for Information for the Swapo Party. Is reading the newspapers under the table part of his parliamentary activities or he is doing his ministerial work at the expense of making laws? If he is so in love with the accessibility to information in general, including reading the newspapers, why is he not brave enough to stand up and call for an end to the reactionary ban on The Namibian newspaper? When is he bringing back our popular phone-in programs on NBC-Radio?

An embarrassing moment is when former Minister of ‘Law and Order (Safety and Security)’ who is currently Minister of Veterans’ Affairs, Dr. Nickey Iyambo, was caught by the camera having joined the bandwagon of chaotic behavior. Some of these people should have been senior enough to set personal examples to the new Parliamentarians. The secret scandal was exposed when Minister of Labour, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, was trapped with his pants down while using their much-hated SMS service. I have to state here that even the opposition MPs are equally guilty and addicted to the use of SMSes while Parliament is in session. I can mention the names with authority if that needs be! What they do is to keep their cellphones on silent tone. They are busy communicating with the non-MPs (the romantic/political/economic “hibernators”) throughout the deliberation-as far as until 21h00. This is political sickness of the highest order!

If these people can arrogate themselves to an extent that they ignore the camera and journalists watching them, what about when they and their subordinates are not watched at their offices? And, the Speaker of the National Assembly-who surprised me with a prepared and typed-up speech during his so-called re-election-seems to be indifferent in his approach. Dr. Theo Ben Gurirab, the young blood in Parliament wants the support staff to do more research for them on the pertinent, national issues. Historians, political students and analysts, and researchers are still waiting for the liberation of the Minutes of the Constituent Assembly” which are still under the carpet (in Robben Island) for the past 20 years. It time that Namibian politicians are made to stop abusing, misused and exploiting the title “Honourable” in this country.

Steven Mvula
Human Rights Activist