tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/swapo-26971/articles
Swapo – The Conversation
2024-02-04T16:23:16Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222730
2024-02-04T16:23:16Z
2024-02-04T16:23:16Z
Hage Geingob: Namibian president who played a modernising role
<p>Hage Gottfried Geingob <a href="https://www.namibian-studies.com/index.php/JNS/article/view/113/113">served as the third president of Namibia</a> from 2015 until his death on February 4 2024. He was Namibia’s first prime minister from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 2012 to 2015.</p>
<p>Geingob was born on <a href="https://www.parliament.na/dt_team/geingob-hage/">3 August 1941</a>. He joined the ranks of the national liberation movement South West African People’s Organisation (<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">Swapo</a> during its formation in 1960.</p>
<p>As the official statement <a href="https://twitter.com/NamPresidency/status/1753963884828823682">declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a
liberation struggle icon, the chief architect of our constitution and the pillar of the Namibian house.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Swapo’s candidate he was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hage-Geingob">elected</a> as Namibia’s president for 2015 to 2020 in November 2014. In 2017 he replaced Hifikepunye Pohamba as party president. As head of state with <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-badly-needs-refurbishment-after-32-years-under-the-ruling-party-179205">far reaching executive powers</a>, he remained in control over party and government since then. </p>
<p>Geingob’s political career differed from that of his predecessors Sam Nujoma and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hifikepunye-Pohamba">Hifikepunye Pohamba</a>. <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/200904240652.html">Nujoma</a>, the founding president of Swapo, served as president for three terms (1990-2005). Pohamba (2005-2015) was his designated successor. </p>
<p>Geingob personified a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44508019">“changing of the guard”</a>. His advanced formal education left an imprint on the way of governance during his terms in office. A younger generation moved gradually into higher party and state ranks. He successfully modified the heroic struggle narrative and turned it into a more inclusive, patriotic history. </p>
<h2>Geingob’s career</h2>
<p>Geingob had his cultural roots in the Damara community. This made him different from the mainstream Swapo leadership, which is mainly from the Oshiwambo-speaking population. </p>
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<p>Geingob’s different background counted in his favour among many Namibians when campaigning for presidency. People welcomed a leader with origins in an ethnically defined minority group as a sign of multi-cultural plurality.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.parliament.na/dt_team/geingob-hage/">Studying</a> at the US American Temple University in Philadelphia, the Fordham University (BA) and The New School (MA), both in New York, Geingob was representing Swapo since the mid-1960s at the United Nations. In 1975 he became the head of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/160803">United Nations Institute for Namibia</a> in Lusaka. </p>
<p>He returned to Namibia in mid-1989, leading the Swapo election campaign in the transition to independence under <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40175168">supervision of the United Nations</a>. He played a <a href="https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=a5fa370c-004f-c92d-0ba3-7b3ca48aab38&groupId=252038">decisive role as chairman of the elected Constituent Assembly</a>. </p>
<p>He was appointed Prime Minister in 1990. </p>
<p>In 2002 he fell into disgrace for not supporting <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/legacies-of-power">Sam Nujoma’s presidency-for-life ambitions</a>. Instead of accepting his demotion to Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing, he became executive secretary of the <a href="https://gcacma.org/AboutGCA.htm">Washington-based Global Coalition for Africa</a>. </p>
<p>In 2004 he obtained a PhD at the University of Leeds for a <a href="https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/21090/">thesis</a> on state formation in Namibia.</p>
<p>He returned the same year to Namibia. Thanks to Pohamba’s reconciliatory approach, he made a remarkable comeback. Minister of Trade and industry from 2008 to 2012, he again became Prime Minister (2012-2015). </p>
<p>His clever politically strategic mind paved the way to be elected as president of the party and state. </p>
<h1>Geingob’s presidency</h1>
<p>In the Presidential and National Assembly elections of <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2014-12-02-namibias-swapo-win-elections-geingob-voted-as-president/">November 2014</a> Geingob and Swapo scored the best results in the country’s history. While Nujoma was termed the president for stability and Pohamba the president for continuity, Geingob campaigned as <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC-5ae9d1ff3">president for prosperity</a>. </p>
<p>But this made him the president of unfulfilled promises. </p>
<p>Geingob’s rhetoric disclosed a stronger contrast between what was said and what was done than that of his predecessors. He used more <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2018.1500360">populist</a> rhetoric as his style of governance and leadership, coining the metaphor of the “Namibian House. </p>
<p>As he <a href="https://www.namibiaembassyusa.org/sites/default/files/statements/Inaugural%20Speech%20by%20HE%20Hage%20%20Geingob%201.pdf">declared in his inaugural address</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All of us must play our part in the success of this beautiful house we call Namibia. We need to renew it from time to time by undergoing renovations and extensions. … Let us stand together in building this new Namibian house in which no Namibian will feel left out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But over the years many felt left out. The November 2019 parliamentary and presidential election <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2020.1717090">results</a> were the worst for Swapo since independence. A 2020 Afrobarometer survey confirmed <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/articles/trust-political-institutions-decline-namibia-afrobarometer-survey-shows/">a decline of trust</a>.</p>
<p>In all fairness, Geingob entered office at a difficult time. The country faced fiscal constraints and a period of serious droughts, followed by the traumatic impact of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2020.1790776">Covid</a>. Consequently, the socio-economic track record under him was at best mixed. On balance, his governance was characterised by a considerable gap between <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/namibia-2024-promises-or-delivery/">promises and delivery </a>. </p>
<p>Under Geingob a decline of ethics became visible, manifested spectacularly in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FJ1TB0nwHs">corruption scandal</a> in the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/timely-and-engaging-fishrot/">fishing industry</a>. It became the synonym of state capture. Fighting <a href="https://africa.cgtn.com/namibias-president-geingob-pledges-stronger-fight-against-corruption/">corruption</a> became Geingob’s mantra. But it had little credibility in the eyes of the wider public. </p>
<h1>The moderniser</h1>
<p>Geingob was first married (1967-1992) to a strong-minded African-American woman. Fondly called "Auntie Patty”, Priscilla Geingos was <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/auntie-patty-laid-to-rest-in-windhoek">laid to rest in Windhoek in 2014</a>. </p>
<p>Before entering office, Geingob (divorced for a second time from Loini Kandume in 2008) married the businesswoman Monica Kalondo in 2015. Strong, loyal, and independent-minded, Monica Geingos became an <a href="https://www.unaids.org/en/aboutunaids/unaidsambassadors/MonicaGeingos">active and internationally recognised First Lady</a>.</p>
<p>Among Geingob’s most laudable achievements <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2022/06/experts-committee-elimination-discrimination-against-women-congratulate-namibia">is a gender-aware policy</a>. It elevated Namibia into the league of countries with the highest proportion of women in leading political offices.</p>
<p>He <a href="https://namibia.unfpa.org/en/topics/gender-based-violence-3">took a stand against</a> gender-based violence and the country progressed in closing the gender inequality gap.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-pulls-down-german-colonial-statue-after-protests-who-was-curt-von-francois-195334">Namibia pulls down German colonial statue after protests – who was Curt von François?</a>
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<p>He was also reluctant to give in to <a href="https://www.washingtonblade.com/2023/06/14/landmark-namibia-supreme-court-ruling-sparks-anti-gay-backlash/">homophobia</a> prevalent among parliamentarians. In May 2023 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/on-same-sex-relationships/">equal treatment</a> of two foreign same sex spouses married to Namibian citizens. While the vast majority of members of the National Assembly pushed through a law amendment seeking <a href="https://www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org/2023/07/20/namibias-proposed-amendment-of-the-marriage-act-an-attack-on-the-rule-of-law-and-the-judiciary/">to invalidate the verdict</a>, Geingob did not sign the bill into law. </p>
<h1>Geingob’s legacy</h1>
<p>One of the last official statements by Geingob, on 13 January 2024, testified to his strong views. Upset over Germany’s taking side with Israel at the International Court of Justice, he <a href="https://twitter.com/NamPresidency/status/1746259880871149956">fumed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The German Government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil. Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Convention against genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Geingob was ambitious to enter Namibian history as the president who did more to promote the welfare and advancement of citizens. But he struggled to turn that vision into reality in office. Namibia remains among the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/namibia/overview#:%7E:text=Namibia%20ranks%20as%20one%20of,services%20are%20large%20and%20widening">most unequal countries</a> in the world. </p>
<p>As he reiterated in his <a href="https://twitter.com/NamPresidency/status/1741615241614508304">New Year Address 2024</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In order to seize the opportunities that are in line with our ambitions and expectations, we should redouble our efforts to make Namibia a better country. I call on each one of you to work harder for our collective welfare. I call on all of you to hold hands and to ensure that no one feels left out of the Namibian House.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His legacy as a moderniser will live on despite all the contradictions and unfulfilled promises. </p>
<p>Hamba kahle (Rest in peace).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p>
Hage Geingob’s legacy as a moderniser will live on despite contradictions and unfulfilled promises.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219342
2023-12-07T14:13:10Z
2023-12-07T14:13:10Z
Apartheid in Namibia: why human rights and women are celebrated on the same day
<p>10 December is worldwide commemorated as <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day">Human Rights Day</a>. It marks the anniversary of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> adopted on that day in 1948. Many countries and organisations acknowledge this as a significant marker.</p>
<p>It created a lasting, normative framework defining fundamental human rights. UN Member States, while in constant violation, have all ratified the principles. They remain a moral and ethical compass demanding recognition and respect. </p>
<p>In Namibia, the day is marked as both International Human Rights Day <a href="https://namibia.unfpa.org/en/news/commemoration-international-human-rights-day-namibian-womens-day">as well as Namibian Women’s Day</a>. The reason for this is that it marks an event that stands out in Namibian history as a reminder of human rights abuses in the past, as well as the significant role played by women in the struggle for the restoration of these rights. </p>
<p>An indiscriminate shooting by police took place on this date in <a href="https://www.namibiadigitalrepository.com/files/original/f1626d4c5966b3ae6527015e129afa71.pdf">1959</a>. Thirteen unarmed demonstrators were killed, among them one woman. More than 40 were wounded as they resisted their forced removal from an area known as the Old Location. </p>
<p>The events became a reference point for the national liberation movement, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/SWAPO-Party-of-Namibia">South West African Peoples Organisation</a>, which was formed in 1960 in response to the event. The actions of the demonstrators acted as a midwife to the organised anti-colonial liberation struggle that went on to gain new momentum, culminating in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/namibian-struggle-independence-1966-1990-historical-background">independence in 1990</a>.</p>
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<p>As diagnosed by the late South African historian <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/projects/emmett-tony/">Tony Emmett</a> in his pioneering work on the formation of national resistance in Namibia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The authorities’ attempts to move residents of the old location to a new township and the resistance they met represent a significant point in the political history of Namibia. … it transcended parochial issues and united a broad cross-section of groups and classes in a confrontation with the colonial state.</p>
</blockquote>
<h1>The Old Location</h1>
<p>My research has included life in the <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2016_3_Melber.pdf">Old Location</a>, its <a href="https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/jch/article/view/5037/4005">history</a> and the <a href="https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/historia/article/view/3827/3915">forced removal</a>. </p>
<p>Since the early 20th century, the Location was the biggest Black urban settlement in Namibia. A former German colony since 1884, the territory then called South West Africa was in 1918 transferred as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mandate-League-of-Nations">League of Nation mandate</a> to South Africa. Administered like a fifth province, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid">apartheid policies</a> institutionalised as “separate development” since the late 1940s, was also transferred to the adjacent country.</p>
<p>The Location was in walking distance to Windhoek’s town centre. Only a riverbed separated it from the suburb set aside for white people. Residents in the Location paid a fee for the area they occupied even though the constructions built for accommodation were their private ownership.</p>
<p>In line with apartheid policy, a decision was taken to move the people from the Location. Residents there were from a variety of indigenous communities in the country. Despite different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, they lived in peaceful cohabitation. </p>
<p>To remove them from the direct vicinity to the “White” city, a new township <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Katutura-place-where-not-stay/dp/B0006W2U1Y">Katutura</a> was created. It was separated by a buffer zone several kilometres apart from the city. It also divided the residents through ethnically (“tribally”) classified, strictly policed separate living quarters. </p>
<p>The houses there remained property of the administration, for which higher rents had to be paid. People of mixed descent, classified as so-called <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/c0a95c41-a983-49fc-ac1f-7720d607340d/628130.pdf">“Coloureds”</a> were until then living in the Location. They were now forced to relocate to another separate suburb <a href="https://memim.com/khomasdal.html">Khomasdal</a>. </p>
<p>Hardly anyone living in the Main Location volunteered to move. Instead, as of late 1959, women initiated a boycott of services.</p>
<p>Following weeks of campaigns, a meeting with White officials took place in the Location on 10 December. Stones were thrown, and the police opened fire. The sheer brute force executed to break resistance marked the end of the Location.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-and-south-africas-ruling-parties-share-a-heroic-history-but-their-2024-electoral-prospects-look-weak-204818">Namibia and South Africa's ruling parties share a heroic history - but their 2024 electoral prospects look weak</a>
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<p>As from 1960, people were moved to Katutura and Khomasdal. Their homes in the Location were bulldozed to the ground. It was officially closed in 1968, with no traces of its existence left.</p>
<p>Extensions to Katutura since then turned it into the biggest settlement in Namibia. The area of the former Location has been turned into <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2022.2081671">middle class suburbia</a>.</p>
<h1>Remembering</h1>
<p>Anna “Kakurukaze” Mungunda became <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nbcContenthub/videos/in-this-short-history-video-you-will-learn-about-anna-mungunda-also-known-as-kak/2019517574914081/">the most widely acknowledged face of the resistance</a>. </p>
<p>Narratives differ as regards her role. She was not a prominent resident before and had no involvement in the organised resistance. But police killed her when she was supposedly setting the car of one of the White officials on fire.</p>
<p>As the only woman killed, Mungunda is paid recognition and respect by a <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150256637/anna-mungunda">tombstone</a> erected at the Windhoek Heroes Acre, inaugurated in 2002.</p>
<p>There is also an ongoing fight in Germany to get a street in Berlin named after her. The idea is to rename some of the colonial street names in the <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/in-the-afrikanisches-viertel">“African Quarter” (Afrikanisches Viertel)</a>. In particular, efforts are under way to change the Petersallee into <a href="https://taz.de/Dekolonisierung-von-Strassennamen/!5899594/">Anna-Mungunda-Allee</a>. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/454592">Peters</a> was a notorious colonial perpetrator in imperial Germany.</p>
<p>Implementation is on hold due to a legal intervention by some of the residents.</p>
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Read more:
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<p>In Windhoek, parts of the neglected and dilapidated Location cemetery have been <a href="https://pickingupthetabb.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/windhoek-remembering-the-old-location-massacre/">restored and upgraded</a> to a memorial site and turned into an Old Location Cemetery Museum. It is a venue for commemoration and on the <a href="https://www.windhoekcc.org.na/tour_attractions.php">list of local tourist attractions</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/he-dr-zedekia-j-ngavirue-dphil-politics-1967">Zedekia Ngavirue</a> was employed as social worker in the Location in 1959/60. Politically active in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/South-West-Africa-National-Union">South West Africa National Union</a> he founded and co-edited the first African newspaper “South West News”. Its nine issues have been reproduced <a href="https://www.baslerafrika.ch/a-glance-at-our-africa/">in a compilation</a> and are a treasure trove documenting discussion of the time.</p>
<p>In his introduction to the collection, “Dr Zed” (as he was later fondly called) might have captured the spirit of these days best:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was, indeed, when we owned little that we were prepared to make the greatest sacrifices.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p>
Anna “Kakurukaze” Mungunda became the most widely acknowledged face of the resistance to the apartheid policy of forced removal.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216018
2023-10-19T15:06:20Z
2023-10-19T15:06:20Z
Martti Ahtisaari: the Finnish peacemaker who played midwife to Namibian independence
<p>Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president, died on 16 October at the <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-10-16/statement-attributable-the-spokesperson-for-the-secretary-general-the-death-of-martti-ahtisaari">age of 86</a>. Born in eastern Finland, he was two years old when his family fled from the Russian invasion at the outbreak of the second world war. </p>
<p>A trained school teacher, he moved in 1960 to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/martti-ahtisaari-obituary">Swedish Pakistani Institute in Karachi</a>. In 1965 he joined the Finnish foreign service. His posting as a diplomat in Tanzania <a href="https://finlandabroad.fi/web/tza/current-affairs/-/asset_publisher/h5w4iTUJhNne/content/suurl-c3-a4hetyst-c3-b6-50-vuotta-martti-ja-eeva-ahtisaaren-tervehdys/384951">in 1973</a> was the beginning of lasting bonds to the African continent. Only two years later, he started his commitment to the struggle for self-determination of the Namibian people. </p>
<p>Namibia, then called South West Africa, was under the illegal control of apartheid South Africa. According to the United Nations, it was <a href="https://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/2040/2040311/">“a trust betrayed”</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/understanding-namibia/">Namibia</a> and its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5079769_Conflict_mediation_in_decolonisation_Namibia's_transition_to_independence">decolonisation process</a> have been among my interests as a scholar. Martti Ahtisaari played a crucial role in the United Nations supervised transition to independence, as documented in his biography, aptly titled <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-mediator/">The Mediator</a>.</p>
<p>The government of Namibia awarded him honorary Namibian citizenship after independence. Upon the news of his death he was locally <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/a-light-during-namibias-dark-days/">praised as</a> </p>
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<p>a light during Namibia’s dark days.</p>
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<p>Namibia’s President Hage Geingob described him as a friend of the Namibian liberation struggle and a leading peacemaker. Through the United Nations, he “<a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/namibia-mourns-ahtisaari-fondly-remembered-for-impact-on-namibias-journey-to-independence">played a pivotal role in midwifing the birth of a new Namibia</a>”.</p>
<p>Ahtisaari’s work in Namibia was the beginning of a long and successful engagement in international conflict mediation. Many more <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/martti-ahtisaari-obituary">diplomatic achievements</a> in various parts of the world followed. </p>
<h2>Ahtisaari and Namibia</h2>
<p>Ahtisaari’s involvement in Africa began in 1973 when he was appointed <a href="https://finlandabroad.fi/web/tza/current-affairs/-/asset_publisher/h5w4iTUJhNne/content/suurl-c3-a4hetyst-c3-b6-50-vuotta-martti-ja-eeva-ahtisaaren-tervehdys/384951">Finland’s ambassador to Tanzania</a>. At the time, the anticolonial movements of southern Africa had offices in Dar es Salaam, home to the headquarters of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41394216">African Liberation Committee</a> of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/organisation-african-unity-oau">Organisation of African Unity</a>. </p>
<p>In 1975 he was <a href="https://archives.unam.edu.na/index.php/unin-united-nations-institute-for-namibia">appointed</a> as a <a href="https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/about/people/martti-ahtisaari/">senator to the council</a> of the United Nations Institute for Namibia. The <a href="https://archives.unam.edu.na/index.php/unin-united-nations-institute-for-namibia">institute</a> was established in Lusaka by the <a href="https://africanactivist.msu.edu/organization/210-813-508/#:%7E:text=In%201966%20the%20United%20Nations,United%20Nations%20Council%20for%20Namibia">United Nations Council for Namibia</a>, officially inaugurated in 1976. Its mandate was to prepare for Namibia’s independence by drafting blueprints and training staff. Geingob, at the time representing the South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) liberation movement at the United Nations, was appointed <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/160803">as its director</a>.</p>
<p>At the <a href="https://nai.uu.se/library/resources/liberation-africa/interviews/ben-amathila.html">behest of Swapo</a>, Ahtisaari was appointed as UN commissioner for Namibia in March 1977 and relocated from Dar es Salaam to New York.</p>
<p>In July 1978 the UN Security Council asked the UN secretary general to appoint a special representative for Namibia to ensure independence of the country through free elections under the supervision of the UN. With support of the US-American diplomat <a href="https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/member/donald-f-mchenry/">Don McHenry</a>, Ahtisaari was again the choice. As McHenry was quoted in Ahtisaari’s <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-mediator/">biography</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought why don’t we kill two birds with one stone. Ahtisaari was clearly sensible to the views of the Africans but he was at the same time very practical and got results. He was, then, the very man for the job.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ahtisaari henceforth wore two hats related to Namibian affairs. His term as commissioner ended in April 1982. In 1987 he was appointed as the UN under-secretary general for administration and management on the condition that he retained his role as special representative for Namibian affairs.</p>
<p>In 1978 UN Security Council <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/namibia-resolution435">Resolution 435</a> was adopted as the blueprint for Namibia’s transition to independence. But it was shelved after being blocked by US under President Ronald Reagan and the UK under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The resolution was finally implemented more than a decade later, after the global realignments following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-30-years-ago-resonated-across-africa-126521">end of the Cold War</a>.</p>
<p>The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (<a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/past/untag.htm">Untag</a>) was tasked with implementing Resolution 435 from April 1989 to March 1990. Under Ahtisaari, with Botswana’s UN ambassador <a href="https://www.un.org/osaa/content/former-special-adviser-he-m-legwaila-joseph-legwaila-2006-2007">Joseph Legwaila</a> as his deputy, Untag accomplished the mission.</p>
<p>This was due in large part to the skills and credibility of Ahtisaari. As special representative for Namibia more than a decade before the implementation of Resolution 435, he had gained the trust of a variety of stakeholders. This gave him personal leverage, which he was able to apply in critical situations.</p>
<p>Under Untag supervision, a <a href="https://www.parliament.na/constituent-assembly-1989-1990/">constituent assembly</a> was elected in Namibia in November 1989, <a href="https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=a5fa370c-004f-c92d-0ba3-7b3ca48aab38&groupId=252038">chaired</a> by Geingob. In early 1990 its members adopted the country’s constitution as the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=9565">normative framework</a>. Independence was declared on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45316527">21 March 1990</a>.</p>
<p>Ahtisaari remains publicly remembered locally by a school and streets bearing his name.</p>
<h2>Mediation beyond Namibia</h2>
<p>Ahtisaari’s merits during his international career translated into a successful campaign in domestic politics. Serving his country in government first as foreign minister, he became in 1994 Finland’s president for a six-year term until 2000.</p>
<p>But his heart remained in international conflict mediation. Upon leaving office, he founded the <a href="https://cmi.fi/about-us/">Crisis Management Initiative</a>, an independent non-governmental organisation.</p>
<p>Ahtisaari played an active role in Serbia’s withdrawal from Kosovo in the late 1990s. During the Northern Ireland peace process at the same time, he monitored the Irish Republican Army’s <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41249341.html">disarmament process</a>. In 2005 he was brokering the autonomy for <a href="https://www.c-r.org/accord/aceh-indonesia/delivering-peace-aceh-interview-president-martti-ahtisaari">Aceh province in Indonesia</a>. The same year he was appointed by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan as <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/serbia/secretary-general-appoints-former-president-martti-ahtisaari-finland-special-envoy">special envoy for the future status process for Kosovo</a>.</p>
<p>Among the numerous honorary recognitions of his role in mediating conflicts, South Africa <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/order-companions-o.r.-tambo-0">awarded him in 2004</a> the Order of the Companions of Oliver Tambo (Supreme Companion) for</p>
<blockquote>
<p>his outstanding achievement as a diplomat and commitment to the cause of freedom in Africa and peace in the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In October 2008 he was <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2008/press-release/">awarded the Nobel Peace Prize</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Explicit reference was made to his role in Namibia’s transition towards independence. Between 2009 and 2018 he was a member of <a href="https://theelders.org/who-we-are">The Elders</a>. Founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, this group of independent global leaders works for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet. </p>
<p>As Geingob <a href="https://www.observer24.com.na/geingob-pays-tribute-to-ahtisaari-as-a-friend-and-a-peacemaker/">declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>today, we are not only mourning the loss of Ahtisaari, a friend and one of us, but we are also reaffirming the rich legacy of peace and the outstanding international public service of a Nobel peace laureate with an indelible association with Namibia.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of SWAPO since 1974.</span></em></p>
Ahtisaari’s role in Namibia was crucial. But he left a major legacy in pursuing peace in various places of conflict in his later life too.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204818
2023-05-10T13:24:09Z
2023-05-10T13:24:09Z
Namibia and South Africa’s ruling parties share a heroic history - but their 2024 electoral prospects look weak
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524080/original/file-20230503-15-wxlrrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Presidents Hage Geingob, left, and Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings in Tshwane.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Namibian president Hage Geingob used his <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-state-visit-president-hage-geingob-republic-namibia-20-apr-2023">recent state visit</a> to South Africa to also address a meeting of the national executive committee of the governing party, the African National Congress (<a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/">ANC</a>). This underscored the ANC’s historic ties to Namibia’s governing party, South West Africa People’s Organisation (<a href="https://www.politicalpartydb.org/wp-content/uploads/Statutes/Namibia/Namibia_Swapo_1998.pdf">Swapo</a>).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/no-phala-phala-talk-between-ramaphosa-and-hage-geingob-2ca0db5e-074f-44d2-838f-05f39fd54b2c">According to President Cyril Ramaphosa</a>, who also heads the ANC, the party had a “wonderful engagement” with Geingob, who <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DrHageGeingob/">posted on Facebook</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As former liberation movements, we learn from one another, a manifestation of the deep bonds of solidarity formed during our struggle against oppression.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As political scientists and sociologists, we both followed individually and jointly the performance of the two organisations since the days of the liberation struggles. We have continuously analysed and commented on trends in their governance of the countries.</p>
<p>In our view, the nostalgic reminiscences of the parties’ days as liberation movements serve as a heroic patriotic history turned into a form of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2018.1500360">populism</a>. Such romanticism uses the merits of the past to cover failures in the present. It also is a potential threat to the achievements of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000203971404900105">constitutionalism</a>. </p>
<p>Geingob’s visit came at a time when both governments under the former liberation movements, Swapo and the ANC, face an erosion of their political legitimacy. With elections in 2024 <a href="https://www.eisa.org/calendar2024.php">in both countries</a>, their challenges are similar.</p>
<p>Both face tough choices about how best to handle the challenges when entering the election year. They have, since moving into office, disappointed expectations, not least in their <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-31-years-after-independence-namibians-arent-in-a-festive-mood-157151">failures</a> to fight <a href="https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/default-source/news-documents/opinion_politicsandcorruption_gb1.pdf?sfvrsn=3cd06c20_0">corruption</a>. Voters in South Africa and Namibia will in 2024 pass their verdict at the ballot boxes.</p>
<p>How they perform will shape the future of democracy in both countries.</p>
<h2>History with lasting bonds</h2>
<p>South African-Namibian relations have a special history. </p>
<p>After the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I">first world war</a>, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Versailles-1919">Treaty of Versailles</a> officially ended the war between Germany and the Allied powers. It turned the German colony South West Africa into a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mandate-League-of-Nations#ref13450">C-mandate of the new League of Nations</a>. Its administration was delegated to South Africa. It effectively <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/item/9690/thesis_hum_1997_getz_tr.pdf?sequence=1">annexed</a> the territory and <a href="https://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/2040/2040311/">entrenched apartheid</a>. </p>
<p>This led the national liberation movement <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/SWAPO-Party-of-Namibia">Swapo</a> to take up arms. Recognised by the UN General Assembly as the
<a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/189617?ln=en">“sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people”</a>, Swapo and the ANC, which had likewise launched an armed struggle, became <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/Thula_Simpson_abstract.pdf">close allies</a>. Both received <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40283233?seq=8">wide international support</a>.</p>
<h2>From liberation movements to governments</h2>
<p>Under UN supervised elections <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2225_89.htm">in November 1989</a>, Swapo obtained an absolute majority (58%). Independence was proclaimed on 21 March 1990. The date was chosen by the elected Constituent Assembly in recognition of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Sharpeville-massacre">the Sharpeville massacre</a> in 1961 – when apartheid police murdered 69 unarmed black people protesting against being forced to carry <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ApartheidMuseumSA/posts/heres-what-a-dompas-which-literally-means-dumb-pass-looked-like-during-the-apart/10157134498674628/">identity documents</a> controlling their movement. Released only weeks earlier from prison, Nelson Mandela attended the ceremony as the <a href="https://kapweine.ch/en/independence-from-namibia/">celebrated guest of honour</a>.</p>
<p>Apartheid in South Africa came officially to an end through the result of the first democratic elections in 1994. Like Swapo, the ANC emerged as the <a href="https://www.eisa.org/wep/sou1994results1.htm">majority party (62.7%)</a>. It indicated the success of the democratic settlements in both countries that Swapo and the ANC led processes leading to the drawing up of final constitutions. These embedded accepted democratic principles: free and regular elections, independent judiciaries, bills of fundamental human rights, and the separation of powers of the three branches of government.</p>
<p>Since then, both countries have continued to rank among the top African democracies. Regular elections were largely free and fair. Judiciaries have remained independent and have served as a check on executive power. Both parties initially increased their majorities. Crucially, however, the parliaments dominated by <a href="https://ippr.org.na/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/IPPR%20Opinion%20No%2021%20-parliament.....pdf">Swapo</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-parliament-fails-to-hold-the-executive-to-account-history-shows-what-can-happen-192889">ANC</a> have failed to hold governments to account on major issues.</p>
<h2>Popularity in decline</h2>
<p>Support for the ANC peaked at nearly 70% in the third democratic election <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40607814">in 2009</a>, but by the 5th election <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-africas-2019-general-election-post-analysis">in 2019</a>, it had fallen to 57.5%. Even this was regarded as a triumph, put down to the personal <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-za/cyril-ramaphosa-popular-amongst-south-africans-political-parties-questionable">popularity of its latest leader, Cyril Ramaphosa</a>.</p>
<p>In the run-up to the elections in 2024, surveys predict the ANC will lose its absolute majority, and be forced to <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/234405/south-africa-shock-poll-shows-anc-heading-towards-2024-coalition/">form a coalition to remain in power</a>. It is also anticipated that it will lose its majority <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/anc-prospects-are-dim-for-2024-elections-c5f442f2-7913-454d-a38f-e041e475a2db">in several provinces</a>. It may even lose Gauteng, the country’s economic hub, and KwaZulu-Natal. It has long lost control of the Western Cape to the opposition <a href="https://www.eisa.org/pdf/JAE9.2Africa.pdf">Democratic Alliance</a>.</p>
<p>In Namibia, Swapo has fared comparatively better. By <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2014-12-02-namibias-swapo-win-elections-geingob-voted-as-president/">2014</a>, it had consolidated its political dominance into a whopping 80% of votes for the National Assembly, and 86% of votes for its directly elected <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290429183_From_Nujoma_to_Geingob_25_years_of_presidential_democracy">presidential candidate Hage Geingob</a>. But the National Assembly and presidential elections <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2020.1717090">in 2019</a> marked a turning point. With 65.5% the party lost its two-third majority.</p>
<p>For both, ANC and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352737011_Namibia's_Regional_and_Local_Authority_Elections_2020_Democracy_beyond_SWAPO">Swapo</a>, the loss of control over the regional, provincial and <a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/democracy-beyond-swapo-in-namibia/">local levels of government</a> has turned politics into a matter of alliances, with shifting coalitions. Politics has become a negotiated commodity.</p>
<p>Principles are regularly traded for power, eroding the trust which citizens place in politicians and democracy. For all that they continue to dominate central government. But, their dominance is being steadily eroded by their lacklustre performance in power and failures in delivery of basic services. <a href="https://f3magazine.unicri.it/?p=402">State capture</a> has become a form of governance.</p>
<h2>2024 and the limits to liberation</h2>
<p>It is too early for any reliable predictions regarding the 2024 election results. While many assume that the ANC will lose its absolute majority, it has an uncanny ability to defy expectations. But even if it squeaks home, its credibility is likely to be further damaged. Unless he is shuffled aside by the ANC (a possibility whispered quietly in dark corners as the brightness of his image dims), Ramaphosa is likely to remain in office as South Africa’s president. But he could be <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-votes-in-2024-could-a-coalition-between-major-parties-anc-and-eff-run-the-country-204141">compelled to lead a coalition government</a>.</p>
<p>Swapo’s electoral prospects seem less bleak, even though it is thought that the opposition will make gains. Geingob’s two terms as state president ends. <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/03/13/namibian-president-names-netumbo-nandi-ndaitwah-woman-successor//">Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah</a> Swapo’s first female candidate, might become the head of state. But in both countries, those holding office will face an uphill battle.</p>
<p>Numerous <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/limits-to-liberation-in-southern-africa">analyses</a> have explored how former liberation movements in southern Africa have failed the ideals of the liberation struggle when in power, even becoming undemocratic and increasingly corrupt. They have transited <a href="https://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/news/when-liberation-movements-don-t-liberate-and-what-africans-can-do-about-it/">from dominance to decline</a>. In many ways, this was to be expected.</p>
<p>Few parties can retain power for decades without losing their popularity. Yet in southern Africa, liberation movements’ loss of popularity is combined with accusations that they have betrayed the promises of freedom. They have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589346.2017.1282337">displayed a democratic deficit</a>. By dismissing accountability for the lack of delivery they have squandered their trust and support. </p>
<p>How Swapo and the ANC respond to any further decline will define the future of democracy. Opposition parties are expected to play an increasing role. But the former liberation movements might benefit from their <a href="https://www.eisa.org/pdf/JAE5.1Chiroro.pdf">fragmentation and dilemma</a>. After all, opposition parties have so far offered <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-voters-are-disillusioned-but-they-havent-found-an-alternative-to-the-anc-171239">little if any credible alternatives</a> which promise more well-being for the ordinary people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
How Swapo and the ANC respond to any further decline in electoral support will define the future of democracy in both countries.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189741
2022-08-31T16:56:08Z
2022-08-31T16:56:08Z
Mikhail Gorbachev: southern Africans have a special reason to thank him
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482092/original/file-20220831-11-td7z0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mikhail Gorbachev at his news conference following a summit with US President Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1986. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Bryn Colton/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The whole world has much to thank Mikhail Gorbachev for. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-consequential-but-ultimately-tragic-figure-last-leader-of-the-ussr-mikhail-gorbachev-dies-aged-91-189676">many have pointed out</a> since <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-31/ex-soviet-leader-mikhail-gorbachev-dead-at-91/101389174">his death in Moscow earlier this week</a>, Gorbachev – the last leader of the Soviet Union – did more than anyone to bring the Cold War to an end peacefully, reducing the threat that nuclear weapons might be used. </p>
<p>He allowed the countries of Eastern Europe to move out of the Soviet orbit and towards democracy in 1989. And he tried to set Russia on the path to a more democratic society. His actions led to the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. </p>
<p>Though Vladimir Putin views that break-up <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-historical-russia-soviet-breakup-ukraine/31606186.html">as a very negative development</a>, most have welcomed it. </p>
<p>Southern Africans have a special reason to thank Gorbachev. He <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/grade-12-topic-4-end-cold-war-and-new-global-world-order-1989-present">helped bring apartheid to an end</a>. He did this both directly and indirectly.</p>
<h2>Pivotal interventions</h2>
<p>The assistance that the Soviet Union provided to both the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia and Umkhonto we Sizwe was essential in enabling them to fight armed struggles against the South African regime. Without that assistance the South West Africa People’s Organisation and the African National Congress might not have survived in exile, or ultimately come to power. </p>
<p>But it was not those armed struggles that brought them to power. That was made possible in part by the fact that from 1988 the balance of forces in the region changed. In that Gorbachev played a major role. </p>
<p>Soon after taking over as general secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, he decided that the Soviet Union should withdraw from regional wars in which it was engaged, most notably in <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-to-withdraw-from-afghanistan">Afghanistan</a> and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203874240-15/angola-namibia-crisis-1988-resolution-chris-saunders">Angola</a>. </p>
<p>He then authorised his diplomats to engage with the Americans to help mediate a negotiated settlement for Angola. They assisted in that process, which led to an agreement being reached in December 1988 that provided for the withdrawal of the Cuban military from Angola and the independence of Namibia. </p>
<p>The Soviet Union then participated in the joint commission that was set up as a result of that agreement to ensure it was implemented. When a crisis in April 1989 threatened its implementation, the Soviets again worked with the Americans to help defuse the crisis, after which Namibia moved towards independence with the assistance of the United Nations.</p>
<p>By then the Soviet Union had made it clear that it was in favour of a negotiated settlement in South Africa. At the same time, the communist ideology that had underpinned the Soviet Union and its satellite countries was crumbling.</p>
<p>The success of the Namibian transition helped make possible the South African one that followed. But it was also the collapse of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, and the removal of what South Africa’s National Party government had seen as a communist threat, that made it possible for the new President of South Africa, FW de Klerk, to take his party with him when he agreed to open the door to a negotiated settlement. </p>
<p>The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union destroyed what remaining credibility the idea of a <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/apartheid-crime-against-humanity-unfolding-total-strategy-1948-1989">“total onslaught”</a> still had in National Party circles and reduced fears, both in those circles and in Western capitals, that the South African Communist Party would control the ANC if it were to come to power. </p>
<p>Though de Klerk initially hoped for a power-sharing arrangement, even such a settlement, which turned out not to be possible, meant the end of apartheid and white minority rule. </p>
<h2>Unexpected outcomes</h2>
<p>Like Gorbachev, De Klerk was a reformer whose domestic reforms led <a href="https://inews.co.uk/opinion/fw-de-klerk-south-africa-last-apartheid-president-mikhail-gorbachev-1295872">to unexpected consequences</a>.</p>
<p>When De Klerk made his breakthrough speech <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02039/04lv02103/05lv02104/06lv02105.htm">in February 1990</a>, unbanning the ANC and announcing that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison unconditionally, he made much of what had happened in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in late 1989. He said that events there had weakened “the capacity of organisations which were previously supported strongly from those quarters”. </p>
<p>Without Gorbachev those changes would not have taken place, and without them it is unlikely that De Klerk would have moved as he did at that time.</p>
<p>By the end of the 1980s, internal pressures, most particularly from mass resistance, and a variety of external pressures from the west, including sanctions, were undermining the apartheid regime. </p>
<p>But of all the external factors that helped lead to the ending of apartheid in 1994, the collapse of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the process leading to the end of the Soviet Union must count among the most important. </p>
<p>And we have Gorbachev to thank for that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Saunders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
External changes, including the end of the Cold War, helped lead to the ending of apartheid. Gorbachev played a major role in that process.
Chris Saunders, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173452
2022-01-09T08:25:12Z
2022-01-09T08:25:12Z
Why reconciliation agreement between Germany and Namibia has hit the buffers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436649/original/file-20211209-140267-1xc68ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An aerial view of members of the Herero and Nama communities taking part in the Reparation Walk in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christian Ender/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In mid-2015 the German Foreign Ministry <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/herero-and-nama-genocide">admitted</a> that the war the country had waged against the local communities of the Ovaherero and Nama (and the Damara and San) between 1904 and 1908 in German South West Africa (now Namibia) was a genocide. </p>
<p>Since then bilateral negotiations with the Namibian government <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2020.1750823">have taken place</a> to find ways to come to terms with this horrific chapter of the shared colonial past. The declared aim was to seek reconciliation. </p>
<p>In mid-May 2021 the special envoys of Germany and Namibia initialled a <a href="https://u9t7p8p4.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/deutsche-afrika-stiftung-joint-declaration-by-the-federal-republic-of-germany-and-the-republic-of-namibia.pdf">joint declaration</a>. While ratification by the foreign ministers was anticipated within weeks, this remains a pending affair. </p>
<p>Considering the declaration’s flaws, this should not come as a surprise.</p>
<p>The declaration <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/germany-agrees-to-pay-namibia-11bn-over-historical-herero-nama-genocide">avoided</a> far-reaching precedence. The genocide was recognised in moral and political, but not legal terms. As a result, reparations were not acknowledged as a consequence of the admission. It has therefore <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibian-genocide-why-germanys-bid-to-make-amends-isnt-enough-161820">been widely criticised</a>.</p>
<p>For the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights it is a <a href="https://www.ecchr.eu/en/press-release/germany-namibia-declaration/">“lost opportunity”</a>, since it failed to meet the standards of codified international law norms. </p>
<p>That the “reconciliation agreement” will be published as a mere joint declaration speaks volumes. It reflects the fact that reconciliation between the people of the two countries – but also within Namibia – is further away than before. But one cannot admit to the degree of atrocities committed with their far reaching demographic, material and traumatic consequences for the descendants of the survivors without seeking direct reconciliation with these. </p>
<h2>What’s gone wrong</h2>
<p>The preceding negotiation process disregarded international participation rights based both in treaties and customary international law. Critics bemoaned, among other things, the fact that both governments were <a href="https://www.iwgia.org/en/news/4538-reconciliation-between-germany-and-namibia-towards-reparation-of-the-first-genocide-of-the-20th-century.html">“seeking forgiveness without listening to descendants”</a> and with no reference to the return of land to the dispossessed as part of restitutive justice.</p>
<p>The declaration avoids the term “reparations”. It allocates a total amount of 1.05 billion Euro (US$1.18 billion) over a period of 30 years for development projects to Namibian regions with the descendants of the genocide victims. About the same amount as German development cooperation has spent in the 30 years since Namibia’s Independence.</p>
<p>Another 50 million Euro (US$56 million) “will be dedicated to the projects on reconciliation, remembrance, research and education” over the same period. </p>
<p>This is a pittance. Nevertheless the declaration stresses that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>these amounts … settle all financial aspects of the issues relating to the past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For many, such meagre material recognition adds <a href="https://www.theafricancourier.de/news/africa/insulting-critics-reject-german-namibian-agreement-on-herero-genocide/">insult to injury</a>.</p>
<p>The main agencies of the descendants, political opposition parties and leading members of the governing South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO)
did not waste any time to manifest their disagreement. The opening debate in the National Assembly in early June ended in turmoil. In an unprecedented form of protest, hundreds of demonstrators joined by MPs stormed the fenced in area outside Parliament to voice their frustration over the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/8/betrayal-namibian-opposition-lawmakers-slam-germany-genocide-deal">“betrayal”</a>.</p>
<p>For them the motto is: “Nothing about us without us.” </p>
<p>This reflects <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">article 18</a> in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People which has been signed by both countries. It states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters
which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Due to the pandemic-related lockdown, the parliamentary debate was postponed. Opening in late September 2021, it lasted until the end of the parliamentary sessions on 1 December. </p>
<p>Numerous speakers from all parties expressed concerns, criticism and rejections regarding the shortcomings. In a entirely new form of unity, they were condemning the declaration as insufficient.</p>
<p>MacHenry Venaani, leader of the official opposition Popular Democratic Movement, <a href="https://www.observer24.com.na/venaani-proposes-re-negotiation-of-genocide-deal">lambasted</a> the agreed forms of compensation for the crimes committed as, “A flagrant display of arrogance by the German government.”</p>
<p>Bernadus Swartbooi, leader of the Landless People’s Movement, the second
biggest opposition party, concluded with reference to the exclusion of the Ovaherero and Nama in the negotiations as the most affected indigenous communities “that this nation-state does not belong to all”. </p>
<p>SWAPO MPs voiced their frustration too. Minister Tom Alweendo
<a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/parliament-in-session-1">was concerned</a> about the
growing divisions along ethnic lines as well as the government and opposition parties: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am troubled by how the conversation has gone thus far. It is now so apparent that the debate has become so divisive. We call each other names. We refer to each other as puppets and sell-outs … I am afraid that should we continue with this path, then the legacy left by the divide and rule philosophy will continue to flourish.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The parliamentary debate closed without any decision taken. Government <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2021/1202/Germany-admits-to-genocide-in-Namibia.-Should-reparations-follow">announced</a> that taking into consideration the contributions, it would seek further negotiations with the German side.</p>
<h2>No end in sight</h2>
<p>Once an improved agreement was ratified, MPs were reassured that it <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/govt-poised-to-conclude-genocide-issue-kapofi">would be submitted</a> to the Namibian Parliament for acceptance.</p>
<p>In October the German special envoy Ruprecht Polenz <a href="https://www-spiegel-de.translate.goog/ausland/ruprecht-polenz-ueber-das-versoehnungsabkommen-nach-dem-voelkermord-an-den-nama-und-herero-a-57c8c649-6a5d-415c-9044-3c5a2973ce07?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc">confirmed in an interview</a>
that the declaration would not be renegotiated. </p>
<p>However, the new German government in office since early December stresses in its coalition agreement <a href="https://www.tagesspiegel.de/downloads/27829944/1/koalitionsvertrag-ampel-2021-2025.pdf">the commitment</a> to pursue reconciliation with Namibia as an “indispensable task”. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen if a foreign minister from the Green Party will be willing and able to find a way out of the impasse.</p>
<p>Finally, even if renegotiations would be a viable option, the major challenge lies in the inclusion of the communities in Namibia and the diaspora who continue to be most affected by the violent past. It points to the limitations of government-to-government negotiations as long as they don’t adequately recognise those who mainly bear the trauma and consequences of the genocide.</p>
<p>According to the joint declaration:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Germany apologises and bows before the descendants of the victims … The
Namibian Government and people accept Germany’s apology and believe that it
paves the way to a lasting mutual understanding and the consolidation of a special relationship between the two nations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Without the descendants of the genocide survivors substantially involved and willing to reconcile, this remains as patronising and paternalistic as colonialism was. It underlines the continued asymmetries. There is a long way to reconciliation.</p>
<p>The question the late Jewish historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi once posed in <a href="https://www.commentary.org/articles/david-singer-4/zakhor-jewish-history-and-jewish-memory-by-yosef-hayim-yerushalmi/">his book</a> Zakhor – Jewish History and Jewish Memory remains valid also for this case:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is it possible that the antonym of ‘forgetting’ is not ‘remembering,’ but justice?</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber joined in 1974 SWAPO as the anti colonial movement in Namibia and is a member since then.</span></em></p>
The problem is that communities who continue to be most affected by the violent past have not been involved in negotiations.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157151
2021-03-17T15:08:10Z
2021-03-17T15:08:10Z
Why, 31 years after independence, Namibians aren’t in a festive mood
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390150/original/file-20210317-13-fqjs2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of Namibians protested against growing gender-based violence in October 2020. The Afrikaans wording on the placard says 'We are tired'. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hildegard Titus/AFPvia Getty Images)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Namibia celebrates its 31st independence day <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/namibia-gains-independence">this month</a>. But Namibians are not in a festive mood. A <a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org/press/trust-political-institutions-decline-namibia-afrobarometer-survey-shows">2019 survey</a> by Afrobarometer, the independent African research network, showed a significant loss of trust in the country’s governance. </p>
<p>Worse: 2020 became <a href="https://ippr.org.na/publication/namibia-qer-quarter-4-2020/">“a year like no other”</a>
since independence in 1990, as the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the effects of a prolonged recession <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/159400/archive-read/Namibia-goes-into-technical-recession">which began in 2016</a>.</p>
<p>The legitimacy of the former liberation movement, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (<a href="http://www.swapoparty.org/history.html">SWAPO</a>), has steadily been eroded due to a combination of factors. These have included socioeconomic decline, SWAPO’s increasingly outdated populist narrative, financial scandals and elite self-enrichment. In addition, opposition has grown in the form of electoral support for new parties. </p>
<p>After independence from South Africa <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/434032">in 1990</a> it won elections by huge <a href="http://www.tfd.org.tw/export/sites/tfd/files/publication/journal/155-173-How-Democratic-Is-Namibias-Democracy.pdf">margins</a>, enabling it to entrench its power. Like other <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-liberators-turn-into-oppressors-a-study-of-southern-african-states-57213">former liberation movements</a>, its legitimacy centred on the idea that citizens owed the party unconditional loyalty in return for liberation. </p>
<p>But heroic narratives tend to have a sell by date. Since 2015 it’s become increasingly clear that SWAPO has lost appeal among the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/60296/archive-read/Born-free-and-in-search-of-political-answers">younger generation</a> as the struggle for liberation passes into history. This generation expects good governance and measures it not in rhetoric but in delivery. After all, they were born into an independent state. Their number as voters is about to become a majority. </p>
<h2>Downward spiral</h2>
<p>The election results of 2019 and 2020 indicated the decline in support for the erstwhile liberation movement.</p>
<p>The National Assembly and presidential elections <a href="https://namibian-studies.com/index.php/JNS/article/view/8638">in November 2019</a> marked a turning point. SWAPO’s National Assembly votes dropped from 80% in 2014 to now 66%. For the first time since 1995, it no longer holds a two-thirds majority. Beneficiaries were the official opposition <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/OfficialOppositionNamibia/posts/">Popular Democratic Movement</a> and the new <a href="https://www.lpmparty.org/">Landless People’s Movement</a>, which came third. </p>
<p>President Hage Geingob was re-elected for a second (and last) term with only 57% of the vote (2014: 87%). His votes were snatched by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DrItula/">Panduleni Itula</a>, a party rival posing as an independent candidate. He personified the internal party power struggles. After being expelled, he founded his own party, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ipcpatriots/">Independent Patriots for Change</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibias-democracy-enters-new-era-as-ruling-swapo-continues-to-lose-its-lustre-151238">Namibia's democracy enters new era as ruling Swapo continues to lose its lustre</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The November 2020 <a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/democracy-beyond-swapo-in-namibia/">elections</a> for the regional and local authorities shifted the ground further. In the <a href="https://ippr.org.na/blog/the-changing-political-landscape/">changing political landscape</a> only SWAPO’s traditional stronghold in the northern region suffered limited damage. The results everywhere else were disastrous.</p>
<p>On average, SWAPOs’ aggregate votes in all regions dropped from 83% in 2015 to 57%. In the 57 local authorities the party won only 40% of all votes (2015: 73%). It maintained control over just 20 of the 52 local councils it previously held.</p>
<p>Most urban centres, including the capital Windhoek, were seized by other parties or coalitions. Main winners were the Independent Patriots for Change and the Landless People’s Movement. Notably, the Popular Democratic Movement could not improve its scores significantly.</p>
<h1>Economy on the rocks</h1>
<p>Namibia recorded annual economic growth rates of up to <a href="https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/namibia">6% until 2015</a>. But the global economic crises and the ailing neighbouring economies of Angola and South Africa, in combination with a lasting drought, created severe setbacks. Since 2016 Namibia has been in <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/159400/archive-read/Namibia-goes-into-technical-recession">recession</a>. </p>
<p>The World Bank has Namibia classified as a <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/namibia/overview">upper middle-income</a> country. The annual <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/namibia/gdp-per-capita">average per capita income</a> peaked at US$ 6,274 in 2015 and dropped to US$ 5,766 in 2019. This contrasts – despite the crisis – favourably <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=ZG">with US$ 1,596 in 2019 for sub-Saharan Africa in general</a>.</p>
<p>But the relative wealth is anything but fairly distributed. Inequality remains at staggering proportions. According to the latest United Nations Human Development Report, over half of employed Namibians earn <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/over-half-of-namibians-earn-less-than-n1-400-report2021-03-01">less than US$95 (N$ 1,400) a month</a>. Even among those in paid employment this amounts to less than the average per capita income for sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>The full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/207841/archive-read/Over-12-000-workers-retrenched-in-2020">rising unemployment</a> remains to be seen. Public debt has risen to over <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/govt-debt-rises-to-n117bn2020-05-27/">two-thirds of GDP</a>. The economy contracted by an estimated 8% in 2020 and regressed to <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/94491/read/Economy-to-slump-back-to-2013-levels">2013 levels</a>. Economists assume that a <a href="https://www.republikein.com.na/nuus/tough-decades-ahead-for-nam2020-11-05">return to the 2015 level</a> won’t be achieved before 2024. </p>
<p>Credit rating agency Moody’s <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/201708140763.html">downgraded</a> Namibia to “junk status” in August 2017. It has negatively <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/more-junk-from-moodys2020-12-07">adjusted</a> Namibia’s status since then, most recently in December 2020, to three notches below junk. A further downgrade <a href="https://informante.web.na/?p=302250">looms</a>.</p>
<h1>Corruption</h1>
<p>Namibia was rocked by a <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/sidebar/the-spoils-of-fishrot-tracking-the-property-holdings-of-key-figures-in-namibias-biggest-bribery-scandal">bribery scandal</a> over fishing quotas in November 2019. The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/1/exclusive-corruption-in-namibias-fishing-industry-unveiled">#fishrot</a> scandal implicated two ministers and leading officials of state-owned enterprises. They are awaiting trial in prison. Evidence suggests that other leading party members are also implicated.</p>
<p>Instead of tackling the issue head on, President Geingob decided on an evasive approach. He declared 2020 a <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/196809/archive-read/The-Year-of-Introspection">“year of introspection”</a>. But an increasingly infuriated public witnessed further cover-ups and denialism. </p>
<p>The government commissioned an internal report into shady deals by the state-owned diamond trading company <a href="https://www.namdia.com/">Namdia</a>, but its contents have <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/president-parks-namdia-report2021-01-22">not been disclosed</a> since it was submitted to Geingob in 2018. </p>
<p>Another state-owned enterprise, <a href="http://www.airnamibia.com/">Air Namibia</a>, became a showpiece of mismanagement, using up enormous state subsidies and bailouts while <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/99425/read/Scale-of-AirNams-debts-revealed-in-liquidation">amassing liabilities</a>. It was eventually <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2021/02/11/pressed-by-losses-and-debt-namibia-s-national-airline-folds//">liquidated</a> in February 2021.</p>
<h2>Battle for legitimacy</h2>
<p>As the election results of 2019 and 2020 show, even a dominant party regime needs to use its authority and space to show that it serves the interest of the people. If people feel <a href="https://theconversation.com/southern-africas-former-liberators-offer-rich-lessons-in-political-populism-70490">neglected</a>, their loyalty will decline. </p>
<p>Other parties also have to earn legitimacy and show that they are not more of the same. </p>
<p>The Popular Democratic Movement as the official parliamentary opposition party has not gained from SWAPO’s decline in the November 2020 elections. Instead, two new parties – the Landless People’s Movement and the Independent Patriots for Change – are setting the tune. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/southern-africas-former-liberators-offer-rich-lessons-in-political-populism-70490">Southern Africa's former liberators offer rich lessons in political populism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/intra-party-cracks-widen-in-opposition2021-03-12/">In-fighting</a> rages in all parties of political influence. Whether it’s a sign of decline among the established parties or one of ascendancy among the new kids ones, the fight over their future seems in full swing. </p>
<p>New dynamics suggest that the political culture is damaged. Parliament has seen <a href="https://futuremedia.com.na/chaos-in-national-assembly/">physical contests</a>, insults and <a href="https://twitter.com/KalondoMonica/status/1370295633748373505">sexist remarks</a>.</p>
<h2>Lingering question</h2>
<p>Days before Namibia’s independence on 21 March 1990, a poem on a wall in what used to be a compound for contract labour asked: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now that the Namib sings</p>
<p>And the tear of the Katatura child washed away</p>
<p>Who will keep the fire burning?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After 31 years of independence, the answer remains pending.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber has been a member of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) since 1974. </span></em></p>
The legitimacy of SWAPO, the former liberation movement that has governed since 1990, has been eroded amid growing corruption and a deepening economic crisis.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/153803
2021-01-22T17:30:01Z
2021-01-22T17:30:01Z
South African minister’s COVID-19 death unites friends and rivals in tribute
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380165/original/file-20210122-21-i0shrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jackson Mthembu is the most prominent South African politician to succumb to COVID-19.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The death of <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/profiles/minister-jackson-mthembu%3A-profile">Jackson Mphikwa Mthembu</a>, Minister in the Office of the President of South Africa, has been met with sorrow across the country. Tributes have come from across the political spectrum for the country’s first government minister to succumb to COVID-19. He was 62.</p>
<p>Mthembu’s integrity, dedication to his job and sense of humour explain the response to his death.</p>
<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/press-statements/statement-president-cyril-ramaphosa-passing-minister-jackson-mthembu">said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Minister Mthembu was an exemplary leader, an activist and life-long champion of freedom and democracy. He was a much-loved and greatly respected colleague and comrade, whose passing leaves our nation at a loss. I extend my deepest sympathies to the Minister’s family, to his colleagues, comrades and many friends.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The leader of the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, <a href="https://www.polity.org.za/article/the-da-mourns-the-passing-of-jackson-mthembu-2021-01-21">said</a> to Mthembu’s family, friends and the governing partty, the African National Congress:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You have lost a generous man with a big heart and an even greater sense of humour.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Corne Mulder, leader of the right-wing <a href="https://www.vfplus.org.za/">Freedom Front Plus</a>, <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/jackson-mthembu-dies-of-covid-19-related-complications-20210121-2">said</a> “Jackson Mthembu was an excellent chief whip of Parliament. He stood strong on principle when Parliament came under attack during the Zuma years.”</p>
<p>He was referring to the <a href="https://www.loot.co.za/product/richard-calland-the-zuma-years/lwlk-1845-g5a0">tenure of former President Jacob Zuma</a>, from May 2009 to February 2018, characterised by populism and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-democracy-or-a-kleptocracy-how-south-africa-stacks-up-111101">rampant corruption in government</a>. </p>
<p>Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary-general of the African National Congress, enthused about how Mthembu had been a dedicated, committed activist with “an unbelievable work ethic” who was meticulous about his work and believed that the democratic project could work.</p>
<p>She <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2021-01-22-in-quotes-jessie-duarte-jackson-mthembu-leaves-behind-a-legacy-of-honesty/">said</a> Mthembu had a great sense of humour and an “amazing” ability to interact with people:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have lost a person who put the country first, at all times. For us who have lost a brother and a friend, this is a very great loss. He leaves a legacy of honesty and integrity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His death drives home the seriousness of the <a href="https://mg.co.za/news/2021-01-21-stern-warning-against-covid-greets-mthembus-death/">COVID-19 pandemic in the country</a>.</p>
<h2>The early days</h2>
<p>Mthembu’s life mirrored the daily toils black South Africans had to endure under colonialism and apartheid. His life was also synonymous with the struggle for freedom by the young activists who picked up the baton from leaders like <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography">Nelson Mandela</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sobukwes-pan-africanist-dream-an-elusive-idea-that-refuses-to-die-52601">Robert Sobukwe</a>, among others, who were either jailed or banned or, like <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/stephen-bantu-biko">Steve Biko</a>, paid the ultimate price at the hands of the apartheid regime.</p>
<p>Mthembu was born in the eastern Transvaal, today’s Mpumalanga province, in the east of the country. He was raised by his grandmother and uncles. From the age of seven, he had to help his grandmother working in the family’s maize fields. He was <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jackson-mthembu">kicked out of school</a> several times because his family could not afford school fees, uniforms or school books.</p>
<p>He was a student leader during <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">the 1976 school revolt</a>, sparked by the imposition of the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction. The revolt spread throughout the country. The harsh response of the apartheid regime, shooting and killing unarmed children, led to revulsion around the world, further isolating the apartheid government. </p>
<p>He was expelled from <a href="https://www.dpme.gov.za/about/Pages/Minister.aspx">Fort Hare University in 1980</a> owing to his political activities. In 1980 he got a job at Highveld Steel and Vanadium, and became one of the first Africans to be promoted to production foreman. Between 1984 and 1986 he became a senior steward of the Metal and Allied Workers’ Union, which is today called the <a href="https://www.numsa.org.za/">National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>During the 1980s struggle years it became almost a norm that unionists also became community leaders. In 1980 Mthembu became chair of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jackson-mthembu">Witbank Education Crisis Committee</a>. He also served on the eMalahleni Civic Association; the local branch of the <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03188/06lv03208.htm">National Education Crisis Committee</a>, which campaigned for a “people’s education”; and the <a href="http://www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/keywords/detainees-parents-support-committee-dpsc">Detainees’ Parents Support Committee</a>.</p>
<h2>Defiance amid persecution</h2>
<p>The Special Branch (the apartheid political police) repeatedly detained him for months of solitary confinement during the <a href="https://www.saha.org.za/ecc25/ecc_under_a_state_of_emergency.htm">1980s states of emergency</a>, tortured him in police stations, and petrol-bombed his home. Mthembu was prosecuted for sabotage, treason and terrorism with 30 other activists in the <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/presidency/jackson-mthembu-mr">Bethal terrorism trial of 1986-1988</a>. He was acquitted.</p>
<p>After this acquittal, the apartheid security police continued with their harassment and intimidation. This led him to move away from Witbank, to the east of Johannesburg, and find refuge in Soweto and Alexandra in the Gauteng province as an “internal exile”, <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/press-statements/statement-president-cyril-ramaphosa-passing-minister-jackson-mthembu">seriously disrupting his family life</a>.</p>
<p>He was elected deputy regional secretary for the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging-complex">Pretoria-Witwatersrand- Vereeniging</a> region (today’s Gauteng) of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/united-democratic-front-udf">United Democratic Front</a>, the above-ground home for supporters of the then-banned African National Congress during the 1980s.</p>
<p>Mthembu worked with the South African Council of Churches, and in 1988 led a convoy of 300 minibuses as the SWAPO Support Group to help them during Namibia’s first democratic elections. <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">SWAPO (South West African People’s Organisation)</a> went on to win the elections, and has governed Namibia since independence from South Africa <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibias-democracy-enters-new-era-as-ruling-swapo-continues-to-lose-its-lustre-151238">in 1990</a>. </p>
<h2>Life of public service</h2>
<p>Mthembu’s career was as one of the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2006-08-28-his-legacy-should-not-be-forgotten/">“inziles”, as opposed to the exile generation</a> and the generation jailed on Robben Island. This has a two-fold significance. First, generational. The Robben Island generation, such as Mandela, and the exile generation, such as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/thabo-mvuyelwa-mbeki">Thabo Mbeki</a>, are now almost all retired. Zuma straddles both the Robben Island and exile experiences. Second, the “inziles” of the United Democratic Front had a less authoritarian and more participatory political culture than the islanders and the exiles, and this characterises their subsequent career.</p>
<p>In 1994 Jackson Mthembu was elected to Parliament and participated in the drafting of the South African constitution. Between 1997 and 1999 he was a member of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, and served as Member of the Executive Committee for Transport. </p>
<p>He was elected to the national executive committee in 2007, and worked at the ANC head office, Luthuli House in Johannesburg, where he and then secretary-general Gwede Mantashe defended Zuma over the scandal involving the use of public money for expensive renovations to his private home at <a href="https://cdn.24.co.za/files/Cms/General/d/2718/00b91b2841d64510b9c99ef9b9faa597.pdf">Nkandla</a>. In 2014 he became an MP in the National Assembly, chairing the portfolio committee on environment, becoming ANC Chief Whip in 2016. </p>
<p>As the tide within the ANC was beginning to turn against Zuma,
he worked with the <a href="https://www.da.org.za/">Democratic Alliance</a> to <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/mthembu-slams-anc-mps-accusations-that-he-colluded-with-da-in-state-capture-motion-20171128">schedule a parliamentary debate</a> on <a href="https://www.statecapture.org.za/">“state capture”</a> – large-scale corruption – during Zuma’s presidency. </p>
<p>Mthembu took part in the <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-08-26-how-ramaphosas-campaign-spent-r400-million-and-why-it-matters/">CR17 campaign</a> to get Cyril Ramaphosa elected as the successor to Jacob Zuma as president of the ANC. In 2019 Ramaphosa appointed him Minister in the Presidency.</p>
<p>Mthembu, sometimes affectionately referred to by his clan name, Mvelase, is survived by his wife Thembi Mthembu and five children. His first wife, Pinkie, and one of his daughters predeceased him. His death was greeted with ringing tributes across the floor in parliament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is a member of the ANC, but writes this in his professional capacity as a political scientist and historian.</span></em></p>
Jackson Mthembu’s death drives home the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western Cape
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151238
2020-12-06T09:57:11Z
2020-12-06T09:57:11Z
Namibia’s democracy enters new era as ruling Swapo continues to lose its lustre
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372573/original/file-20201202-13-1knov4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The results of the latest <a href="https://elections.na/RegionalCouncil.aspx">regional</a> and <a href="https://elections.na/RegionalCouncil.aspx">local government</a> elections in Namibia show just how much the political landscape has changed in the country since independence from South Africa <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/namibia-gains-independence">in 1990</a>. </p>
<p>The South West Africa People’s Organisation (<a href="http://www.swapoparty.org/index1.php">Swapo</a>) – the former liberation movement that has governed the country since independence – used to win by huge margins. But, increasingly, Namibians are losing trust in its ability to run the country. They are making different political choices. </p>
<p>For the first time, Swapo suffered numerous defeats at regional and local levels of government in elections held last month. The loss of control over several second tier levels of governance and even more on the local level bordered on humiliation. </p>
<p>This increases the influence of other parties dramatically and will have an impact on Namibia’s future governance. The fact that <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/jobs-mayoral-dream-comes-true">Job Amupanda</a>, a social movement activist in his early 30s, is the new mayor of Windhoek’s municipality, points to how dramatic the changes are. </p>
<p>Swapo’s poor showing in this year’s regional and municipal elections mirrors its humiliation in the 2019 national polls. From the whopping 80% it won in 2014, it got only 65%. President Hage Geingob was reelected with a humiliating 56% (2014: 87%). </p>
<p>The results were driven by growing <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/1/exclusive-corruption-in-namibias-fishing-industry-unveiled">corruption</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-grown-up-after-a-generation-into-independence-but-not-yet-mature-74571">governance failures</a> and <a href="https://www.bti-project.org/content/en/downloads/reports/country_report_2018_NAM.pdf">abuse of office</a>. The lack of good governance and poor delivery has been exacerbated by a fiscal crisis and recession <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/bank-of-namibia-expects-worst-recession-since-independence">since 2016</a>. </p>
<h2>Electoral blow</h2>
<p>Many of the country’s 14 different regions are spatial hubs for culturally and linguistically distinct groups. Their voting behaviour, to some extent, reproduces existing identities. Up until fairly recently, Swapo was the only party with support among almost all population groups, and in the urban “melting pots”. This seems over.</p>
<p>For the <a href="https://elections.na/RegionalCouncil.aspx">14 regional councils</a>, which are the second tier of government, Swapo’s votes dropped from 83% in 2015 to 57%. The elected council members appoint three representatives each to the National Council, the <a href="https://www.parliament.na/index.php/national-council">upper house of parliament</a>, where Swapo currently holds 40 of 42 seats. This will change fundamentally, and it is likely to just secure an absolute majority. </p>
<p>The southern regions of Hardap and //Karas went to the Landless People’s Movement. Central-western Erongo went to the Independent Patriots for Change, which also made some inroads in <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/96962/read/Swapo-loses-29-local-council-seats-in-the-north">Swapo’s northern strongholds</a>. Kunene in the north west went to the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOppositionNamibia/">People’s Democratic Movement</a>. Swapo also lost its absolute majority in the central and eastern Khomas, Omaheke and Otjizondjupa regions.</p>
<p>There are 57 municipalities in Namibia. In the <a href="https://elections.na/LocalAssembly.aspx">local authority elections</a> Swapo garnered just 40% (2015: 73%) of votes. It maintained full control only 20 of the 52 municipalities (out of 57) and town councils it previously held.</p>
<p>Most urban centres, including Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, went to other parties or <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/opposition-shuns-swapo-in-coalitions2020-11-30">coalitions</a>. </p>
<p>A disaster was the loss of the capital Windhoek. From holding 12 of the 15 seats in the municipality since 2015, Swapo now has <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/96932/read/Swapo-loses-control-of-Windhoek">only five</a>. </p>
<h2>Early warning signals</h2>
<p>Swapo’s loss of appeal among both <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/96902/read/Ruling-party-bleeds-rural-and-urban-votes">urban and rural voters</a> started with the national elections of <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-11-26-namibian-elections-the-sands-are-shifting-slowly/">2019</a>. It has now taken an unexpected dramatic turn with the regional and local election results. </p>
<p>The results of last year’s national election showed <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibia-is-showing-wear-and-tear-after-30-years-under-swapo-rule-133703">wear and tear</a> on the part of the party. </p>
<p>Panduleni Itula, a Swapo member who stood as an independent candidate, scored almost 30% of votes, personifying the dissatisfaction among party followers. Expelled since then, he formed a new party, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVlQ-H0Xv2o">Independent Patriots for Change</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOppositionNamibia/">People’s Democratic Movement</a> more than tripled its parliamentary seats as the official opposition. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lpmnamibia/">Landless People’s Movement</a>, a new force, became the third strongest party. </p>
<h2>Self-righteousness and intimidation</h2>
<p>Following the poor electoral showing last year, Geingob reassured citizens <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/ive-heard-you-geingob-president-elect-to-address-nation-tonight">“I have heard you”</a>. He declared 2020 the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/196809/archive-read/The-Year-of-Introspection">“year of introspection”</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, since late November 2019, more details emerged over the scale of corruption in the infamous <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/1/exclusive-corruption-in-namibias-fishing-industry-unveiled">#fishrot scandal</a>, Namibia’s <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/sidebar/the-spoils-of-fishrot-tracking-the-property-holdings-of-key-figures-in-namibias-biggest-bribery-scandal">biggest bribery scandal</a>. Two ministers and several leading officials of state-owned enterprises were implicated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372561/original/file-20201202-14-47gx28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372561/original/file-20201202-14-47gx28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372561/original/file-20201202-14-47gx28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372561/original/file-20201202-14-47gx28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372561/original/file-20201202-14-47gx28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372561/original/file-20201202-14-47gx28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372561/original/file-20201202-14-47gx28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Panduleni Itula, a former Swapo official, is among the new breed of politicians offering an alternative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hildegard Titus/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Geingob’s proclaimed introspection was limited to an <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/swapo-introspection-a-joke2020-07-27">internal self-examination</a> by government, with no visible results. This infuriated Namibians. </p>
<p>Party leaders continued to brush aside the dissatisfaction and resorted to blaming scapegoats. </p>
<h2>Deflection and scapegoating</h2>
<p>Addressing soldiers at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwunrqKtWt8">end of August</a>, defence minister Peter Hafeni Vilho accused the country’s minority white community, supporters of “regime change”, “misguided intellectuals” and “unpatriotic” citizens of being bent on <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/204057/archive-read/Defence-minister-in-white-greed-storm">seeing the government fail</a>.</p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/204139/archive-read/If-the-shoe-fits-wear-it">linked the white community</a> to all governance failures, arguing that they alone were responsible for the current inequalities. This provoked a rebuke pointing to <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/204363/archive-read/Not-Every-Shoe-Fits-Every-Foot">the government’s failures</a>.</p>
<p>The party’s spokesperson Hilma Nicanor accused “outside forces” of trying to unseat the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/96987/read/30-towns-villages-reject-Swapo">“victorious”</a> governing party.</p>
<p>In mid-October Geingob bemoaned the growing number of whites (estimated at less than 5% of the population) registering as voters. He claimed they intended to support anything but Swapo, and <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/205522/archive-read/Geingob-claims-whites-declared-war-against-Swapo">declared</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>I will not forget that. People are declaring war against Swapo.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Martin Shalli, the former commander of the Namibian army, speaking at a rally in early November, urged the crowd to <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/slit-defectors-throats-2020-11-09">slit the throats of Swapo defectors</a>. Public outrage forced him to <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/96378/read/Shalli-apologises-ECN-still-under-pressure-to-act">apologise on national television</a>.</p>
<p>It speaks in favour of Namibians that such intimidation did not prevent them from voting for the parties of their choice. This makes democracy the winner and Swapo the loser.</p>
<h2>The future of Namibia’s democracy</h2>
<p>Swapo’s downfall from an undisputed hegemonic liberation movement in power since independence means that Namibians are entering a new era. The elections in November 2020 have indeed put Namibia’s political culture at a crossroad. </p>
<p>For starters, it is not yet sure how the Swapo-led central government will relate to the regional and communal governments it has lost to the opposition. </p>
<p>Frustrated members of the Swapo establishment have suggested that the party, which controls the central government, should make the fiscus <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/we-control-national-budget-swapo2020-02-10">withhold funds</a> to financially starve towns and regions governed by other parties.</p>
<p>This stresses the emerging centrifugal tendencies, fuelling regional if not tribal animosities. It is not in keeping with the <a href="http://www.swapoparty.org/zoom_in_94.html">“One Namibia, One Nation”</a> slogan from Swapo’s anti-colonial struggle days.</p>
<p>Notably, Geingob dismissed such suggestions, declaring that all those elected into office are supposed to serve all people and <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/97002/read/Govt-wont-starve-opposition-controlled-areas---Geingob">no funds will be withheld</a>. This is encouraging at a moment when Namibia enters a new democratic turf.</p>
<p>The four years on the road to the country’s next National Assembly and presidential elections in 2024 might be bumpy. But democratic hiccups are part of a healthy pluralism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of Swapo since 1974. </span></em></p>
The November 2020 local and regional elections have indeed put Namibia’s political culture at a crossroads.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/133703
2020-03-17T14:30:46Z
2020-03-17T14:30:46Z
Namibia is showing wear and tear after 30 years under SWAPO rule
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320743/original/file-20200316-128091-1el5qat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Namibians queue to vote. Fewer and fewer cast it for the ruling party SWAPO.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Gianluigi Guercia/ AFP) (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Namibia turns 30 this month. Its former liberation movement, the South West Africa People’s Organisation <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">SWAPO</a>, has been in power all these years and the country has been relatively stable, with a wide range of civil liberties. </p>
<p>But not all is well in the state of Namibia. Despite what seems to be a positive track record, many will not celebrate this year. As President Hage Geingob prepares to take the oath for a second term in office on Independence Day (21 March), the republic is more divided than ever.</p>
<p>The national assembly and presidential elections of 27 November 2019 <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358533.2020.1717090">were a rude awakening</a>. For the first time, the ruling party massively lost votes. The two-thirds majority secured in the first parliamentary elections in 1994 and consolidated towards an 80% dominance in 2014 melted down to 65%.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibian-elections-the-sands-are-shifting-slowly-127656">Namibian elections: the sands are shifting -- slowly</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For the first time Geingob, as presidential candidate, obtained fewer votes than his party. His 87% of 2014 shrank to a mere 56%. He warded off the challenge by another member of the party who registered as an “independent” candidate, but enters the second term in office much weaker than before. The party faces internal battles eroding his authority.</p>
<h2>The things that have gone wrong</h2>
<p>Recent years have been rocky economically. Fiscal prudence was neglected and despite continued warnings the government lived above its means. By 2016 a full-blown recession kicked in. Populist <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2018.1500360">narratives</a> backfired. Promises were no substitute for realities. Geingob’s <a href="http://www.op.gov.na/harambee-p-plan">Harambee Prosperity Plan</a>, announced during his first year as president, remained wishful thinking.</p>
<p>Almost a million people (40% of the 2.3 million inhabitants) have been estimated to live in shacks. Geingob <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/185139/archive-read/Shacks-offend-Geingob-wants-them-gone-in-5-years">declared this</a> a national humanitarian crisis and promised to deal with it. No visible improvements have happened since. Over half of the population has no access to proper sanitation and an outbreak of <a href="https://www.who.int/csr/don/15-january-2018-hepatitis-e-namibia/en/">hepatitis E in 2018</a> continues to take its toll.</p>
<p>In his 2019 state of the nation address <a href="https://www.gov.na/documents/10181/802360/STATE+OF+THE+NATION+ADDRESS+BY+HIS+EXCELLENCY+DR.+HAGE+G.+GEINGOB%2C+PRESIDENT+OF+THE+REPUBLIC+OF+NAMIBIA+%282019+04+17%29/24588586-d858-4faf-9929-702ba1e2f25f">he repeated</a> his mantra for</p>
<blockquote>
<p>an inclusive, united, and prosperous Namibian House.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite all evidence to the contrary, he confidently claimed</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a social compact where ‘No One Should Feel Left Out’ and where citizens live in harmony as ‘One Namibia, One Nation’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But after his first term in office the country is further away from this than ever since independence.</p>
<p>Namibia <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/NAM.pdf">ranked</a> 130th out of 189 in the 2019 Human Development Index. Discounted for inequality, the value declined by over a third. Nearly 40% of the population were classified as multi-dimensionally poor – a definition that includes having insufficient access to education and health services, energy and water – and another fifth as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty.</p>
<h2>Corruption</h2>
<p>In late 2019 a major fraud in fishing quotas, known since then as <a href="https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2020/01/06/namibias-fishrot-scandal-from-start-to-present/">#fishrot</a>, made international headlines. It involved the biggest Icelandic fishing company, the Namibian ministers for fisheries and for justice, several high-ranking officials from state-owned enterprises, and lawyers involved in money laundering.</p>
<p>A documentary by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/anatomyofabribe/">Al Jazeera</a> disclosed delicate details. When the ministers <a href="https://www.icelandreview.com/news/namibian-ministers-resign-following-samherji-scandal/">resigned</a>, Geingob thanked them “for their patriotism and contribution to the work of government”. A few days later they were arrested and remain in custody awaiting trial.</p>
<p>In mid-2019, the minister of education, arts and culture, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, <a href="https://economist.com.na/45508/headlines/hanse-himarwa-tenders-resignation-as-education-minister-amid-graft-charges/">resigned from office</a> after being found guilty of corruption. But she remains a member of parliament. Much to the indignation of the wider public, she <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/88463/read/Hanse-Himarwa-appointment-receives-backlash">was appointed</a> earlier this year to the parliamentary committee on constitutional and legal affairs.</p>
<h2>Invective no substitute for politics</h2>
<p>Geingob gave his years in office programmatic titles: the year of planning (2015), implementation (2016), rededication (2017), reckoning (2018) and accountability (2019). But planning was not implemented. He has declared 2020 <a href="http://www.op.gov.na/documents/84084/986732/Speech+by+President+Geingob+at+the+New+Years+Greetings.pdf/a367bad2-6ad6-4728-b016-f9204162ccc7">the year of introspection</a>, to </p>
<blockquote>
<p>undergo extensive soul-searching to define our place, purpose and role in the quest for a better life for the citizens of this country.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Opening the first cabinet meeting of the year, Geingob <a href="http://www.op.gov.na/documents/84084/973353/2020+cabinet+opening/3f58d312-b639-442b-8a2b-6cb5d966eb64">explained</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… we as a government and as individuals need to reflect through critical enquiries on the quality and efficacy of our work. For example, to what extent have we done what the people required from us to meet their basic needs?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The honest answer as his second term gets under way is that Namibia, considered for many years a success story internationally, has shown wear and tear. The <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/limits-to-liberation-in-southern-africa">“limits to liberation”</a> have poisoned the social fabric. A common Namibian identity, welcomed with enthusiasm 30 years ago, has been perforated by divisions along class and ethnicity, or both. </p>
<p>Cronyism and self-enrichment of a new elite is no prosperity plan beyond individual greed in <a href="https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/8925597">“a rich country with poor people”</a>, as a study by the local Labour Research and Resource Institute dubbed it. The “born free” are sick and tired of politics in which the first and second <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/116/463/284/2760214">“struggle generations”</a> promote a heroic narrative stuck in the past.</p>
<p>While a social, inter-generational contract vanishes, insults are hurled. During the election campaign, the SWAPO secretary-general referred to the independent presidential candidate as <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/195720/archive-read/Who-is-a-Threat-to-Democracy-and-Peace">an insect</a>. His supporters were not shy to retaliate. At a public rally in early March, Geingob was insulted <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/swapo-condemns-insults-against-its-president">as a dog</a>.</p>
<p>But invective is no substitute for politics. Dehumanisation of others dehumanises oneself. This cannot build a sustainable future for democracy and human rights. And it certainly offers no political alternatives. As the local newspaper Namibian Sun <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/lets-raise-debate-levels2020-03-13/">commented</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What the country can ill afford is a political circus that may offer entertainment and newspaper headlines, but which, at the end of the day, further polarises support bases and voters.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the interest of the people, a new social contract for the benefit of all should be the priority. After 30 years of independence, Namibians deserve better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of SWAPO since 1974. </span></em></p>
The hunger, frustration and desperation of ordinary Namibians should be first on the political agenda. But this isn’t the case.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/132772
2020-03-10T13:35:38Z
2020-03-10T13:35:38Z
John Liebenberg: masterful photographer of life and war in southern Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318440/original/file-20200303-66056-1vv9mae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">John Liebenberg in the ransacked hospital in Cubal, Angola, in 1993.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer unknown/Courtesy the Liebenberg family</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African photojournalist <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-02-20-john-arthur-liebenberg-1958-2020-a-man-who-photographed-war-and-suffering/">John Liebenberg</a> is best known for his remarkable body of work in Namibia, especially the period of the late 1980s when the country headed towards its United Nations-supervised transition to <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/namibian-struggle-independence-1966-1990-historical-background">independence</a>. </p>
<p>Born in 1958 in Johannesburg, his childhood was not an easy one, part of it spent in an orphanage. He finished school at a time when white South African men were expected to complete <a href="http://www.saha.org.za/youth/the_militarisation_of_the_south_african_state.htm">compulsory military service</a> and he was conscripted to Ondangwa in northern Namibia in 1976. It was illegal to take photographs in the army, but Liebenberg hid a small camera in the toilet block. </p>
<p>After national service Liebenberg returned to Namibia and worked in the Windhoek post office. He wanted to be a photographer. He also had a capacity to connect to people. He often spoke of the black migrant workers he came to know at the workplace, most of them from Namibia’s northern border area with Angola where the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/12/annals-of-wars-we-dont-know-about-the-south-african-border-war-of-1966-1989/">war was intensifying</a>. Known as the ‘border war’ to South Africans and as the ‘war of liberation’ to Namibians, it drew Namibia, Angola and other countries into South Africa’s fight against armed liberation movements supported by socialist countries that <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/CWIHP_SouthAfrica_Final_Web.pdf">echoed wider Cold War politics</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318431/original/file-20200303-66112-12chn84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Families of South African military conscripts picnic on the Cunene River near the border with Angola in 1987.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Liebenberg family</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Endearment” was a term Liebenberg liked to use when talking about his relationship with people, getting to know their stories, and their harsh journeys of necessity to work in the south. One had the sense, many years later, that the stories still obsessed him. It was the same once he joined <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/">The Namibian</a> newspaper and began covering the growing urban mobilisation of trade unions and students and, increasingly, the war zone on the border with Angola. </p>
<p>Fellow journalists and friends describe a man with the capacity to jump fences, break down boundaries and disarm people as he moved around like a whirlwind taking photographs, sometimes slyly, but often being touched by people and touching them in turn.</p>
<h2>Enemy of the state</h2>
<p>Namibia’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40175168?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">transition to independence</a> started on 1 April 1989 and initially foundered with the collapse of a ceasefire in the north. </p>
<p>Hours before the conflict resumed, Liebenberg’s car was riddled with bullets in an <a href="http://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.php?objectid=32-130-731">assassination attempt</a>. He learned years later from the amnesty hearings of South Africa’s <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> how his would-be killers, the shadowy apartheid death squad the <a href="http://sabctrc.saha.org.za/reports/volume2/chapter2/subsection37.htm">Civil Cooperation Bureau</a>, had been commissioned to get rid of him. </p>
<p>It’s remarkable how he sustained the intensity of dense photographic coverage of ongoing protest and war in this period, including breaking the difficult story of the accounts of human rights abuses from detainees who belonged to the South West Africa People’s Organisation or <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">SWAPO</a>. Their stories came to light after their release from the dungeons in southern Angola in 1989.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318432/original/file-20200303-66084-3gsjl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dark days in Soyo. MPLA forces patrol oil installations in Soyo, Cabinda, after their recapture from UNITA in 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Liebenberg family</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Namibian independence, Liebenberg moved on to cover the civil war <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">in Angola</a>, which he called the “war of madness”. The stakes were very high, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/05/angola-brutal-history-mpla-leftwing-discipline-betrayal">politics muddied</a>, and human life frequently disrespected. </p>
<p>He photographed the conflict in Luanda after the collapse of the agreement between the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) following the elections in 1992. He accompanied the MPLA forces moving through central Angola to reconquer areas claimed by UNITA, including Huambo. Following his personal code of covering both sides of a struggle, he later photographed UNITA bases in southern Angola.</p>
<h2>Ghosts</h2>
<p>Liebenberg published his photographs of the Namibian war against South African colonial occupation in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bush-Ghosts-Life-Namibia-1986-90/dp/1415201005"><em>Bush of Ghosts</em></a> (2010). He invited me, as a historian of northern Namibia, to collaborate in the task. He was always very clear that the narrative must address all different parties in the struggle. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318677/original/file-20200304-66078-15xjy56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318677/original/file-20200304-66078-15xjy56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318677/original/file-20200304-66078-15xjy56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318677/original/file-20200304-66078-15xjy56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318677/original/file-20200304-66078-15xjy56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318677/original/file-20200304-66078-15xjy56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318677/original/file-20200304-66078-15xjy56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liebenberg’s book co-written with the author.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Umuzi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The book has three chapters. The first follows young white conscripts who are pitched into the war zone of the Namibia-Angola border. It unfolds into scenes where white and black security forces confront local populations who face curfews and threats, who have their fields and homesteads destroyed by armoured vehicles and shellfire, but who often stand with unreadable stillness and dignity in the face of such impositions. This chapter acknowledges the vulnerability of young conscripts, but directly addresses them and the military apparatus of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> state. No other photographer in southern Africa has documented war in this way.</p>
<p>The second chapter in <em>Bush of Ghosts</em> is his homage to Namibians as they mobilised against South African rule. The third is more meditative, exploring the aftermath of war in portraits and landscapes. As Liebenberg’s co-author, I was astounded at the comprehensiveness of the subject matter and the lack of waste in this analogue archive.</p>
<h2>Chambers of the heart</h2>
<p>As we worked, Liebenberg pulled out another body of work he had never shown, the weekend studio portraits taken at the Ovambo Hostel for migrant men in Katutura township in Windhoek in 1986. These are astonishing for the way the men presented their sheer individuality to the camera. When some of these photos were exhibited in Windhoek in 2011, as <a href="https://www.artsy.net/artwork/john-liebenberg-weekends-at-the-okombone">Weekends at the Okombone</a>, there were dramatic moments of recognition by some of the descendants of the photographed men.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318435/original/file-20200303-66052-1ys7l8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318435/original/file-20200303-66052-1ys7l8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318435/original/file-20200303-66052-1ys7l8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318435/original/file-20200303-66052-1ys7l8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318435/original/file-20200303-66052-1ys7l8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318435/original/file-20200303-66052-1ys7l8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318435/original/file-20200303-66052-1ys7l8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Child with spent flare, northern Namibia, 1987.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Liebenberg family</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Liebenberg used to talk about the unpredictable way people could enter the “chambers of the heart”. This was not just about love. He was referring to the unexpected emotional consequences of his life work. </p>
<p>There are deep affective implications for a photographer coming close to people’s pain, death, mutilation, guilt, betrayal, mourning, rage or cruelty. Perhaps it made him determined and even reckless, throwing things to the wind and keeping the camera rolling as he famously did during the second plane crash he experienced in Huambo province in the 1990s.</p>
<p>And if you cannot reach or help the people who have come into the chambers of your heart, they can at least be brought into the chambers of your camera. That is, the subject enters John’s visual world, where unfathomable depths and surfaces cut many ways. That is why there is no single way to read any of his images, and probably why many remain so haunting.</p>
<p>And questions remain about the career and final predicament of a pre-eminent photographer who died in hospital after an operation at age 61 without healthcare benefits. Who often spoke of the exploitation of photographers by newspapers, agencies and networks. He said they were sometimes careless and often demanding about the copyright that would become the only means of survival for an ageing photographer and his family. A photographer whose surviving archive is unique, with the potential to open up the historical memory of nations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318438/original/file-20200303-66064-1sn67cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318438/original/file-20200303-66064-1sn67cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318438/original/file-20200303-66064-1sn67cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318438/original/file-20200303-66064-1sn67cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318438/original/file-20200303-66064-1sn67cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318438/original/file-20200303-66064-1sn67cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318438/original/file-20200303-66064-1sn67cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Training parachute jump over Luiperdsvallei in Windhoek, 1987.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Liebenberg family</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Hayes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
No other photographer in southern Africa has documented war in the way that John Liebenberg did. He captured the life and the conflict of both sides in his body of work.
Patricia Hayes, DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory, University of the Western Cape
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128008
2019-12-08T07:16:07Z
2019-12-08T07:16:07Z
Pop culture: restoring Namibia’s forgotten resistance music
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305340/original/file-20191205-39023-1y08d06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C623%2C4961%2C2673&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The guitar man. 'The chords reached a crescendo as the Casspir drowned the song in its passing,' says the photographer of taking the shot.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Photo courtesy John Liebenberg</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a rich history of 20th century music in Namibia that was suppressed and all but erased by political forces. Now an archive project called <a href="http://www.stolenmoments.info">Stolen Moments – Namibian Music History Untold</a> is restoring it to the public domain. </p>
<p>It is a national treasure hunt for the Namibian music culture that wasn’t allowed to flourish during <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/namibian-struggle-independence-1966-1990-historical-background">apartheid in Namibia</a> when the country was under white South African control. In the project’s own words, it recovers “the bits and pieces of our musical memory from the 1950s to the late 1980s” by collecting personal stories as well as visual and sound documents.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305142/original/file-20191204-70105-wq8dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster for an exhibition of the Stolen Moments archive in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SOAS Brunei Gallery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stolen Moments is the brainchild of a research group composed of academic Aino Moongo, filmmaker Thorsten Schütte and musician Baby Doeseb. Some of the
results of the archive gathering process are already being displayed.</p>
<p>During a 2016 exhibition at the <a href="https://www.iwalewahaus.uni-bayreuth.de/en/index.html">Iwalewa House of Bayreuth University</a> the curator of the project, Moongo, presented <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P10UV7qixoQ">insights</a> into the work in progress. The exhibition was also shown at the <a href="https://baslerafrika.ch/event/exhibition-opening-stolen-moments/">Basler Afrika</a> Bibliographien, at <a href="https://artmap.com/kunstraumkreuzberg/exhibition/stolen-moments-2017">Kunstraum Kreuzberg</a> and the <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/stolen-moments/">Brunei Gallery</a>. Given that “very few Namibian bands made it onto the airwaves or the regional or international stage,” said Moongo, such <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/blogs/study/stolen-moments-namibian-music-history-untold-1950-1980/">visibility</a> is a long overdue recognition of a sub-culture. As Moongo <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/stolen-moments-exhibition-uncovers-the-namibian-music-history-independence-apartheid-london-brunei-gallery/">elaborated</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are many reasons why you’ve never heard this music before. It was censored, suppressed, prohibited and made almost impossible to listen to. Its creators are either long gone or have given up on music making for reasons of adversity, death and despair. And yet this beautiful music exists with a liveliness, as if it never stopped playing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0778343/">Schütte</a> <a href="http://www.702.co.za/articles/367848/london-exhibition-showcases-music-apartheid-regime-tried-to-suppress-in-namibia">recalls</a> discovering the hidden gems while he was recording a radio promo for a film production at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation in 2010.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were a great many artists all over the country from different ethnic groups that were playing and performing, but under circumstances that were very, very difficult … The first big hurdle was that the music of the locals was never considered as anything meaningful that was meant to be preserved.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305153/original/file-20191204-70116-qz8g7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A couple dancing at a live music performance in a club.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Photo courtesy Dieter Hinrichs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Township music</h2>
<p>Until 1960, the so-called <a href="https://www.namibweb.com/hiskat.htm">Old Location</a> had been the biggest settlement of black Namibians in what was then South West Africa. In direct proximity to the “white” parts of the capital, Windhoek, its inhabitants were forcefully resettled to Katutura at the outskirts of town. The Old Location was closed in the mid-1960s. Writing its social history remains work <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309415200_Revisiting_the_Windhoek_Old_Location">in progress</a>.</p>
<p>It had a vibrant inter-ethnic culture, which the apartheid system aimed to destroy through the deliberate segregation of inhabitants into “tribes” and the forced separation of “Coloureds” (mixed-race Namibians) into the new suburb of Khomasdal. Dancing competitions and music performances were an integral part of the weekend life. A young photographer, <a href="http://www.dieter-hinrichs.com">Dieter Hinrichs</a>, documented these events in 1959 and 1960. He donated his rare photos to the project.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305346/original/file-20191205-39032-xf2fun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jazz band in the Old Location.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Photo courtesy Dieter Hinrichs </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the forced resettlement to <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Katutura%3A+A+Place+Where+We+Stay%3A+Life+in+a+Post-Apartheid+Township+in+Namibia">Katutura</a> (which means “a place where we do not stay”) local forms of music did not fade away. Rather, they re-emerged as a poignant form of counter culture, manifesting resilience and perseverance.</p>
<p>Axali Doëseb, co-founder of the legendary band Ugly Creatures as well as the composer of Namibia’s <a href="http://www.nationalanthems.info/na.htm">national anthem</a>, <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/public/uploads/documents/551bd7b9ce160/TheNamibian_Web_c.pdf">recalled</a> that in the 1960s and 1970s:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we used to have what you call the ‘klop knock’ music where artists would go from door to door and perform and the audience would give them something.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://cree-records.com/portfolio_page/the-ugly-creatures-creatures-of-the-earth/">Ugly Creatures</a> was founded in 1971 as a high school band in a Lutheran boarding school in a rural setting. They soon became the most popular and the most political local band. But their live performances at rallies held by the liberation movement <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">Swapo</a> limited their mobility and career.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305361/original/file-20191205-39018-1wwvxjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A seven single release of Creatures of the Earth by the seminal band The Ugly Creatures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cree Records</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exile music</h2>
<p>Political repression paralysed the advancement of Namibian pop music. Many local talents ended abroad. Among them was the late <a href="https://www.namibianewsdigest.com/%EF%BB%BFwillie-mbuende-dies/">Willie Mbuende (1947-2015)</a>, who became an acclaimed bass guitarist in the Nordic countries before returning home in 1989.</p>
<p><a href="http://jacksonkaujeuajr.blogspot.com/">Jackson Kaujeua (1953-2010)</a> grew up in the Old Location. Dubbed “the musical voice of the struggle”, he was the icon of the Namibian music scene abroad. He played a key role in the production of a vinyl record released in 1978 with freedom songs by <a href="https://www.discogs.com/The-Swapo-Singers-One-Namibia-One-Nation-Swapo-Freedom-Songs/release/1809482">The Swapo Singers</a>.</p>
<p>Proclaiming a desire for independence, his song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22_TdHrr05A">The Winds of Change</a> entered the British charts, the only Namibian song to do that to date. Returning to Namibia, he became a popular musical voice during the 1990s. </p>
<p>In 2002 Kaujeua was awarded the inaugural Namibian Lifetime Achievement Award. But he <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/201005310955.html">died</a> in poverty of kidney failure, unable to afford treatment. Despite the crucial role he played as a musical ambassador for the liberation struggle, his post-independence life remained anything but that of an acclaimed artist.</p>
<p>Only in death was he recognised by the political leadership, when the country’s president, prime minister and leading politicians joined thousands of mourners at his <a href="http://www.swapoparty.org/thousands_bid_farewell_to_jk.html">funeral</a>. In 2014 the Windhoek municipality <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/jackson-kaujeua-a-legend-gets-recognised">named a street after him</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305343/original/file-20191205-38984-zj68u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Old Location dance competition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Photo courtesy Dieter Hinrichs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Keeping the musical fire burning</h2>
<p>Sadly, the end of Namibia’s occupation also brought an end to the performances of those who had used their music as a weapon of resistance. But they have not all been forgotten. Some have made themselves heard again by touring the country to keep <a href="https://www.namibianewsdigest.com/%EF%BB%BFdown-musical-memory-lane-bra-sledge-still-keep-the-musical-fire-burning/">“the musical fire burning”</a>.</p>
<p>Dubbed “Namibia’s live music brand of all time”, <a href="https://www.namibianewsdigest.com/%EF%BB%BFdown-music-memory-lane-ugly-creatures-namibias-live-music-brand-of-all-time/">a new formation</a> of the Ugly Creatures reappeared in 2007 at a Windhoek jazz festival, followed by a concert in 2008. The Namibian Annual Music Awards honoured Axali Doëseb 2014 with a <a href="https://www.namibianewsdigest.com/%EF%BB%BFaxali-doeseb-to-be-honoured-as-a-lifetime-achiever-at-the-namas/">lifetime achievement award</a>. Two other <a href="https://southerntimesafrica.com/site/news/namas-honours-music-legends-ou-jomo-axue">legendary artists</a> of the 1970s and 1980s jazz and jive music scene received lifetime awards in 2018.</p>
<p>Finally, some of the most prominent township veteran musicians reconstituted into the Hometown Band. The first public concert was in August 2019. As one of them <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/192439/archive-read/Hometown-Band-to-preserve-live-music">stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A lot of our peers have retired and I thought that if I also retire, it could mean that the music of our generation was going to die. We want to be an inspiration to other musicians and influence people to play music from their hearts.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber joined SWAPO in 1974 and still remembers the origins of Ugly Creatures before he was banned in 1975.</span></em></p>
An archive project is restoring the secret history of Namibia’s resistance music culture from the 1950s to the late 1980s – suppressed and censored during apartheid but now touring the world.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128241
2019-12-04T08:55:54Z
2019-12-04T08:55:54Z
Swapo’s unassailable position shattered: what next for Namibia?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304896/original/file-20191203-67028-zkby3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The results of the Namibian election reflect growing discontent among voters with the way the country is being run. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The level of uncertainty that surrounded the sixth Namibian elections since the country’s independence in 1990 was unprecedented. Held late <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/incumbent-party-wins-namibian-election-amid-corruption-scandal-20191201">last month</a>, the poll combined voting for the country’s president and for the national assembly.</p>
<p>Two issues dominated the debate until right before election day. The first was that an independent candidate, Panduleni Itula, was expected to split the presidential vote for the ruling party, South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo). </p>
<p>The second was a major corruption scandal around the allocation of fishing quotas. This erupted two weeks before the poll, and involved the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/officials-namibia-corruption-scheme-remain-custody-191202140206392.html">arrest of two cabinet ministers</a>.</p>
<p>A further feature of the poll was the controversy around electronic voting machines. Questions around their efficacy highlighted an erosion of trust in the state apparatus. Even on election day, independent candidate Itula continued to express misgivings about this central feature of the <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/apprehensive-of-evms-itula-casts-his-vote">electoral process</a>. </p>
<p>These issues shrouded further reasons for rising discontent in the country. These include staggering unemployment rates, particularly among young people, a persistent economic crisis and gross social inequality. Another conflict-ridden issue is the unresolved land question. These crises are compounded by rising constraints on the state budget. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.elections.na/PresidentialRace.aspx">election results</a> showed voters registering their demand for dramatic changes. This was most evident in the sharp drop in support for incumbent President Hage Geingob. Five years ago he <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibian-elections-the-sands-are-shifting-slowly-127656">garnered 87%</a>. This time he scraped through with just 56.3%, helped by voters in the preponderantly rural north, where he could rely on a loyal Swapo power base. </p>
<p>Itula insisted throughout the election campaign that he remained a Swapo member. Using a loophole in the party constitution, Itula and his supporters apparently hoped to tap Swapo support. His candidature reflected a persistent split in the ruling party, which seems to include ethnic resentment against “Damara” Geingob. Itula came in with just under 30%, after a strong showing particularly in urban areas and among youth, much less though in the populous north.</p>
<p>In the national assembly, opposition parties, including the newly formed <a href="https://www.politicalanalysis.co.za/listen-namibias-landless-peoples-movement-on-its-2019-priorities/">Landless People’s Movement</a>, saw their positions strengthened. The final result gave Swapo 65.5%, just short of a two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. This was a massive loss of some 15 percentage points against the resounding 80% of 2014. It is the first time that Swapo has dipped below the magic 66% since 1994.</p>
<p>Voter participation also fell, from over 70% in 2014 <a href="http://www.elections.na/RaceForVotes.aspx">to 60%</a> of registered voters. </p>
<p>Swapo’s seemingly unassailable position has been shattered. The outcome of these elections may well go further than a slight erosion of Swapo’s power position. It may lead to a situation where discontent by frustrated voters is channelled into directions other than formal politics. Thus, a latent crisis of legitimacy of the postcolonial state might break into the open.</p>
<h2>Trust in tatters</h2>
<p>But will the result mean that the government deals with the country’s massive challenges? Besides the long-term issues of persistent gross inequality and the worsening crisis of state finance as well as a bleak economic outlook, these also include the interrelated issues of corruption and transparency in government and politics.</p>
<p>A huge corruption scandal over the allocation of fishing quotas broke only weeks before the elections. <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/86051/read/Shanghala-dodges-N$4m-Fishrot-payment-questions">“Fishrot”</a> involves culprits from Namibia as well as Angola, Iceland and Norway. It revolves around kickbacks for the allocation of Namibian fishing quotas, which are given out by the responsible line ministry. Among those arrested are two former cabinet ministers.</p>
<p>Corruption in high places is well known. It’s common cause in the country that fishing rights are dished out to people who are not connected to fisheries in any way, only to pass them on for a hefty fee. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/namibian-elections-the-sands-are-shifting-slowly-127656">Namibian elections: the sands are shifting -- slowly</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The most recent case was unusually dramatic with the arrest of top politicians shortly before the elections. But it’s widely considered to be the tip of the iceberg. Both former ministers were due to be back in the national assembly after the elections, but have now been removed from the Swapo list.</p>
<p>The corruption cases may well add to the lack of trust in the institutional set-up, which appears severely shaken in the aftermath of the elections. </p>
<p>Prior to the polls expectations were running high for the independent presidential candidate and for opposition parties. This was particularly true among young urban people. </p>
<p>Publication of the official results engendered not just disappointment but chagrin. One cause was the delay of more than 72 hours in the announcement of the results. This was despite the use of new electronic voting machines which should have expedited the process. In the event, it increased suspicions about manipulation, adding significantly to these concerns.</p>
<p>The leader of the newly formed Landless People’s Movement, Bernardus Swartbooi, went as far as to call the election results <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/opposition-question-poll-outcome">rigged</a>. He also bemoaned the fact that recourse to the justice system appeared to be meaningless, as the courts had in the past repeatedly sided with the electoral commission, as he stressed at a press conference on November 28 where the present author attended. </p>
<p>For the first time since independence, Namibia’s institutional set-up has been called into question. Within the system, there is seemingly no chance to appeal against shortcomings or intentional abuse. The unresponsive <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/86036/read/ECN-officials-refuse-to-take-media-questions">attitude taken by the electoral commission</a> added to the misgivings. A range of opposition parties have announced they will consider <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/lpm-rdp-claim-daylight-robbery2019-12-03/">legal action against the election results</a>.</p>
<p>Swapo faces serious challenges. The perennial issue of gross social inequality is articulated in demands for land, not only for farming, but above all for <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?page=archive-read&id=144771">urban housing</a>; the Fishrot scandal has already rekindled <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/86105/read/Namibians-reel-over-Fishrot-revelations">workers’ resistance at the coast</a>. The break-up of Swapo’s two-thirds majority has been hailed by the leader of the official opposition, McHenry Venaani of the Popular Democratic Movement, as a chance to <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/86045/read/Reduced-victory--Swapo-Geingob-drop-votes">“sanitise the debate in the house”</a>. But formal politics also suffers from an inflated cabinet and attendant spoils system which permeates the state apparatus. Again, this is related to a budgetary crisis in the face of a persistent economic downswing. </p>
<p>Swapo’s clinging to power in this election may prove to be the opening of a much more dramatic period than has been seen over the three decades since the much-lauded transition to independence in 1990.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reinhart Kössler has used research funds of the NRF available through his position as a Visiting Professor and Research Associate at the Institute of Reconciliation and Social Justice, The University of the Free State</span></em></p>
For the first time since independence, Namibia’s ruling party has suffered electoral setbacks in the midst of economic and political crisis.
Reinhart Kössler, Professor in Political Science, University of Freiburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/127656
2019-11-25T10:21:17Z
2019-11-25T10:21:17Z
Namibian elections: the sands are shifting – slowly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303196/original/file-20191122-74562-6e4cqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Namibian president Hage Geingob.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Siphiwe Sibeko</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Namibia’s South West African People’s Organisation <a href="http://www.swapoparty.org">(Swapo)</a> has performed exceptionally well as a governing party among the liberation movements of sub-Saharan Africa. All contemporary liberation movements that subsequently became governing parties remain in power. But none has managed to retain a similar degree of support since independence.</p>
<p>The first democratic elections for a constituent assembly took place under supervision of the United Nations in <a href="https://www.eisa.org.za/wep/nam1989background.htm">November 1989</a>. Since then elections for a national assembly and the country’s president have been held every five years. </p>
<p>The last poll was held in 2014, when Swapo scored <a href="https://www.gov.na/documents/10181/13120/Elections+Results+of+the+2014+Presidential+and+National+Assembly+Elections/c0734ed6-b4c2-492b-9070-f064cffb8da2">80% of the votes</a>. Its presidential candidate, Hage Geingob, came close to 87% of the votes. </p>
<p>One does not need prophetic gifts to predict which party will win in the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-namibia-election/namibian-president-set-for-re-election-next-month-amid-economic-crisis-idUSKBN1WX1VK">upcoming elections</a>. Despite some setbacks, such as the failures to live up to the anti-corruption and pro-poor policies promised, Swapo will remain the dominant party. But there might be a reversed trend for the first time in 30 years. For both the party and its presidential candidate the scores could decline.</p>
<p>For three decades Swapo’s grip on power has held firm. Its patriotic narrative remains rooted in the official discourse and daily political culture. Two of its liberation struggle era slogans were: <a href="http://www.swapoparty.org/zoom_in_94.html">“One Namibia, one nation”</a> and “Swapo is the nation and the nation is Swapo”.</p>
<p>These translated into the false equation that the party is the government and the government is the state. But the electorate gradually changes, and those born after independence from South Africa on March 21, 1990 have become a relevant factor. </p>
<p>Geingob’s <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/189356/archive-read/Geingob-calls-for-unity-shuns-tribalism">increased appeals</a> to national unity indicate that these mantras might be showing signs of erosion. Tirades in the social media show a disrespect for those in power of hitherto unknown proportions and tempt government to <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/190767/archive-read/MPs-divided-on-social-media-gagging">discuss regulations</a>.</p>
<p>For the first time Swapo’s presidential candidate might garner less voter support than the party. This would not only dent Geingob’s ego. It would also weaken his authority during his second term in office. And it would influence the decisions over his succession as party president and head of state.</p>
<h2>What matters</h2>
<p>Unemployment in the age group under 35 is <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/190958/archive-read/Namibias-unemployment-dilemma">approaching 50%</a>. Concerns about this are reflected in the responses of respondents in the latest <a href="https://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/press-release/Namibie/nam_r8_pr2_land_reform.pdf">Afrobarometer survey</a>. Unemployment was cited as the most important matter (54%). Drought (30%), poverty (21%), education and water supply (20% each) followed. Corruption (16%), land (13%) and crime (11%) ranked surprisingly lower.</p>
<p>The country faces a serious economic crisis on the occasion of this year’s 29th Independence Day <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-wont-be-celebrating-namibias-independence-29-years-on-113748">on March 21</a>. As the local Institute of Public Policy Research concluded in its third <a href="https://ippr.org.na/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Namibia-QER-Q3-2019-FINAL.pdf">quarterly economic report for 2019</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With elections now on the horizon, the current President and Cabinet must decide what their legacy is going to be: will they reform and reverse the decline of the past five years or go down in history as the people who crashed the Namibian economy?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Unknown variables</h2>
<p>New political parties, even when created by Swapo dissidents, have never managed to establish a sustainable alternative. They snatched votes from other opposition parties to become irrelevant later on. </p>
<p>This time, the new kid on the block is the <a href="https://www.politicalanalysis.co.za/listen-namibias-landless-peoples-movement-on-its-2019-priorities/">Landless People’s Movement</a>. It was founded after a fallout of the deputy minister of land with the party <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002039719848506">over the land policy</a>. Its aim to secure 20 of the 96 elected seats in the national assembly <a href="https://www.observer.com.na/index.php/national/item/11420-lpm-eyes-20-seats-in-parliament">seems wishful thinking</a>.</p>
<p>How many votes the Landless People’s Movement will garner from a Swapo electorate remains to be seen. It is a force to reckon with in the sparsely populated areas south of Rehoboth. But, like many of the existing parties, its basis is likely to be almost exclusively rooted in a particular regional-ethnic stronghold. Most interesting will be whether its support is sufficient to replace the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/171278/archive-read/DTA-now-known-as-Popular-Democratic-Movement">Popular Democratic Movement</a> as the official opposition.</p>
<p>More challenging than the party competition is the direct election of Namibia’s next president. In a surprise move, the Swapo member Panduleni Itula registered as an “independent” candidate, using a loophole in the country’s electoral act. He adamantly claims to have the right to challenge the official party candidate as an alternative while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2jbzyTDCDo">refusing to leave Swapo</a>. He uses the analogy of a family feud, which still allows you <a href="https://thepatriot.com.na/index.php/2019/11/21/i-will-take-the-confusion-out-of-them-panduleni-itula/">to stay in the family while seeking solutions</a>.</p>
<p>Swapo’s internal factionalism seems a motivating dimension. Itula has not disclosed the sources funding <a href="https://twitter.com/SebbyJnr_Ndongi/status/1197206568829423616">his campaign</a>. In pre-election polls published by the local media, Geingob and Itula were <a href="https://thepatriot.com.na/index.php/2019/11/15/geingob-and-itula-neck-to-neck-in-early-polls/">neck-and-neck</a>. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, Geingob <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/85621/read/A-thorn-in-Geingobs-flesh">is not amused</a>.</p>
<h2>Contested voting procedures</h2>
<p>If credibility and legitimacy are key, the electoral commission would be well advised to avoid previous mistakes. In 2014 Namibia was the first African country to <a href="https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/multimedia_reports/transcripts/2017-11-22-Namibia_Introduction-of-electronic-voting_4.pdf">make use of electronic voting machines</a>. In violation of the electoral law, these had no paper trails. This was not corrected despite a court ruling.</p>
<p>As investigative journalists <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/194402/archive-read/Voting-machines-go-missing">have disclosed</a>, the electoral commission had “lent” Swapo four of the machines for party internal election purposes in 2017. These have <a href="https://namibiafactcheck.org.na/news-item/anatomy-of-a-misinformation-episode/">gone missing</a>. The news strengthened the already existing reservations regarding the voting process.</p>
<p>The electoral commission has claimed that in the case of a dispute over the results, there will be a <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/paper-trail-has-irrecoverable-errors-ecn">paper trail recording the votes cast</a>. A postmortem paper trail documenting voting, however, is different from a paper trail for the voters to see that they were registered properly for the party or candidate they voted for.</p>
<h2>And the winner is?</h2>
<p>Namibia’s political stability so far has been vested in the dominance of Swapo. Those opposing its control face an uphill battle. If they make inroads, they should not be sidelined by manipulation of the election results. </p>
<p>After all, democratic governance means respect for the will of the people. It makes democracy the winner, not a party.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber has been a member of Swapo since 1974.</span></em></p>
Namibia’s political stability so far has been vested in the dominance of Swapo. Those opposing its control face an uphill battle.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/113748
2019-03-18T13:33:46Z
2019-03-18T13:33:46Z
Why some won’t be celebrating Namibia’s independence 29 years on
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264331/original/file-20190318-28512-1jnp8ba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Namibia’s South West African People’s Organisation <a href="http://www.swapoparty.org">(Swapo)</a> is an exception among the liberation movements that became governments in Africa. As Namibia celebrates its 29th Independence Day on 21 March, it can look back on a period of increased consolidation of power. At the last elections in November 2014 it <a href="https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-namibia-votes/">scored 80%</a> of votes for the National Assembly, while its presidential candidate Hage Geingob garnered a record <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30285987">86.7% of votes</a>.</p>
<p>Other liberation movements haven’t fared as well in the role of governing parties. Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF is the most prominent <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-false-new-dawn-for-zimbabwe-what-i-got-right-and-wrong-about-the-mood-100971">case in point</a>. For its part, South Africa’s African National Congress had to part from its two thirds majority in parliament <a href="https://www.news24.com/You/Archive/then-and-now-comparing-2014-and-2009s-election-results-20170728">in 2009</a>; in 2016 it <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-is-learning-the-ropes-of-coalition-politics-and-its-inherent-instability-96483">lost control</a> over most metropolitan municipalities. It faces tough elections <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-must-offer-more-than-promises-to-win-over-south-africans-109788">on 8 May</a>.</p>
<p>Swapo has not, so far, had to bother about such a loss of legitimacy. Namibia’s system of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589346.2015.1005790">post-liberation democracy</a> is a classic case of “competitive authoritarianism”. The term was coined by the US political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan A Way. They <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1643146">argue</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…parties whose origins lie in war, violent anti-colonial struggle, revolution, or counterinsurgency are more likely to survive economic crisis, leadership succession, and opposition challenges without suffering debilitating effects.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They conclude that “revolutionary or liberation struggles also tend to produce a generation of leaders… that possesses the necessary legitimacy to impose discipline during crises”. </p>
<p>Hence,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>new ruling parties that emerged from violent struggle, such as Swapo in Namibia… appear to be more durable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/limits-to-liberation-in-southern-africa">limits to liberation</a> led some time ago to a reexamination of the <a href="http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A241396&dswid=-8883">liberation gospel</a> and its claimed <a href="http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A275566&dswid=-9159">social transitions</a>. </p>
<p>While Swapo continues to dominate, some cracks are starting to show.</p>
<h2>Gerontocracy, crisis and populism</h2>
<p>Geingob is expected to be the party candidate again for the next presidential elections in late 2019. He is 77 years old. Swapo’s political <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/116/463/284/2760214">office bearers</a> provide evidence of the party’s gerontocratic structures. If the country’s retirement age of 60 for public servants applied to politicians, its political bureau and central committee would have different compositions.</p>
<p>Geingob <a href="https://namibian-studies.com/index.php/JNS/article/view/423">digressed from his predecessors</a> Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba, by replacing the image of Swapo as the nation with a wider formula. In his first state of the nation address in April 2015 he introduced the powerful metaphor of the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/137050/archive-read/The-Namibian-House-%E2%80%93-Built-for-All">Namibian house</a>, providing room for all. </p>
<p>But the question about who should be accommodated – and how – remains unanswered.</p>
<p>In 2016 Geingob proclaimed the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/150052/archive-read/Cross">Harambee Prosperity Plan</a>. It was based on an anticipated annual economic growth rate of 7%. At the time Angola’s oil economy was already in shambles, and South Africa had begun on its rapid economic decline. One of Namibia’s worst droughts was ravaging and the government’s over-expenditure had drained the state coffers.</p>
<p>Then a recession which hit in 2017 turned into a fully-fledged depression. The state’s total debt skyrocketed, which led to spiralling interest payments. As <a href="http://firstcapitalnam.com/cms/upload/Namibia%20Fiscal%20Policy%20Analysis%20March%202019.pdf">a local report</a> put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Namibia has been sleepwalking its way into troublesome debt-to-GDP ratios that have increased from 7% of GDP in 1990/91 to 45% to GDP in 2018/19,</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The tabling of the 2019/20 annual budget was postponed twice and is now scheduled <a href="https://www.observer.com.na/index.php/national/item/11031-budget-delay-raises-suspicions">for 29 March</a>.</p>
<p>This has fuelled speculation about what the problem might be. One possible answer is that, because parliamentary and presidential elections are taking place in November, the government wants to avoid presenting a budget that signals the fiscal constraints and asks for sacrifices. </p>
<h2>The art of denialism</h2>
<p>Namibia has problems beyond its economy, too. In his closing comments to the <a href="http://www.mlr.gov.na/documents/20541/283371/H.E+Hage+G.+Geingob+statement+during+2nd+Land+Conference+Opening+Ceremony.pdf/bfc82259-97b6-4ff9-8747-710c4c39f667">second national Land Conference</a>, Geingob said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We need to ensure that we are living in a just and fair society, a society in which the mantra of ‘No Namibian must feel left out’ permeates every facet of our coexistence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But these are just words. The contrast to be found in Namibia’s social realities is striking; for instance, it remains among the world’s most <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/datablog/2017/apr/26/inequality-index-where-are-the-worlds-most-unequal-countries">unequal countries</a>.</p>
<p>According to a 2016 survey by the <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/60701/read/37pct-of-Namibians-hungry-and-undernourished">United Nations</a> 37% of the population was malnourished and 24% of all children below the age of five were stunted.</p>
<p>But only external factors were blamed for this miserable performance. After all, populists are never responsible for failures: others must be blamed, along with circumstances beyond leaders’ control. </p>
<p>Urban squatters living in informal settlements are estimated at almost a million people – 40% of Namibia’s <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/40-of-namibians-live-in-shacks">total population</a>. </p>
<p>In his new year’s message for 2019, Geingob promised to end this humanitarian crisis by <a href="https://neweralive.na/posts/eradicating-informal-settlements-on-2019-agenda">eradicating</a> informal settlements. But he offered no explanation as to how this might be achieved.</p>
<h2>Cracks are beginning to emerge</h2>
<p>Activists from the Swapo Youth League have fallen out with the party leadership over urban land. Their formation of an Alternative Repositioning Movement in 2015 has turned into a relevant political factor. A <a href="http://roape.net/2016/01/18/namibias-moment-youth-and-urban-land-activism">frustrated new generation</a> has entered grassroots politics.</p>
<p>Other tensions have become visible too. A <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/161373/archive-read/You-are-an-idiot">fall out</a> between the Deputy Minister for Land Reform Bernardus Swartbooi and his Minister Utoni Nujoma (a son of Namibia’s first President Sam Nujoma) led to Swartbooi’s dismissal first from office and later from Parliament and Swapo. </p>
<p>Previously regional governor in the Southern/Karas region, he founded a Landless People’s Movement in 2017. It has since registered as a political party that’s due to be <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/184398/archive-read/LPM-political-party-launch-in-May">launched in May</a>.</p>
<p>At a Swapo central committee meeting at end of August last year Geingob <a href="http://www.nbc.na/news/issues-affecting-namibians-are-real-and-should-not-be-used-political-tool-president-geingob">denounced</a> those mobilising around the issue of land as “failed politicians” who were merely looking for personal gains. He accused them of playing with people’s emotions, and warned that they could instigate civil war.</p>
<p>Such rhetoric doesn’t sit comfortably with the image of a “Namibian House” in which everyone has a room to live in peace and stability.</p>
<p>The results of the next parliamentary and presidential elections should confirm Swapo’s dominance. But it remains to be seen to what extent the house’s foundations are cracking. On Independence Day not everyone who cheered the hoisting of the Namibian flag 29 years ago will be celebrating.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113748/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of SWAPO since 1974. </span></em></p>
Swapo remains the dominant party by far in Namibia. But it seems increasingly unable to live up to its promises.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/105301
2018-10-31T12:49:39Z
2018-10-31T12:49:39Z
Namibia’s long-standing land issue remains unresolved
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241870/original/file-20181023-169822-ls11z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the new resolutions on land related to Namibia's urban areas, like the capital city Windhoek.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grobler du Preez/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thirty years of German settler colonialism in South West Africa – from 1884 to 1914 – paved the way for continued apartheid under South Africa. The resistance of the local communities against the invasion culminated in the <a href="https://stichproben.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_stichproben/Artikel/Nummer33/01_Article_Melber_Genocide_Namibia_draft_FINAL.pdf">first genocide of the 20th century</a> among the Ovaherero, Nama and other groups. As main occupants of the eastern, central and southern regions of the country they were forced from their land into so-called native reserves.</p>
<p>Forced land dispossession continued. Even independence brought little relief. The negotiated transition to independence in 1990 entrenched the <a href="http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A275566&dswid=2400">structural discrepancies created during colonialism</a>. In exchange for occupying the political commando heights of a sovereign state the national liberation movement SWAPO accepted the material inequalities it inherited without any major debate. </p>
<p>Namibia’s <a href="https://www.gov.na/documents/10181/14134/Namibia_Constitution.pdf/37b70b76-c15c-45d4-9095-b25d8b8aa0fb">Constitution</a> was adopted as a precondition to independence. Its chapter 3 on Fundamental Human Rights and Freedom cannot be changed. Next to civil and political rights, its article 16 states that any expropriation of private property requires compensation that is just. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the question of land has been hotly contested ever since independence. A <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.538.3535&rep=rep1&type=pdf">National Land Reform Conference</a> took place in 1991. Its <a href="http://www.mlr.gov.na/documents/20541/290353/Conference+Consensus+Document+%28Booklet+and+Programme%29.pdf/dfa21c58-1112-49e8-b22e-54d09e77cf52">recommendations</a> included the redistribution of commercial farmland, a land tax and the reallocation of underused land.</p>
<p>But meaningful restitution wasn’t implemented. In addition, the buying of farm land was slow and inefficient. Beneficiaries were often not able to use farms they’d got for resettlement purposes because they lacked capital and know-how.</p>
<p>Finally, many beneficiaries were anything but still disadvantaged. Members of the political and bureaucratic elite received preferential treatment. Subsidised by taxpayers’ money, they became <a href="http://ippr.org.na/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Opinion11.pdf">weekend or hobby farmers</a>. </p>
<h2>Second land conference</h2>
<p>More recently there have been increased demands to address the failures of the past; these culminated in a second land conference in early October 2018. But local responses to the final document that was adopted were based on previous experiences – that is, in most cases not much happens after such conferences. As an editorial in a <a href="https://www.observer.com.na/index.php/editorial/item/10517-let-them-eat-cake">weekly paper</a> remarked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Placing one or two plasters on the stump of an amputated leg, is not a cure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The government invited more than 800 participants to the conference and allocated N$ 15 million (one million USD$) for the five-day event. Given the overwhelming dominance of state authorities and other official institutions as well as indications that SWAPO tried from the get-go to hijack the agenda, civil society organisations threatened to boycott. At the end, most of them participated merely because it was a chance to voice their frustrations.</p>
<p>The Ministry for Land Reform provided access to most of the <a href="http://www.mlr.gov.na/land-conference1">documents submitted</a>, including those of the first Land Conference. Compared with the 24 resolutions adopted but hardly implemented then, many matters in the now <a href="http://www.mlr.gov.na/documents/20541/638917/Second+National+Land+Conference+Resolutions+2018.pdf/15b498fd-fdc6-4898-aeda-91fecbc74319">40 resolutions</a> were a <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/72030/read/Land-conference-resolutions-Whats-new">modified follow up</a>.</p>
<p>A significant new addition was the issue of urban land and informal settlements. It recognised the demands of urban squatters to affordable housing, estimated at 900,000 people (40% of Namibia’s total population). </p>
<p>Notably, the issues of communal and of ancestral land also received more prominence and there appeared to be a greater willingness to consider interventions. These include the protection of tenure rights mainly in the interest of the poorest as victims of illegal land occupation and privatisation by members of the new elites.</p>
<h2>Reconciliation and justice</h2>
<p>What complicates matters is that land is not merely an economic affair. More than any other issue, land is a matter of identity – for those who own it as much as for those who feel it should be theirs. </p>
<p>Colonialism went along with violent land theft. The current distribution of land in Namibia is a constant reminder that colonialism has not ended despite independence.</p>
<p>History cannot be fully reversed. The structural legacies created under apartheid and the long-term demographic impact of the genocide have left irreversible marks. However, what seems a feasible compromise is to offer the San communities access to and protection in the parts of Namibia which have remained, in their views, home. </p>
<p>The forced removal from land on record since the early times of white settler encroachment would also be a widely accepted reference point.</p>
<p>Some of the still festering wounds can be treated. The recent Land Conference stated on “ancestral land rights and claims” in resolution 38 that “measures to restore social justice and ensure economic empowerment of the affected communities” should be identified. And it proposes to “use the reparations from the former colonial powers for such purpose”. This might offer a way out of the current stagnation in the negotiations between the <a href="https://theconversation.com/genocide-negotiations-between-germany-and-namibia-hit-stumbling-blocks-89697">Namibian and German governments</a>. </p>
<p>As part of the long overdue compensation, Germany should fork out the necessary funds for a just compensation of commercial farmers, whose land was previously utilised by Namibia’s indigenous communities. It then also has to finance the necessary investments – both in terms of infrastructure as well as know-how – that will empower local communities to fully benefit from resettlement. This would be a wise investment by both governments into true reconciliation towards a peaceful future for all people who want to continue living in Namibia.</p>
<p>But such brokerage requires honesty to obtain legitimacy and credibility. Ten days after the Land Conference disturbing news made the rounds. A Russian oligarch, who has been in possession of three farms since 2013, had added another four farms to his <a href="https://www.namibian.com.na/72336/read/Russian-buys-four-farms">Namibian empire</a>. This shady deal with the Land Reform Ministry was made a week before the Land Conference, whose resolution 21 stated “no land should be sold to foreign nationals”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of SWAPO since 1974.</span></em></p>
The question of land has been hotly contested in Namibia ever since independence.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/104950
2018-10-16T13:52:13Z
2018-10-16T13:52:13Z
Pik Botha and Namibia: ambiguities and contradictions
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240805/original/file-20181016-165900-pkkxs6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C29%2C1967%2C1044&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pik Botha played a central role in the intricate talks that eventually led to Namibia's independence. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Foto24/Nasief Manie</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Roelof “Pik” Botha, South Africa’s foreign minister under apartheid, who has <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/2021882/apartheid-era-foreign-minister-pik-botha-dies/">died at the age of 86</a>, was a man of contradictions. </p>
<p>He could, for example, be charming. But, though a long-serving diplomat, he was often very undiplomatic, full of bluster and theatrics. He long defended apartheid and South Africa’s refusal to withdraw from occupied Namibia. Yet he was also a reformer who helped both to end apartheid and to secure Namibian independence. </p>
<p>Some examples from his long involvement with Namibia throw light on such contradictions.</p>
<p>In the early 1960s he was an ardent defender of South Africa’s right to continue ruling what it called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/German-South-West-Africa">South West Africa</a> and to apply its laws there. As a prominent member of the South African team in the long-drawn out case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, he argued forcefully against the view that South Africa had violated the League of Nations mandate allowing it to rule South West Africa. The court case was brought to force South Africa to withdraw from the territory it had occupied since 1915.</p>
<p>After Botha became South Africa’s foreign minister in 1977, he played a central role in the intricate negotiation process by the so-called <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09592296.2011.625819">Western Contact Group</a>. This eventually led to the passage in 1978 of <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/namibia-resolution435">United Nations Security Council Resolution 435</a>. This laid out a series of steps leading to Namibian independence. </p>
<p>It was Botha who then challenged the UN on the way it planned to implement the resolution. His resistance to pressures by the international community to get South Africa to implement the resolution between 1978 and 1981 helped ensure it was not implemented. Like others in his government, he was adamant at that time that SWAPO, which was seen as a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682740701284215?src=recsys">Soviet proxy</a>, should never come to power in Namibia.</p>
<p>From 1981 he supported the insistence by the Reagan administration that the independence of Namibia must be linked to the total <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328640?seq=1/action/showAdvancedSearch">withdrawal of the Cuban forces from Angola</a>. For many years it seemed unlikely that such a withdrawal could be achieved. So South African occupation continued, with power increasingly devolved to an internal administration. </p>
<p>In 1984 the South African-appointed administrator-general of Namibia was authorised to meet the SWAPO leadership in Zambia. But Botha himself refused to contemplate any engagement with that leadership, which he continued to see as pro-Soviet and as likely to bring ruin to Namibia if it ever come to power.</p>
<h2>Namibia moves to independence</h2>
<p>Nevertheless in 1988 negotiations began on a <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/1028/aango.html">Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola</a> alongside Namibian independence. This came as the Cold War began to wind down, and as South Africa suffered a major military setback in southern Angola.</p>
<p>Botha played a particularly important role at a key meeting in Cairo in June that year with his Angolan and Cuban counterparts, under US mediation. He was later to claim, wrongly, that it was then that he came up with the idea that a deal could be reached in which all could <a href="https://itvs.org/films/cuba-an-african-odyssey">claim victory</a>.</p>
<p>With the negotiations successfully concluded, Botha represented South Africa at the signing of the agreements at the UN headquarters in New York. These provided for the withdrawal of Cuban forces and the implementation of <a href="http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/keywords/resolution-435">Resolution 435</a>. But, once again, he couldn’t resist making a highly partisan and aggressive speech.</p>
<p>On the day that the implementation of Resolution 435 finally began – 1 April 1989 – Botha persuaded Britain’s prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who happened to be in the Namibian capital Windhoek, and Martti Ahtisaari, the UN Special Representative in Namibia, to allow <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4005838?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">South African forces to attack SWAPO guerrillas</a> in northern Namibia. Over 300 were killed. And on the eve of Namibia’s first democratic election in November, Botha went public with the claim, soon shown to be false, that more SWAPO fighters were <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/1989-11-03-00-who-set-up-pik">invading northern Namibia</a>.</p>
<h2>Contradictions</h2>
<p>On the one hand Botha often tried to restrain the South African Defence Force, recognising that a negotiated settlement was necessary to solve the Namibian issue. He was largely responsible for persuading the then South African <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/pieter-willem-botha">President, PW Botha</a> in 1988 to accept that the implementation of UN Resolution 435 should go ahead. </p>
<p>Yet he had helped delay that implementation for a decade. During this period South African occupation of Namibia became more brutal and militarised. He never engaged with SWAPO to try to achieve a settlement. In 1989 he was behind the grant of R100 million in secret funds by the South African government to the anti-SWAPO parties for their election campaigns, in violation of the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/1989-11-03-00-who-set-up-pik">transition agreement.</a>.</p>
<p>Some details of Botha’s involvement in the Namibian story remain unclear, despite the <a href="https://www.loot.co.za/product/theresa-papenfus-pik-botha-and-his-times/hlwr-1188-g660">thousand-page biography</a> written about him, and the <a href="https://commonwealthoralhistories.org/2015/interview-with-rf-pik-botha/">interviews</a> he gave Sue Onslow of the University of London and <a href="http://www.liberationafrica.se/intervstories/interviews/botha_r/?by-name=1">others</a>. </p>
<p>Will the material he removed from the Department of Foreign Affairs archives, supposedly to help him write his own memoir, never completed, now become accessible? Whether it does or not, there is no doubt that he played a key, but deeply ambiguous, role in the long saga of Namibia’s path to independence. Whether he could have acted differently, given the circumstances in which he had to work, is likely to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-09-02-roelof-pik-botha-the-ultimate-survivor/">remain a source of contention</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Saunders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Pik Botha defended apartheid and South Africa’s occupation of Namibia, but in the end helped end both.
Chris Saunders, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101197
2018-08-12T06:59:43Z
2018-08-12T06:59:43Z
Southern Africa’s liberation movements: can they abandon old bad habits?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231075/original/file-20180808-191038-1anoa8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa need to reform their parties.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Until recently, southern Africa’s political and economic outlook seemed to be moving in a promising direction. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/stability-in-southern-africa-hinges-on-how-leaders-gain-and-lose-power-89980">highlights</a> were provided by Zimbabwe and South Africa with the displacement of Robert Mugabe by Emmerson Mnangagwa in November 2017 and Jacob Zuma by Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year. Both were to pronounce the inauguration of new eras for their countries, and to promise political and economic reform. </p>
<p>Prior to this, there were presidential changes in the three other countries ruled by the region’s liberation movements. Hage Geingob succeeded Hifekepunye Pohamba in <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Namibian-president-wins-5m-Africa-leadership-prize-20150302">Namibia</a> in March 2015; Filipe Nyusi succeeded Armando Guebeza in <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/05/05/mozambique-is-back-says-its-president.-donors-are-less-sure">Mozambique</a> in January 2017; and Joao Lourenco succeeded Eduardo Dos Santos as <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/angolas-president-makes-unexpected-moves-to-rein-in-dos-santos-11740653">Angola’s</a> state President after legislative elections last year. </p>
<p>All five new leaders were younger than their predecessors, three of them (Ramaphosa, Nyusi and Lourenco) by ten years or more. This diluted – but far from dissipated – the tendency towards gerontocracy. </p>
<p>And there was more. While Mugabe was ousted by virtue of a “<a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sunday-tribune/news/watch-jubilation-as-mugabe-falls-12102771">military assisted transition</a>” the other four incumbent presidents were constrained to stand down because their terms in office were expiring. </p>
<p>Taken together, the changes in leadership, combined with initiatives of economic reform, seemed to bode well for the region as a whole. And to bring new hope to the 100 million people who live in their countries.</p>
<p>These events may yet result in outcomes that are progressive politically and economically. But, for all the commitment to renewal, doubts are beginning to accumulate that the region’s liberation movements are capable of turning away from the bad habits and practices of the past. </p>
<p>This has been brought home in dramatic fashion by the controversies surrounding the <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-zimbabwes-messy-election-get-messier-or-will-a-new-path-be-taken-101196">Zimbabwean election</a>.</p>
<h2>Signs of renewal</h2>
<p>The region’s national liberation movements became increasingly aware that after decades in power they were losing popularity. They were confronting a crisis of legitimacy. Signs that commitments to reform and renewal were meaningful were most apparent in Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa. </p>
<p>In Angola, Lourenco was quick to move against the political and financial empire constructed by Dos Santos. He sacked <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42003016">Isabel Dos Santos</a>, daughter of the former president and widely known as the richest woman in Africa, as head of Sonangol, the state oil company. The large corporation is a fulcrum of the economy, responsible for about a third of GDP and 95% of exports. </p>
<p>Citing misappropriation of funds, he followed this up by dismissing <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/son-of-angolas-former-leader-dos-santos-accused-of-fraud-20180326">Jose Filemento</a>, Dos Santos’ son, as head of the nation’s $5 billion sovereign wealth fund. He also had brushed aside restrictions on his ability to appoint new chiefs of the <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/angolan-army-chief-sacked-in-latest-anti-graft-move-20180423">military</a>, police and intelligence services by appointing his own security chiefs. </p>
<p>In Zimbabwe, the popular enthusiasm which greeted Mugabe’s ousting and Mnangagwa’s elevation was to be somewhat dimmed by the choice of his cabinet. The mix of military coup-makers, Mugabe left-overs and ZANU-PF re-treads rather than reaching out to the opposition to form a transitional coalition government did not go down well. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, Mnangagwa’s early initiatives offered promise of more rational economic policies. Above all, he indicated that he was bent on entering negotiations with the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-imf-zimbabwe/imfs-lagarde-welcomes-mnangagwas-promise-to-revive-zimbabwe-economy-idUSKBN1FE2M6">international financial agencies</a> and other creditors to re-schedule payments due on Zimbabwe’s massive debt. </p>
<p>This was combined with a three-month <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/bring-back-the-cash-only-250-million-returned-to-zim-in-post-mugabe-amnesty-20180304">amnesty</a> to allow individuals and companies who were reckoned to have illegally exported some US$1.8 billion to bring it back into the country. Third, Mnangagwa announced a series of <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/zim-white-farmer-mnangagwa-has-given-us-a-lot-of-encouragement-20180722">measures</a> to boost agriculture and mining. </p>
<p>All such measures were designed to encourage an inflow of foreign investment, that had slowed to a trickle because of the arbitrariness of Mugabe’s rule.</p>
<p>Opposition parties felt that Mnangagwa’s initiatives fell far short of what was required. Nonetheless, they were buoyed by his recognition that if Zimbabwe was to be restored to something approximating economic health, he would have to call an early election whose result would be accepted internationally as legitimate. </p>
<p>This, as it turns out, was too tall an order. </p>
<p>Round about the same time Ramaphosa was embarking upon his own programme of <a href="https://theconversation.com/ramaphosas-to-do-list-seven-economic-policy-areas-that-will-shift-the-dial-94352">reform</a> in South Africa. His triumph in the battle for the party leadership, achieved at the African National Congress’s (ANC) five yearly national congress in Johannesburg in December, had been narrowly won. </p>
<p>During his years in power, Zuma transformed the ANC, the state and state-owned companies into a massive <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-state-capture-is-a-regressive-step-for-any-society-56837">patronage machine</a> for looting the fiscus. This was to become known as “state capture”. Much of it was engineered by or in league with the immigrant Indian Gupta family. </p>
<p>Accordingly, Ramaphosa’s mission was to “re-capture” the state. War was declared on corruption, commitments made to cleaning up the state owned enterprises, to re-configuring state departments and restoring collaborative relations with business (which had been severely undermined under Zuma). </p>
<p>Ramaphosa’s efforts continue to be impressive. They have included appointing respected technocrats to key government positions as well as dismissing, prosecuting or sidelining a slew of Zuma acolytes. </p>
<p>He also cleared the way for an extensive judicial review of the state-capture project (which Zuma had done his best to obstruct). And he initiated extensive <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/sars-tom-moyane-suspended-with-immediate-effect-20180319">re-structuring</a> of failing state owned enterprises and state agencies, notably the South African Revenue Service. </p>
<h2>Doubts are mounting</h2>
<p>However, it has not been plain sailing.</p>
<p>The Zimbabwean election went into meltdown with accusations of a rigged election. The military is seen as being in firm alliance with Zanu-PF, ready to step in if its rule is <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-zimbabwes-messy-election-get-messier-or-will-a-new-path-be-taken-101196">threatened</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile in South Africa Ramaphosa has increasingly run up against the constraints imposed by the continuing political weight of the Zuma faction in an ANC which has remained deeply factionalised. He has struggled to forge party unity to prepare for the 2019 election. And he is most particularly challenged by the strength of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-deal-with-provincial-strongmen-is-haunting-south-africas-ruling-party-96666">Zuma faction in KwaZulu-Natal</a>. </p>
<p>A poor election result for the ANC in 2019 will severely undermine his political authority, and hobble his attempts to restructure the state and economy.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, cynicism is gaining ground. Many doubt Lourenco’s capacity to systematically deconstruct the powerful network which has supported and defended the Dos Santos family for decades. The view among some is that it will only re-engineer the political dominance of the ruling MPLA. </p>
<p>In both Namibia and Mozambique, critics suggest that changes in the presidency have led to little more than business as usual – and that in both countries the ruling party elites remain deeply enmeshed in corruption.</p>
<h2>Parties of liberation no more?</h2>
<p>The rule of liberation movements in southern Africa rule has been increasingly challenged by economic failure, rising popular discontent, the alienation of young people and yawning internal divisions. This has led to multiple suggestions that their time span is limited, and that their rule will give way as a result of internal division, electoral defeat or other unforeseen events. </p>
<p>They have responded with promises that they will embark on “renewal”. </p>
<p>But, so far the evidence is mixed. They may well retain their capacity to hang on to state power. But their capacity for significant and far-reaching reform remains severely constrained.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall receives funding from the National Research Foundation</span></em></p>
Southern Africa’s liberation movements have been losing popularity and confronting a crisis of legitimacy.
Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/89980
2018-01-22T15:43:51Z
2018-01-22T15:43:51Z
Stability in southern Africa hinges on how leaders gain and lose power
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202402/original/file-20180118-29900-1tmlu4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters demand Congolese President Joseph Kabila step down.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Thomas Mukoya</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While each country in Southern Africa has its own politics, recent developments involving presidents provide interesting contrasts across the region. Which presidents gain and lose power in 2018 – and how they do so – will have significance for the region as a whole, not least in helping determine its continued stability.</p>
<p>As 2018 begins, Joseph Kabila is clinging to the presidency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), claiming that there is insufficient funding to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/16/delayed-drc-elections-could-be-put-back-further-by-cash-shortage">hold an election</a>, amid <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/53-protesters-killed-over-six-months-in-drc-report-20171121">growing protests</a> against him in Kinshasa and elsewhere. It remains to be seen if he will fulfil the undertaking he has made that elections will be held in <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/kabila-at-un-pledges-drc-elections-but-still-no-date-20170923">December this year</a>.</p>
<p>Other countries in the region start 2018 on a much more promising footing. In Botswana, President Ian Khama, approaching the end of his two presidential terms, is expected to step down in an <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2017/11/09/botswana-president-says-he-will-step-down-at-the-end-of-his-term-in-april//">orderly succession</a> in April and will be suceeded by the vice-president.</p>
<p>In both Zimbabwe and Angola autocratic presidents who had been in power for almost four decades lost power in 2017 in very different ways.</p>
<h2>Military intervention in Zimbabwe</h2>
<p>In the case of Zimbabwe the country’s army intervened in November 2017 to force Robert Mugabe to <a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwe-beware-the-military-is-looking-after-its-own-interests-not-democracy-87712">give up power</a>. This came after he had, under the influence of his wife Grace, sacked Emmerson Mnangagwa <a href="https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2017/11/07/vp-mnangagwa-fired">as vice-president</a>. The Southern African Development Community did not need to intervene, and even the mediation mission it planned wasn’t required.</p>
<p>Instead, the Zimbabwe military acted, with the ruling party, Zanu-PF, to replace Mugabe with Mnangagwa. It did so peacefully, denying during the entire process that a coup was underway. The 93-year-old Mugabe, in office since 1980, initially refused to step down, but was finally removed both as president of the <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2017-11-21-breaking--zimbabwes-president-robert-mugabe-has-resigned/">country and of the ruling party</a>.</p>
<p>The country will go to the polls in <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/05/earliest-election-date-july-23-2018/">mid-2018</a>, and Mnangagwa, who was confirmed in December 2017 as Zanu-PF’s presidential candidate, has said that the election will be credible, <a href="http://nehandaradio.com/2017/12/16/mnangagwa-promises-free-fair-elections/">free and fair</a>, but he has yet to confirm that he will allow international and other observers.</p>
<p>With the military more obviously involved in government than anywhere else in the region, Zimbabwe’s opposition parties divided, and with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/morgan-tsvangirai-seriously-ill-11532872">seriously ill</a>, there is little likelihood that Zanu-PF or Mnangagwa will lose power.</p>
<h2>Angola</h2>
<p>In Angola José Eduardo dos Santos, suffering from ill-health, agreed in early 2017 to step down as president of the country. He nominated a man he thought would be a trusted successor, hoping to continue to wield influence as president of the ruling MPLA.</p>
<p>After elections for the National Assembly in August, <a href="https://theconversation.com/angolas-ruling-party-regains-power-but-faces-legitimacy-questions-83983">João Lourenço duly succeeded Dos Santos</a> as president. To widespread surprise, he began sacking the heads of some of the country’s key institutions. These included Dos Santos’s daughter, Isabel dos Santos, who was <a href="https://qz.com/1130420/africas-richest-woman-has-been-fired-from-angolas-state-oil-firm-by-the-new-president/">CEO of the state oil company Sonangol</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202404/original/file-20180118-29885-i4krt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202404/original/file-20180118-29885-i4krt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202404/original/file-20180118-29885-i4krt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202404/original/file-20180118-29885-i4krt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202404/original/file-20180118-29885-i4krt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202404/original/file-20180118-29885-i4krt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202404/original/file-20180118-29885-i4krt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, left, and his successor Joao Lourenco.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Manuel de Almeida</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And in early 2018 her brother José Filomeno dos Santos, was removed as head of Angola’s <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42638761">sovereign wealth fund</a>. Their father’s influence was rapidly slipping away.</p>
<p>In Angola, as in Zimbabwe, a change of leader to one with a more reformist approach probably means that the ruling party has consolidated itself in power.</p>
<h2>South Africa</h2>
<p>In South Africa in December 2017 the leadership of the governing African National Congress (ANC) passed <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1762486/breaking-cyril-ramaphosa-is-the-new-anc-president/">from Jacob Zuma to Cyril Ramaphosa</a>, who thus became heir apparent to the presidency of the country. While there is no two-term limit for ANC presidents, Zuma had brought the ANC into discredit and Ramaphosa, despite having worked closely with Zuma as deputy president, was seen as the one who would curtail the corruption and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-threat-to-south-africas-democracy-runs-deeper-than-state-capture-78784">“state capture”</a>.</p>
<p>For now, Zuma remains president of the country until general elections due to be held by June 2019. The country waits to see whether, how and when Ramaphosa can <a href="https://theconversation.com/ramaphosa-should-end-the-presidential-merry-go-round-in-south-africa-90116">arrange to take over</a> as president of the country as well as of the ruling party.</p>
<h2>A presidential challenge defeated</h2>
<p>In Namibia, <a href="http://links.org.au/node/4190">Hage Geingob</a> had to meet a challenge to his continuing as leader of Swapo, the governing party, in <a href="https://www.newera.com.na/2017/07/10/swapo-elders-endorse-geingob-as-swapo-presidential-candidate/">November last year</a>. He was, however, confirmed in his position and will therefore be Swapo’s presidential candidate for the election scheduled to take place in November 2019.</p>
<p>Geingob supporters now fill all the key posts in his government, enabling him to make policy as he wishes. This is very different from South Africa, where the new ANC leadership remains divided and where Ramaphosa, when he becomes president of the country, will find it difficult to <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/when-will-zuma-go-its-a-matter-of-time-20171224-3">adopt new policies</a>.</p>
<h2>Malawi and Zambia</h2>
<p>Malawi must hold elections <a href="http://www.mec.org.mw/category/Steps_towards_2019.html">in 2019</a> and the contest for the presidency then has already begun. It is not known whether Joyce Banda, the former president and leader of one of the country’s leading political parties, will <a href="http://africanarguments.org/2015/12/30/malawi-why-wont-joyce-banda-come-home-2/">return from self-imposed exile</a> abroad to stand again. In 2017 she was formally charged with having been involved in the massive <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/malawi-issues-warrant-of-arrest-for-former-president-banda-20170731">“Cashgate’ corruption scandal”</a> that was uncovered while she was president.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202406/original/file-20180118-29888-1qdqaf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202406/original/file-20180118-29888-1qdqaf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202406/original/file-20180118-29888-1qdqaf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202406/original/file-20180118-29888-1qdqaf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202406/original/file-20180118-29888-1qdqaf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202406/original/file-20180118-29888-1qdqaf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202406/original/file-20180118-29888-1qdqaf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zambian President Edgar Lungu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters//Siphiwe Sibeko</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Zambia, by contrast, where the next election is not due until 2021, the question is how Edgar Lungu, who took over the presidency after narrowly winning the presidential election in August 2016, will try to consolidate his power. </p>
<p>In 2017 Lungu became <a href="https://theconversation.com/lungu-tries-to-have-his-cake-and-eat-it-a-state-of-emergency-in-all-but-name-80628">more authoritarian</a>. Hakainde Hichilema, the leader of the main opposition United Party for National Development, was arrested on what were clearly trumped-up charges. These were only <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/08/16/knew-hhs-treason-charge-trumped-antonio-mwanza/">dropped in August</a> after interventions by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and inside Zambia by the <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/09/20/real-reasons-hh-released-jail/">local Catholic Archbishop</a>.</p>
<p>Lungu wants to serve a <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/11/05/no-third-term-president-lungu-gbm/">third term as president</a>, and the country’s Constitutional Court has been asked to <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/africa/2017-11-10-is-zambia-headed-for-a-constitutional-crisis/">rule on the matter</a>.</p>
<h2>Regional perspective</h2>
<p>Too often developments in one country are seen in isolation from similar ones elsewhere. Given that South Africa is the most important country in the region, how the Ramaphosa-Zuma poser is resolved will be significant for the region. Elsewhere, how presidents gain and lose, and try to consolidate their power, will help shape the continued stability of the region. </p>
<p>Will political tensions be managed internally, as in Zimbabwe in late 2017? Or will they require some kind of intervention by the Southern Africa Development Community, in the DRC and perhaps elsewhere, to prevent them from escalating? Throughout the region, contests for presidential power are likely to keep political passions on the boil.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Saunders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Too often developments in one country are seen in isolation. In southern Africa events in one affect others in the region.
Chris Saunders, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80848
2017-07-18T14:44:24Z
2017-07-18T14:44:24Z
The war that provided the soundtrack for subversive Afrikaans rock
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178437/original/file-20170717-6054-14u5sfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bernoldus Niemand (aka James Phillips) at the Market Theatre Warehouse in Johannesburg, 1989. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Hogg/The Times</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1967, military conscription became <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/military-conscription-all-white-males-south-africa-enforced">compulsory</a> for all white men in South Africa over the age of 16. In the subsequent two decades the country got ever deeper involved in the so-called “Border War” on the Namibian/Angolan border. The war was primarily fought between the South African Defence Force (SADF) and the South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo). Under the hawk-ish <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/nov/02/guardianobituaries.southafrica">President PW Botha</a>, the role of the military was <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/pieter-willem-botha">expanded</a>.</p>
<p>The concurrent militarisation of white South African society, as well as the construction of white militarised masculine identities, were powerful societal forces. However, they grew increasingly unpopular. It elicited some resistance from within South Africa’s white population.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178429/original/file-20170717-23045-wcp4vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178429/original/file-20170717-23045-wcp4vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178429/original/file-20170717-23045-wcp4vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178429/original/file-20170717-23045-wcp4vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178429/original/file-20170717-23045-wcp4vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1078&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178429/original/file-20170717-23045-wcp4vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1078&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178429/original/file-20170717-23045-wcp4vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1078&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PW Botha.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hutchings/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533950308628651">resistance</a> was indicative of wider dissent and opposition to apartheid especially in popular culture. English-language rock bands like <a href="http://www.rock.co.za/brightblue/">Bright Blue</a>, the <a href="http://shifty.co.za/artists/kalahari-surfers/">Kalahari Surfers</a> and the <a href="http://www.freshmusic.co.za/cherry_liner.html">Cherry Faced Lurchers</a>, along with solo artists like <a href="http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/index.php/pa-past-participants/72-pa-2001/744-roger-lucey-south-africa">Roger Lucey</a>, were openly opposed to apartheid and the conscription of white males into the armed conflicts. </p>
<p>These artists often performed under the banners of the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/organisations/end-conscription-campaign-ecc">End Conscription Campaign</a>, a lobby group formed in 1983 to end compulsory military service. These performances were highly politicised and held a considerable element of <a href="http://www.3rdearmusic.com/forum/footsoldier.html">risk</a> for the artists.</p>
<h2>Culture supporting the war</h2>
<p>In contrast, popular culture in support of the war effort (music, film and literature as propaganda) was common. Numerous pro-war music releases in both English and Afrikaans appeared on the market. </p>
<p>Among the Afrikaans releases were albums by two of the most popular South African singers of all time, Gé Korsten’s “Huistoe” (Homewards) and Bles Bridges’s “Onbekende Weermagman” (Unknown Soldier). Notably, while some English bands were openly opposed to the army, the war and apartheid, Afrikaans music remained almost completely compliant. Protest among Afrikaners was still rare, although there are some exceptions.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178438/original/file-20170717-6073-1j6x4i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178438/original/file-20170717-6073-1j6x4i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178438/original/file-20170717-6073-1j6x4i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178438/original/file-20170717-6073-1j6x4i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178438/original/file-20170717-6073-1j6x4i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178438/original/file-20170717-6073-1j6x4i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178438/original/file-20170717-6073-1j6x4i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sleeve of the record ‘Hou my vas korporaal’ (Hold me tight corporal).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1983, two acts released Afrikaans songs that parodied the army experience. Opposition towards conscription and South Africa’s involvement in the Border War was steadily increasing at the time. Bernoldus Niemand (the alternative persona of English-speaking musician James Phillips) released his single “Hou my vas Korporaal” (Hold me tight, Corporal). The rock group Wildebeest released an EP, “Horings op die Stoep” (Horns on the Stoep), containing the song “Bossies” (Bushies).</p>
<p>“Bossies” is a vernacular term referring to post-traumatic stress following military battle. The fact that these are Afrikaans songs, make them a poignant testimony to the unravelling of Afrikaner hegemony. This was a significant change. Afrikaners as a group had arguably more invested in the apartheid system than their white English counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178442/original/file-20170717-6078-1il7ln8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178442/original/file-20170717-6078-1il7ln8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178442/original/file-20170717-6078-1il7ln8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178442/original/file-20170717-6078-1il7ln8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178442/original/file-20170717-6078-1il7ln8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178442/original/file-20170717-6078-1il7ln8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178442/original/file-20170717-6078-1il7ln8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wildebeest’s EP, ‘Horings op die stoep’ (horns on stoep).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The two songs were not successful commercially. Nevertheless, they represented the earliest examples of Afrikaans music that echoed the dissent felt among a large group of troops.</p>
<p>Artists like Wildebeest and Bernoldus Niemand represented a non-commercial sub-category that had little to no exposure to the mainstream. This was in contrast to the “Musiek-en-Liriek” (music and lyrics) movement which had the support of mainstream television and state-sanctioned arts organisations.</p>
<h2>Free as a bird</h2>
<p>“Hou my vas Korporaal” was followed by the release of the album, <a href="http://rock.co.za/files/jp_niemand.html">“Wie is Bernoldus Niemand?”</a> (Who is Bernoldus Niemand?), in February 1985. It was the first record of its kind and set a certain tone: observant, satirical and couched in the rebellious language of rock ’n roll.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6aE4-lAq_pE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Hou my vas korporaal’ (hold me tight corporal) was the unofficial anthem of the anti-conscription movement.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before becoming Niemand, Phillips played in an English band called Corporal Punishment which hailed from his hometown of Springs, a mining town on the East Rand of Johannesburg. It was a hotbed of punk-styled anti-establishment music in the late 1970s. Corporal Punishment’s songs delivered biting political and social commentary.</p>
<p>Although stylistically influenced by 1970s British punk, South African punk bands could not realistically claim the same links to the working class. In the general local context, their race made them privileged. However, not all whites were equally privileged. Phillips wrote into song the characteristics (and in Bernoldus Niemand, into character) of working-class whites who he no doubt had observed in Springs.</p>
<p>Many consider the album to have started the “Afrikaans new wave” which climaxed in the 1989 <a href="http://johanneskerkorrel.com/the-voelvry-tour/">Voëlvry tour</a>. The Voëlvry (“free as a bird”) tour was an anti-apartheid uprising of sorts: disaffected rock artists performing in Afrikaans on campuses countrywide.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, “Wie is Bernoldus Niemand?” was banned by the state broadcaster. The satirising of the army experience – which so many young white South Africans could relate to – would become a regular theme for later Voëlvry artists. “Hou my vas Korporaal” also became the unofficial anthem of the ECC.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178440/original/file-20170717-6075-h0yn66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178440/original/file-20170717-6075-h0yn66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178440/original/file-20170717-6075-h0yn66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178440/original/file-20170717-6075-h0yn66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178440/original/file-20170717-6075-h0yn66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178440/original/file-20170717-6075-h0yn66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178440/original/file-20170717-6075-h0yn66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Johannes Kerkorrel & Gereformeerde Blues Band’s album ‘Eet Kreef’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The music of the other Voëlvry artists Koos Kombuis and Johannes Kerkorrel later mocked the vapidity of middle-class Afrikaner suburbia – from the position of rebellious middle-class Afrikaners. But the white working-class character theme in Phillips’s music represented a different subversion, because in the 1980s working-class Afrikaners tended to support the political right. </p>
<p>Although Niemand’s influence on Voëlvry might have been debatable (as suggested by Pat Hopkins in his book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4922220-vo-lvry">“Voëlvry”</a>), it remains a very poignant comment on white conscription during apartheid.</p>
<h2>Afrikaans psychedelic rock</h2>
<p>Wildebeest, on the other hand, was an enigmatic group in their own way. For one thing, the bassist, Piet Botha, was the son of then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Pik Botha. The band is still remembered for a rather strange appearance on the fogey Afrikaans kids’ television programme “Kraaines” (Crow’s Nest) in 1981. Long-haired and subversively sporting military style khaki outfits, Wildebeest raucously beat traditional African drums and played heavy psychedelic rock.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/42wjjQmKC6Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Psychedelic rock came to Afrikaans children’s television courtesy of Wildebeest.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The songs were all composed by drummer Colin Pratley who, like James Phillips, was also not a first-language Afrikaans speaker. Wildebeest was influenced by African genres and rock music, and used a variety of indigenous instruments while sometimes singing in Afrikaans. Their EP “Horings op die Stoep” contained four tracks and tellingly, all were in Afrikaans.</p>
<p>In contrast to Phillips, however, Wildebeest was not associated with formal opposition to conscription.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178439/original/file-20170717-6054-n8b8p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178439/original/file-20170717-6054-n8b8p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178439/original/file-20170717-6054-n8b8p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178439/original/file-20170717-6054-n8b8p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178439/original/file-20170717-6054-n8b8p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178439/original/file-20170717-6054-n8b8p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178439/original/file-20170717-6054-n8b8p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Afro-rock group Wildebeest in the early 1980s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">From 'On Record: Popular Afrikaans music and society, 1900-2017'.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Considering the socio-political atmosphere of the early 1980s, songs like “Hou my vas Korporaal” and “Bossies” were significant releases. Both songs touched on sensitive and realistic aspects of a shared experience between many white South African males conscripted into military service since 1967. This was in stark contrast to the numerous music releases in support of military service that portrayed conscription as the patriotic duty of young white South African males. </p>
<p>Songs like “Hou my vas Korporaal” and “Bossies” chimed with wider fault lines in Afrikaner society as the apartheid regime’s grip on power started to slip. Their specific significance is that they offered alternative interpretations of the army experience, and by extension white Afrikaner male identity, that resonated with much wider socio-political shifts. </p>
<p><em>Edited extract from ‘On Record: Popular Afrikaans music and society, 1900-2017’, African Sun Media, Stellenbosch, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Schalk van der Merwe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rock music against military conscription during 1980s South Africa resonated with wider fault lines in Afrikaner society - this as the apartheid regime’s grip on power started to slip.
Schalk van der Merwe, Lecturer of History, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80219
2017-07-09T10:59:23Z
2017-07-09T10:59:23Z
A man called Hope: the legacy of Namibia’s Andimba Toivo ya Toivo
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177144/original/file-20170706-16389-xqzvwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Funeral of Namibian liberation struggle hero Herman Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo at Heroes' Acre in Windhoek.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Namibia has seen an unprecedented outpouring of grief following the death of liberation struggle hero <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/andimba-herman-toivo-ya-toivo">Andimba Toivo ya Toivo</a>. It was matched by vibrant social media commentary.</p>
<p>Comments suggest that many regarded him as an icon of the Namibian liberation struggle, although he never became the official leader of the liberation movement, South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), nor independent Namibia’s President. </p>
<p>These political leadership positions were firmly occupied by Sam Nujoma, who served three terms as president after 1990. On his retirement in 2005 he was declared the official <a href="http://www.lac.org.na/laws/2005/3567.pdf">“Founding Father of the Namibian Nation”</a>.</p>
<p>In the wake of Toivo’s death some commentators claimed that he would perhaps have been a more deserving recipient of such an honorary title. These contestations are indicative of the internal politics of SWAPO, still Namibia’s ruling party by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/populism-on-the-rise-as-south-africa-and-namibia-gear-up-to-elect-new-presidents-77887">large margin</a>. They were dismissed quickly though, most publicly by <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/56186/read/Nujoma-is-founding-father-%E2%80%93-Geingos">Namibia’s First Lady Monica Geingos</a>. </p>
<p>Irrespective, Toivo (92) received unprecedented accolades as a “revolutionary hero”. Thousands attended memorial services held for him across the country. <a href="https://theconversation.com/tribute-to-a-namibian-icon-andimba-toivo-ya-toivo-80236">Innumerable tributes</a> were published in Namibia, South Africa, and on the continent, and beyond. </p>
<p>Namibian President Hage Geingob delivered an extraordinary eulogy during the national memorial service of 23 June. He emphasised Toivo’s significance, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have lost a man who epitomises the core ideals that make us the nation we are today. … His durable principles and inexhaustible reservoir of compassion, forgiveness, patience and sense of justice allowed him to shun the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=835039316652560">murky waters of greed and factionalism</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>A day later Geingob called at the burial site to honour Toivo’s legacy through commitment to fighting tribalism and racism, <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201706250206.html">poverty and corruption</a>. He was given a state funeral at the Namibian National Heroes Acre in Windhoek. </p>
<p>Remarkably, Geingob’s historical account named a full list of the <a href="https://books.google.de/books?id=Mls4H1mnN_0C&pg=PA333&lpg=PA333&dq=Ovamboland+People's+Congress&source=bl&ots=_FKzsEJNzD&sig=NaP4xCPciDd68JXlyUNGek4Wxxo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjInOeM8PTUAhXLaVAKHZLlDI0Q6AEITzAI#v=onepage&q=Ovamboland%20People's%20Congress&f=false">Ovamboland People’s Congress</a> founders in Cape Town in 1957, which included a number of early activists who later fell out of favour with SWAPO, such as Emil Appolus, Andreas Shipanga, Otillie Schimming Abrahams, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=835039316652560">Kenneth Abrahams</a>.</p>
<p>This historical honesty paid due respect to the man. In the party he co-founded Toivo’s frank attitude was not always welcome. In 2007 he failed to be re-elected to the SWAPO Politburo. Rumours had it at the time that he was too sympathetic to the Rally for Democracy and Progress, a break-away party from SWAPO. <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=31095&page=archive-read">He denied this</a>. In 2012 he was finally made a permanent member of <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201212040893.html">SWAPO’s Central Committee</a>.</p>
<p>Who was this inspiring man, and what remains of his legacy?</p>
<h2>A revolutionary hero</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/andimba-toivo-ya-toivo-remember-namibia-independence-leader-nelson-mandela-in-prison-dead-died-92-a7789716.html">Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo</a> was born in 1924 in Omangudu in northern Namibia. He received primary school education from the Finnish Lutheran mission (‘Toivo’ means ‘hope’ in Finnish). During World War 2 Toivo was a soldier with the South African Native Military Corps. He then attended the Anglican St Mary’s Odibo school, where he qualified and worked as a teacher. </p>
<p>In 1951 Toivo moved to Cape Town. In the Cape he became involved with South African anti-apartheid organisations, including the African National Congress and left-wing student movements. In 1957 he formed the Ovamboland People’s Congress, forerunner of the Namibian liberation organisation South West Africa People’s Organisation <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/andimba-toivo-ya-toivo-remember-namibia-independence-leader-nelson-mandela-in-prison-dead-died-92-a7789716.html">(SWAPO)</a>. </p>
<p>Because of his activism he was deported to Namibia, where he continued his anti-apartheid and Namibian nationalist politics. In 1966 Toivo was arrested by the South African authorities. The following year <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/andimba-herman-toivo-ya-toivo">“The state v. Tuhadeleni and 36 Others” </a> trial opened in Pretoria. Toivo appeared as Accused No. 21. The trial was the first under South Africa’s <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-mercury/20170622/281715499616810">Terrorism Act of 21 June 1967</a>.</p>
<p>With a powerful speech from the dock Toivo drew international attention to the Namibian liberation struggle. He is <a href="https://theconversation.com/tribute-to-a-namibian-icon-andimba-toivo-ya-toivo-80236">best remembered</a> internationally for his statement that Namibians were not South Africans and that they should not be tried by South Africans under “foreign” law.</p>
<p>Sentenced to 20 years in prison he spent 16 years on Robben Island, where he became close to Mandela. In 1984 he was released and <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/06/10/mandela-foundation-remembers-namibian-freedom-fighter-toivo">joined SWAPO in exile</a>.</p>
<p>After Namibian independence in 1990 Toivo served in the SWAPO government in various portfolios.</p>
<h2>Against greed and division</h2>
<p>In 2005 Toivo retired from official politics with a farewell speech in the Namibian parliament. The veteran liberation fighter issued a stern warning against greed and self-enrichment among those who had come to power in post-liberation governments: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being a member of parliament or even a minister should not be seen as an opportunity to achieve status, to be addressed as “honourables” and to acquire riches. If those are your goals, you would do better to <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/166110/archive-read/Toivo&ampamp39s-message--to-Namibia--and-the">pursue other careers.</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Toivo did not only speak out against post-liberation scourges raising their ugly heads in Namibia. In 2014 he also addressed a warning to South African politicians.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j2xcFEJK9U">We did not struggle for you to loot</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In his later years Toivo also raised his voice against what he perceived as the rise of tribalism in post-colonial Namibia. In an interview with the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation he called on his compatriots to, “forget about this tribalism. It will never take you anywhere, but it causes destruction.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1j2xcFEJK9U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>At a time when ethnicity had become a frequent concern in the post-colonial politics and society, Toivo called on the solidarities of anti-colonial nationalism. He urged that Namibians <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/166110/archive-read/Toivo&ampamp39s-message--to-Namibia--and-the">“should not allow ourselves to be divided.”</a></p>
<p>On various occasions during the mourning period Toivo’s children, family members, old comrades and friends praised his exceptional and stubborn commitment to <a href="http://namibian21.rssing.com/browser.php?indx=44586264&item=8086">revolutionary morality</a>. His widow Vicki Erenstein ya Toivo used the occasion of the state funeral to chastise those who exploited their positions <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/56064/read/Goodbye--Nation-bids-farewell-to-Ya-Toivo">to get rich</a>.</p>
<h2>Regional and international significance</h2>
<p>Toivo was not just a Namibian freedom fighter. As an activist against apartheid he was part of a generation who bore Southern Africa’s long struggles against apartheid and colonialism in regional solidarity. To these men and women the freedom struggle was a continental, even a global rather than just a nationalist endeavour. </p>
<p>Geingob’s eulogy made a special point in emphasising the significance of international solidarity in the pursuit of Namibian independence. He equally stressed the commonality of the Namibian and South African struggles against the shared common enemy of apartheid. The Namibian president called for a pan-Africanist commitment to honour Toivo’s legacy in the post-colonial struggles against what he described as the “common enemy” of inequality, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=835039316652560">poverty and corruption</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heike Becker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Namibian hero and former Robben Island prisoner Toivo ya Toivo was part of a generation who contributed to the struggles against apartheid and colonialism in the region.
Heike Becker, Professor of Anthropology, University of the Western Cape
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80236
2017-06-29T15:01:56Z
2017-06-29T15:01:56Z
Tribute to a Namibian icon: Andimba Toivo ya Toivo
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176187/original/file-20170629-16091-hkdmay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Filckr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On June 9, 2017 Namibia became poorer. A moral beacon left the people, for whose freedom he lived most of his 92 years. Active until the end, Andimba (Herman) Toivo ya Toivo had just returned from a trip to Robben Island with his <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=127229&page=archive-read">fellow inmate Helao Shityuwete</a> – one of the other truly selfless, most underrated freedom fighters. Hours later he fell asleep forever at home.</p>
<p>Ya Toivo had been a torchbearer of the determination for freedom from foreign rule. He embodied a generation – many of whom left behind the values they claimed had guided their struggle after independence. In contrast, Ya Toivo remained loyal to what made him the personification of the desire to live in an independent country governed by and for its people in decency.</p>
<p>The loss of Ya Toivo should encourage others to become the torchbearers of his values.</p>
<h2>Road to Robben Island</h2>
<p>Brought up in the northern Namibian region then called Ovamboland, he was trained as an artisan and volunteered to fight for South Africa in <a href="http://www.parliament.na/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=723:toivo-ya-toivo-andimba-ca&catid=118&Itemid=1375">World War II</a>. After leaving school in the early 1950s he worked on contract in Cape Town where he became politically aware through African National Congress (ANC) activists.</p>
<p>He started to mobilise his fellow Namibian contract workers. These were Namibians from the northern parts of the territory who were contracted for periods of time to work (without their families) in mines and industry. They were restricted to the workplace and accommodated in compounds if they weren’t living as domestic workers with their employers. </p>
<p>He founded the <a href="https://books.google.se/books?id=Mls4H1mnN_0C&pg=PA333&lpg=PA333&dq=Ovamboland+People%27s+Congress&source=bl&ots=_FKyvEPMFA&sig=T3_66PPsmb17hEJTEuhHMDNyOFI&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ovamboland%20People%27s%20Congress&f=false">Ovamboland People’s Congress</a>, which demanded the abolition of contract labour and an end of South African administration over his country. In 1958 he managed to dispatch a tape-recorded petition to the United Nations and was subsequently deported back to Ovamboland. There he became involved in the formation of the South West African People’s Organisation <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">(Swapo)</a>.</p>
<p>Ya Toivo helped the first liberation fighters who had been trained abroad to prepare for the armed struggle. On August 26, 1966 the first military encounter <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=113326&page=archive-read">occurred</a> with the South African regime. Ya Toivo and hundreds of others were arrested.</p>
<p>He was <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/andimba-herman-toivo-ya-toivo">put to trial in Pretoria</a> along with Eliaser Tuhadeleni (as accused No 1) and 34 others. Ya Toivo’s speech <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/56028/read/Toivos-message--to-Namibia--and-the-world#">from the dock</a> on February 1, 1968 became a lasting document of Namibian aspirations for freedom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are Namibians and not South Africans. We do not now, and will not in the future, recognise your right to govern us, to make laws for us in which we have no say; to treat our country as if it were your property and us as if you were our masters. We have always regarded South Africa as an intruder in our country. This is how we have always felt and this is how we feel now, and it is on this basis that we have faced this trial.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thanks to international pressure, the accused were spared the death penalty. Ya Toivo and several others were sentenced to long imprisonment of which they served up to <a href="http://www.sabracelets.org/messack-victory.html">nearly 20 years</a>. </p>
<p>On Robben Island, Ya Toivo’s defiance, stubbornness and resilience made him the most respected among the Namibian prisoners, who developed close ties with the ANC inmates. Andimba and Madiba (Nelson Mandela’s clan name) had more in common than a striking similarity of the letters in their names. They remained friends for the rest of their lives. As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/27/andimba-toivo-ya-toivo-obituary?CMP=share_btn_tw">remembered by Denis Herbstein</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In prison Toivo was unbending, seizing every opportunity to show his disdain for his jailers. A fellow prisoner described the scene when Toiva [sic] responded to his treatment by a young warder: Andimba unleashed a hard open-hand smack on the young warder’s cheek, sending [his] cap flying and [the warder] wailing (in Afrikaans), ‘The kaffir hit me’. The inevitable spell of solitary confinement followed. When Toivo was released in March 1984, short of his full term, he refused to leave his fellow prisoners and had to be coaxed out of his cell.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Into exile and Namibian independence</h2>
<p>Back home in Namibia, Ya Toivo refused to accept a South African initiated transitional government and left for exile. The Swapo leadership created the post of secretary-general for him, a niche to keep him away from the consolidated inner circle of power. He humbly accepted what was mainly a symbolic position to represent Swapo internationally without influencing its policy.</p>
<p>He soon met the US-American lawyer Vicky Erenstein. They married a week into Independence in 1990. In 1993 they became the parents of twin daughters Mutaleni and Nashikoto. They also adopted two of Ya Toivo’s nephews. The children <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/55944/read/Ya-Toivos-children-pay-tribute-to-family-giant">remember</a> their father as youthful, “fun-loving, yet strict, attentive, playful and loving”.</p>
<p>He raised them to be loyal to fundamental principles such as honesty and modesty.</p>
<p>Maybe his biggest moral challenge (and failure) was when Swapo gave him the task in 1989 to monitor the release of several hundred so-called ex-detainees who had survived a Swapo purge in exile. During the 1980s thousands were kept near the <a href="http://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/85/Strategic%20Review/Vol%2038(1)/melber-review-2-pp-143-146.zp89618.pdf">southern Angolan town of Lubango</a> where they were tortured by a terror regime of “securocrats”. Many were executed or didn’t survive. Ya Toivo’s credibility was abused to downplay – if not to justify – the atrocities. He accepted the dubious role and never openly corrected the injustice and violation of human rights he certainly condemned.</p>
<p>On the evening of March 20, 1990, before the official independence ceremony at midnight, the Swapo leadership gathered for a banquet with local VIPs in the German club in central Windhoek. Not so Ya Toivo. He spent most of the evening with local activists and members of the international solidarity movement who had come together at a venue on the outskirts of the city. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176068/original/file-20170628-31302-jjpdw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176068/original/file-20170628-31302-jjpdw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176068/original/file-20170628-31302-jjpdw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176068/original/file-20170628-31302-jjpdw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176068/original/file-20170628-31302-jjpdw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176068/original/file-20170628-31302-jjpdw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176068/original/file-20170628-31302-jjpdw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andimba Toivo ya Toivo and Jack and Ray Simons, toasting to Namibian Independence on March 20, 1990.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Henning Melber</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Loyalty to true liberation</h2>
<p>Since Namibian independence Ya Toivo served three terms in cabinet as minister. As before, he put the party’s interest above his personal ambitions. Or rather, he acted in accordance with what he understood as being in the best interests of the country.</p>
<p>Power politics were a strange thing for him. What mattered were the party and the people. But he realised that the two are not identical. As a result, he displayed the wisdom one would expect from a true leader. Speaking for the last time in the <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/56028/read/Toivos-message--to-Namibia--and-the-world#">National Assembly</a> on March 16, 2005 he reminded his comrades:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being a member of parliament or even a minister should not be seen as an opportunity to achieve status, to be addressed as ‘honourables’ and to acquire riches. If those are your goals, you would do better to pursue other careers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ya Toivo remained critically observant of the limits to liberation. As late as 2014 he commented on the values of South Africa’s <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/kids/freedom-charter">Freedom Charter</a> and the current leadership of the governing ANC. He quipped in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j2xcFEJK9U">video recorded interview</a>, that the people did not support the struggle for them just to fill their pockets and to loot the country.</p>
<p>Just as the ANC needs moral guardians who will enforce its core values to <a href="https://theconversation.com/anc-take-heed-even-big-brands-die-if-they-abandon-their-founding-values-79506">save its brand</a>, so does Namibia’s Swapo. </p>
<p>If there is a positive meaning to patriotism – all too often abused for inventing heroic narratives by those holding political power and celebrating themselves – then it can be identified with Toivo ya Toivo, a true Namibian patriot departed from this world. </p>
<p>Hamba Kahle, Andimba. You left behind a lasting legacy to the Namibian people who share your belief in true liberation as emancipation from greed and social injustice and a life in human dignity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber joined SWAPO in 1974 and met Andimba Toivo ya Toivo for the first time in 1984. </span></em></p>
Andimba (Herman) Toivo Ya Toivo remained loyal to what made him the personification of the desire to live in an independent country governed by, and for, its people.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/78134
2017-05-29T14:01:28Z
2017-05-29T14:01:28Z
It’s 30 years since Cuito Cuanavale. How the battle redefined southern Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171125/original/file-20170526-6380-10jzeca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rebel UNITA troops walk through a field twenty miles from the front line at Munhango, Angola April 29, 1986. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Wendy Schwegmann</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thirty years ago in southern Angola, four military forces were mobilising for <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/battle-cuito-cuanavale-1988">the largest conventional battle</a> in Africa since the Second World War. It was a battle that would have huge consequences for Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Indeed it has been referred to as a <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2013/04/01/cuito-cuanavale-angola/">turning point</a> in southern African history.</p>
<p>On the one side was the Angolan army backed by Cuban forces and Soviet advisers. On the other was the South African backed Angolan rebel movement fighting to overthrow the government. </p>
<p>The rebel Union for the Total Independence of Angola, better known by their Portuguese acronym Unita, had been one of the three liberation groups fighting Portuguese colonialism. But it is the pro-socialist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) which <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_2539000/2539679.stm">won power</a> in 1975 and formed the government. </p>
<p>With western support and arms supplies from South Africa and the <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/79546/next-stop-angola-reagan-doctrine-communism-intervention">Reagan administration</a>, Unita’s campaign to topple the government turned Angola into a Cold War battleground. The climax of this was the battle at Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola that lasted from March 1987 until the end of June 1988. </p>
<p>There are still fierce arguments about how important the battle was, who won and whether the South African army was really defeated. </p>
<p>That those who fought in the battle should have wildly different interpretations of its importance is not surprising. This is brought out strikingly in a new edition of Fred Bridgland’s book <a href="http://www.casematepublishing.co.uk/index.php/the-war-for-africa.html">The War for Africa: Twelve Months that Transformed a Continent</a>. Originally published in 1990, it’s an account, primarily from the South African side, of the military campaign that reached its climax at Cuito Cuanavale.</p>
<h2>Contesting narratives</h2>
<p>The ANC and it’s leader Nelson Mandela, the Cubans and the Angolan government claim the South African army was decisively defeated. The veteran ANC military intelligence chief Ronnie Kasrils, <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2013/04/01/cuito-cuanavale-angola/">described</a> it as </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a historic turning point in the struggle for the total liberation of the region from racist rule and aggression.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But many South African who fought in Angola swear that they were never defeated, as South African author and academic Leopold Scholtz noted in his <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/African-Defence-Forces-Border-1966-1989-x/dp/1909982768/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1496043564&sr=8-2&keywords=Leopold+Scholtz">book</a> on the battle. </p>
<p>Objective observers declared the end to have been a tactical military <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/battle-cuito-cuanavale-1988">stalemate</a> between the allied forces on either side. But it was a stalemate that led to major strategic realignments with huge consequences for the whole region, leading to the independence of Namibia, the withdrawal of South African and Cuban forces from Angola and the eventual <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/gary-baines/replaying-cuito-cuanavale">dismantling</a> of apartheid.</p>
<p>Nelson Mandela lauded the result of the battle during a visit to Cuba in 1991 to thank Fidel Castro for supporting liberation struggles in southern Africa. The future president of South Africa said in his <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/11/nelson_mandela_on_how_cuba_destroyed">keynote speech</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The decisive defeat of the racist army in Cuito Cuanavale was a victory for all Africa. This victory in Cuito Cuanavale is what made it possible for Angola to enjoy peace and establish its own sovereignty. The defeat of the racist army made it possible for the people of Namibia to achieve their independence. The decisive defeat of the aggressive apartheid forces destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Stalemate in Cuito Cuanavale</h2>
<p>At the time of the campaign and the key siege of Cuito Cuanavale, Bridgland was a journalist with unrivalled access to the rebels. Through the rebels, he also got access to South African Defence Force (SADF) in southern Angola. He says that the chief of the SADF, General Jannie Geldenhuys, gave him unfettered access to his officers and men on the frontline. </p>
<p>His account of the Cuito Cuanavale campaign is detailed and fascinating, but clearly written from one side. It was impossible for him to report from the Angolan government and Cuban side. The South Africans had been in Angola almost continuously since their unsuccessful bid in 1975 to put UNITA in power. </p>
<p>Their present objective was to weaken the socialist-oriented Angolan government, stop it from supporting the ANC and the Namibian Swapo movement. The aim was then to create a buffer to stop Swapo guerrillas entering South Africa-occupied Namibia.</p>
<p>The fighting lasted from initial skirmishes in March 1987, through the smashing of the Angolan army advance at the Lomba river in September-October 1987. Then followed the siege of Cuito Cuanavale by the South Africans and Unita from January to the end of March 1988. It ended with the Cuban bombing of the Calueque dam on 27 June 1988.</p>
<p>The battle for Cuito Cuanavale ended in stalemate with the SADF and Unita unable to overrun the Angolan positions and the Angolan-Cuban force unable to continue the offensive. The South Africans admitted to losing 79 dead, with two Mirage fighters and one Bosbok spotter plane shot down, plus three Olifant tanks and four Ratel armoured vehicles destroyed, as Bridgland describes in his very detailed book. </p>
<h2>Politics by other means</h2>
<p>The combination of being fought to a stalemate in the battle, and the heavy loss of life and material that couldn’t be replaced, was something South Africa couldn’t ignore. On top of that was the attack on the Calueque dam which demonstrated Angolan and Cuban air superiority. </p>
<p>Taken in the context of the domestic political violence, the growing economic crisis and international pressure, the results of the Cuito Cuanavale campaign were crucial in persuading the leaders of South Africa’s National Party to cut their losses. They did so following talks with the Soviet Union, Angola, Cuba, Britain and the United States. </p>
<p>This led directly to a ceasefire agreement on the total withdrawal of South African and Cuban forces from Angola. Also agreed was a timetable for UN-supervised elections in Namibia, leading to independence in March 1990. By this time, the ANC had been unbanned and Mandela released.</p>
<p>Cuito Cuanavale was not a military victory for any of the combatants. One must view it in the light of the maxim of the 19th century military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz that war is the <a href="https://www.clausewitz.com/readings/OnWar1873/BK1ch01.html">“continuation of politics by other means”</a>. There was never going to be a decisive military victory in southern Angola. </p>
<p>The battle of Cuito Cuanavale was a turning point, but one that needs to be taken in context.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For a military battle whose outcome is still hotly contested 30 years later, the impact was so remarkably clear – independence for Namibia, peace for Angola and the death knell for apartheid.
Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77887
2017-05-25T13:35:51Z
2017-05-25T13:35:51Z
Populism on the rise as South Africa and Namibia gear up to elect new presidents
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169984/original/file-20170518-12254-1siixom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Jacob Zuma, left, gets a courtesy visit from President of Namibia Hage Geingob in 2015 in Cape Town. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Both South Africa and Namibia’s governing parties are set to hold elective congresses before the end of this year. Those who win the leadership contests will each lead their respective parties into a general election in 2019 as their presidential candidate. How this happens will be crucial for both countries’ political futures.</p>
<p>There are interesting similarities and differences between the two cases. As in many other countries, both states have a strong executive Head of State. There are term limits for the president of the country, if not for the president of the party. Both countries have constitutions that provide for a democratic governance structure, guided by the rule of law. </p>
<p>But in both cases the state presidency has so far been decided by the parties in power. Both governing parties came to power after armed <a href="https://theconversation.com/southern-africas-former-liberators-offer-rich-lessons-in-political-populism-70490">liberation struggles</a> in which a culture of secrecy and suspicion was widespread. Both had to negotiate a <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/collapse-apartheid-grade-12">regulated transition</a> from a minority regime to a <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/namibian-struggle-independence-1966-1990-historical-background">legitimately elected government</a>. </p>
<p>In both, returned exiles played key roles once their parties were voted into government. The African National Congress <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/">(ANC)</a> and the South West Africa People’s Organisation <a href="http://www.swapoparty.org/">(SWAPO)</a> had to adapt to a <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/liberal_democracy">liberal democratic order</a> that included transparency and accountability as part of civic demands and expectations. In both cases the constitutions provided for strong executive presidents with far-reaching <a href="http://www.gov.za/DOCUMENTS/CONSTITUTION/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996-1">influence and power</a>, along with the <a href="http://www.icla.up.ac.za/images/constitutions/namibia_constitution.pdf">rule of law and multi-partyism</a>.</p>
<p>But the two countries have adjusted in different ways. SWAPO has entrenched its political dominance in all spheres of society since independence. The ANC is in decline and faces massive public protest and political opposition. In both cases the state presidents have resorted to populism to pursue their agendas. </p>
<h2>How South Africa and Namibia compare</h2>
<p>South Africa is a complex multi-layered class society with a long history of political and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/liberation-struggle-south-africa">ideological contestation</a>. It has a strong and multi-faceted <a href="http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/mckinleyconf50.pdf">civil society</a>. </p>
<p>The ANC’s political dominance has weakened. It got only 54% of the vote in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sharp-tongued-south-african-voters-give-ruling-anc-a-stiff-rebuke-63606">2016 local government election</a>. There is speculation that it may not even get 50% in the <a href="http://www.702.co.za/articles/251032/anc-stands-to-lose-majority-in-2019-research">2019 general election</a>. </p>
<p>Under President Jacob Zuma, the ANC has been plunged into a crisis of legitimacy. The party so far has not showed loyalty towards the principles of the <a href="http://scnc.ukzn.ac.za/doc/HIST/freedomchart/freedomch.html">Freedom Charter</a>, its pre-liberation blueprint for a free and democratic South Africa. Instead it has been seen to support state capture by a <a href="http://blog.transparency.org/2017/02/14/state-capture-in-south-africa/">governing clique</a>. While the ANC fails, a still vibrant civil society is doing what it can to <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/04/05/civil-society-organisations-join-forces-in-call-for-zuma-to-resign">keep Zuma in check</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169988/original/file-20170518-12260-ti1us7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169988/original/file-20170518-12260-ti1us7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169988/original/file-20170518-12260-ti1us7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169988/original/file-20170518-12260-ti1us7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169988/original/file-20170518-12260-ti1us7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169988/original/file-20170518-12260-ti1us7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169988/original/file-20170518-12260-ti1us7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Namibia, on the other hand, with a <a href="http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/namibia-population/">total population</a> of less than a twentieth of South Africa’s, has very different social, political and class structures and a much weaker <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201601291383.html">civil society</a>. The old slogan from the struggle days, that <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/swapo-heads-for-victory-in-namibian-elections/a-18091417">SWAPO is the nation and the nation is SWAPO </a> still has resonance. </p>
<p>SWAPO has been in government since March 1990. It has steadily consolidated its political power, securing <a href="https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-namibia-votes/">80%</a> of votes in the national parliamentary elections of 2014. Its directly elected president, Hage Geingob received an <a href="http://links.org.au/node/4190">astonishing 87%</a>. Given the party’s overwhelming dominance its presidential candidate will, as a matter of formality, become Head of State for the next five years, with no meaningful opposition in Parliament. </p>
<p>In South Africa, though the Head of State is <a href="https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Govern_Political/SouthAf_Const_6.html">elected by Parliament</a>, he or she is nominated by the largest party. </p>
<p>In both cases the former liberation movements select the country’s next president. There is also a two-term limit for the president of the country, if not for the president of the party.</p>
<h2>Succession politics</h2>
<p>Towards the end of the year, some 400 SWAPO delegates will attend the party’s conference to decide leadership positions and so elect the presidential candidate. Until then a lot of campaigning and even more speculation about party-internal rivalling factions can be expected.</p>
<p>Geingob is in his first term in office. He is, in contrast to Zuma, eligible to be re-elected as Head of State provided he is confirmed as party president. His predecessor as Head of State and party president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, in a hitherto unprecedented move <a href="http://www.lelamobile.com/content/50386/Pohamba-resigns-as-Swapo-Party-president/">resigned as party president</a> when Geingob assumed office as Head of State. Party vice president Geingob then also became party president.</p>
<p>The SWAPO constitution makes no provision for such a transfer, so it’s a matter of controversy whether Geingob is – as his team claims – the official party president or the <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/54660/read/Geingob-Mbumba-and-Swapo-Constitution">acting president</a>. Though no other candidates have yet publicly declared their intention to compete for the party presidency this year (and by implication nomination as presidential candidate for the country in 2019), there is no doubt th
at <a href="http://www.observer.com.na/index.php/national/item/8083-2017-swapo-congress">internal power struggles exist</a>. </p>
<p>As Geingob qualifies for a second term as Head of State, he may be elected unopposed and unanimously as party leader, unless internal factions put up another candidate. He has recently shown increased eagerness to ensure that his relative comparative advantage as office holder is consolidated. To further anchor a loyal network he has enlarged Parliament and his cabinet and <a href="http://africanarguments.org/2016/03/18/namibias-president-geingob-one-year-on-a-for-effort-d-for-performance/">appointed special advisers</a>. </p>
<p>The upper echelons of SWAPO are still largely dominated by first and second generation struggle stalwarts who returned from exile just prior to independence. There is growing resentment about this among a much <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/116/463/284/2760214/Changing-of-the-guard-An-anatomy-of-power-within?redirectedFrom=PDF">younger generation of activists</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169990/original/file-20170518-12217-qfvf0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169990/original/file-20170518-12217-qfvf0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169990/original/file-20170518-12217-qfvf0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169990/original/file-20170518-12217-qfvf0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169990/original/file-20170518-12217-qfvf0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169990/original/file-20170518-12217-qfvf0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169990/original/file-20170518-12217-qfvf0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>In South Africa, the ANC will elect new leaders at its national conference in December. The official ANC line is that campaigning for the party presidency has not begun. But Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Cyril Ramaphosa and others have already <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-04-26-who-wants-to-be-a-president-a-dummys-guide-to-the-2017-anc-leadership-race/#.WR1sFeuGM9c">started their campaigns</a> to succeed the scandal-ridden and now widely discredited Zuma.</p>
<p>Zuma has a strong personal interest in ensuring that his successor is loyal to him and will keep him out of jail if the charges against him – including fraud, racketeering and corruption – are <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017/04/20/Zuma-and-NPA-appeal-hearings-against-reinstatement-of-783-criminal-charges-to-be-consolidated">reinstated</a>. He has now come out in support of his former wife, Dlamini-Zuma.</p>
<h2>Slide into populism</h2>
<p>Both Zuma and Geingob have recently adopted a more <a href="https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/populism-common-southern-africa-where-former-liberation-movements-have-become-dominant">populist rhetoric</a> in response to pressures within their parties and in the face of declining economies. Growth has come to a virtual standstill in both <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21710824-business-and-government-are-pulling-opposite-directions-growth-how">South Africa</a> and <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/162219/archive-read/Economic-growth-slows-in-2016">Namibia</a>. </p>
<p>In the wake of this, Zuma has called for <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/radical-economic-transformation-not-in-good-hands-9118623">radical economic transformation</a>. Along with others loyal to him, he has said that the constitution should be changed to allow for land to be taken without compensation, in the interests of <a href="http://city-press.news24.com/News/land-reform-zuma-moves-for-expropriation-with-no-compensation-20170331">land reform</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, under pressure within SWAPO, Geingob has paid tribute to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and said that Namibia should learn from how Zimbabwe <a href="http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/namibian-leader-praises-mugabe-applauds-controversial-land-reform-20170429">dealt with the land issue</a>. A land conference will be held in September, the second since independence. </p>
<p>By year’s end, the decisions taken at both parties’ congresses will indicate which policies associated with the election of the future presidents, both at party and state level, will shape the next few years. In both cases, the challenges are big and the stakes are high.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of SWAPO since 1974. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Saunders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
South Africa’s ANC and Namibia’s SWAPO, governing parties, enter crucial leadership elections this year, with presidents Zuma and Geingob both facing challenges.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Chris Saunders, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/74571
2017-03-16T17:47:47Z
2017-03-16T17:47:47Z
Namibia: grown up after a generation into independence, but not yet mature
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161143/original/image-20170316-10918-5kmawv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swapo supporters celebrated victory in the UN supervised November 1989 election.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Henning Melber</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Visitors to “the land of wide open spaces”, as Namibia is successfully promoted to tourists, will be <a href="https://vimeo.com/2388758">impressed by what they see</a>. Besides the beauty of the nature and abundant wildlife, the urban face of inner cities appeals to foreigners who treasure security and comfort amid the wilderness. </p>
<p>Namibia contributes a positive image to Africa. It ranks among the continent’s <a href="http://s.mo.ibrahim.foundation/u/2017/03/08200254/Namibia-Insights-2016-IIAG.pdf?_ga=1.268531313.1851805696.1489660081">top five in governance</a> and other performance related surveys. But beyond the surface of the success story looms a different reality for most of the country’s 2.3 million people, as it marks 27 years of independence. </p>
<p>Independence was finally achieved on March 21, 1990 after a long and violent <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/namibia-gains-independence">anti-colonial struggle</a>. Since then, Namibia has shown remarkable signs of political stability. The former liberation movement <a href="http://www.swapoparty.org/">Swapo</a> governs with an ever-increasing majority.</p>
<p>It secured 80% of votes in the last <a href="http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2225_89.htm">parliamentary elections</a>. The directly elected party candidate for head of state, Hage Geingob, scored <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30285987">almost 87%</a>. Still representing the first generation of the liberation struggle, he personifies the smooth succession of three post-independence state presidents with far reaching executive powers. </p>
<p>Catchwords attributed to them by party propaganda include reconciliation (Sam Nujoma, 1990-2005), consolidation (Hifikepunye Pohamba, 2005-2015) and prosperity (Hage Geingob, <a href="http://namibian-studies.com/index.php/JNS/article/view/423">since 2015</a>. Geingob is the party’s vice-president and became acting president in April 2015.</p>
<p>But under his presidency the promised prosperity has remained the privilege of few. Namibia is a <a href="http://vivaworkers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Inequality-in-Namibia-2009.pdf">rich country with poor people</a>. Redistribution of wealth is mainly limited to beneficiaries within a new black elite. These are office bearers, party stalwarts and those with close ties to the new inner circles of governance. They thrive through a policy of so-called affirmative action and <a href="http://www.opm.gov.na/neeef">black economic empowerment</a>. </p>
<p>A new terminology refers to <a href="https://www.diis.dk/en/research/breeding-fat-cats">“fat cats”</a>, <a href="http://www.observer.com.na/index.php/business/7662-don-t-be-tenderpreneurs-gawaxab">“tenderpreneurs”</a> and <a href="http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2014-09-18-diamonds-are-swapos-best-friends">“sight holders”</a>. These labels reflect the continued exploitative nature of the economic realities.</p>
<h2>Namibia’s state-driven economy</h2>
<p>Namibia’s state-driven economy is a paradise for parasitic and rent-seeking self-enrichment schemes. The creation of state-owned enterprises as troughs for embezzlement has flourished. State tenders have dished out large sums for projects bordering on <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201601060035.html">megalomaniac elite symbolism</a>, often without creating any meaningful productive assets. Nepotism is a striking feature of a society with one of the <a href="https://borgenproject.org/inequality-and-poverty-in-namibia/">highest income discrepancies</a> in the world.</p>
<p>The UNDP’s <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/NAM">Human Development Report</a> documents the gross inequalities. A commonly referred to statistical figure is the country’s Gross National Income distribution per capita. This categorises Namibia as a <a href="https://www.newera.com.na/2016/02/16/namibia-copes-upper-middle-income-classification/">higher middle-income country</a>. But this number is misleading.</p>
<p>The inequality adjusted Human Development Index shows that Namibia has one of the highest inequalities in the world as measured by a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31847943">Gini coefficient 0.613</a>.<br>
Also, 23.5% of the population was classified as living below the income poverty line <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/NAM.pdf">using 2013 data</a>.</p>
<p>Namibia’s government claims to have achieved considerable poverty alleviation. This contrasts sharply with the data. If tourists would end up in some of the overpopulated <a href="https://www.google.co.za/search?q=Namibia%27s+slums&rlz=1C1NHXL_enZA711ZA711&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH89HbvtrSAhXEA8AKHfC7BrsQsAQIHg&biw=1093&bih=530&dpr=1.25">shack settlements</a> at the outskirts of Namibian towns, they would see a different world from the lodges and Windhoek’s inner city.</p>
<h2>Economic mismanagement</h2>
<p>Namibia’s government is not shy of self-appraisals. It’s fond of blueprints, strategies and programmes, all claiming to solve the country’s problems. Under President Geingob, a new Ministry of Poverty Eradication and <a href="https://www.newera.com.na/2016/08/23/ministry-poverty-eradication-social-welfare/">Social Welfare</a> had been established. But so far little has been achieved.</p>
<p>The country’s fourth National Development <a href="http://www.npc.gov.na/?page_id=202">Plan</a> has been complemented by a Harambee Prosperity <a href="http://www.op.gov.na/4/-/document_library_display/PgQ38IFobsgf/view/263874">Plan</a>. It’s based on an annual economic growth rate of at least 7%. Given the (un)predictable insecurities such as global economic shocks, the effects of climate change, and the devastating consequences of the recent drought, this borders on wishful thinking similarly set out in <a href="https://www.google.co.za/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1NHXL_enZA711ZA711&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Namibia,+Vision+2030&*">Vision 2030</a>. This claims that by then “Namibia will be a prosperous and industrialised nation”. </p>
<p>In reality, Namibia’s economy has been in <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/159400/archive-read/Namibia-goes-into-technical-recession">recession since mid-2016</a>.</p>
<p>The discrepancy between promises and realities suggests that President Geingob’s rhetoric borders on <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/160313/archive-read/Namibian-Populism-on-Display">populism</a>. The ritual of declaring the annual state budget as “pro-poor” has long lost any <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/print.php?id=24729&type=2">convincing effect</a>. </p>
<p>Expenditure for army, police and security related portfolios have over the years proportionally increased more than other expenditure. So have debt services for local and foreign loans.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161128/original/image-20170316-10895-xfw6x1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161128/original/image-20170316-10895-xfw6x1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161128/original/image-20170316-10895-xfw6x1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161128/original/image-20170316-10895-xfw6x1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161128/original/image-20170316-10895-xfw6x1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161128/original/image-20170316-10895-xfw6x1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161128/original/image-20170316-10895-xfw6x1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">President Hage Geingob of Namibia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuter/Carlo Allegri</span></span>
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<p>The hope for an economic recovery in the near future is pinned on a <a href="https://www.newera.com.na/2017/01/10/mining-and-tourism-sectors-to-drive-growth-in-2017-sss/">booming tourism sector</a> and the full production of one of the biggest uranium mines in the world <a href="http://www.mining.com/namibias-new-uranium-mine-triple-countrys-output-2017/">owned by a Chinese company</a>. Such silver linings look rather bleak and faint. Sustainability would require other ingredients, not least a meaningful increase of employment.</p>
<p>But as of mid-2016, the state’s finances have faced a precarious shortage. The annual budget for <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/na/en/pages/tax/articles/namibia-budget-2017-2018.html">2017/2018</a> reflects the need to restore fiscal prudence and austerity to regain liquidity and some degree of credibility. Local trust and confidence in the state’s ability to deliver is at an all-time low.</p>
<p>A contentious issue is the bloated civil service. More than 20 years ago a wage and salary commission urged then Prime Minister Hage Geingob to stop recruitment in the public sector. But the expansion continued unabated. </p>
<p>The political elite continues to preach water and drink wine: a year ago President Geingob signed a <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/52270/read/Politicians-salaries-hiked-in-2016">6% salary increase</a> with immediate effect for all political office holders. His cabinet is by far the biggest since independence.</p>
<h2>Grown up, but not mature</h2>
<p>Despite shifting grounds, the party still mobilises along the heroic narrative of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28649886_%27Namibia_land_of_the_brave%27_selective_memories_on_war_and_violence_within_nation_building">liberation struggle</a>, much to the frustration of a younger generation. But the number of born frees with voting rights will soon exceed the older generations. Inner-party rivalries and tensions, as well as ethnicity as a potential source of conflict are on the rise. An unresolved land issue, also manifested in urban and ancestral land claims, is adding <a href="https://weekend.newera.com.na/2017/02/27/land-reform-redistribution-and-ancestral-land-a-case-of-namibia/">fuel to the flames</a>.</p>
<p>Dissenting voices, mainly articulated by vocal younger activists provoke government to consider plans to <a href="https://www.namibiansun.com/news/vice-president-wants-to-censor-social-media/?">censor the social media</a>. A whistleblower bill before parliament includes provisions to heavily <a href="http://ippr.org.na/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/IPPR_Comment_Whistleblower_Protection_Bill.pdf">punish “lies”</a> and to prohibit any criticism of state institutions. It restricts public opinion, including intimidation of the remarkably free and critical independent print media.</p>
<p>The authoritarian if not totalitarian tendency is also documented in Swapo’s current initiatives to take disciplinary action against members who dare to <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/52263/read/Politburo-former-youth-leaders-meet">criticise party politics</a>. But this will not silence the growing frustration over the <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-data/view/858">limits to liberation</a>. </p>
<p>Nor does the close collaboration with North Korea add any <a href="http://www.namibian.com.na/160087/archive-read/North-Koreans-still-operating-in-Namibia">positive image</a>. A planned visit by the pariah state’s foreign minister was cancelled at the last minute after news about it <a href="https://www.republikein.com.na/nuus/ho-noord-koreaan-se-besoek-afgelas/">leaked in the media</a>. </p>
<p>A generation into independence, the country and its governance might be considered as grown up, but certainly not (yet) mature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is a member of SWAPO since 1974. He is the author of Understanding Namibia. The Trials of Independence and A Decade of Namibia – Politics, Economy and Society.
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Namibia contributes a positive image to Africa in governance and other indicators. But the reality for most of the country’s 2.3 million people isn’t quite as rosy.
Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.