Africa-Press – Namibia. DEPUTY prime minister and minister of international relations and cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah says Namibia has accepted the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) organ on politics, defence and security cooperation.
She says it is true that Namibia first declined the chairmanship at the SADC organ meeting on Tuesday ahead of a regional summit that took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday, considering the country’s current economic circumstances.
“We were considering whether there is any member state that can take over. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to reject the chair, and now we are the chair of the SADC organ,” Nandi-Ndaitwah says.
She says all member states have agreed to work together to make sure the SADC organ performs as expected under Namibia’s leadership.
“It is not a question of decline, but we were asking the members if they understand our economic situation and to pass us so that we can take over another time,” she says.
The minister says Namibians have to make sacrifices for the role.
“As the chairman of the SADC organ, you have to hold a meeting and attend to all the political situations in the region. Now there are elections in Angola, and we are expected to lead. I am expected to go to Angola,” she says.
Nandi-Ndaitwah says she is expected to launch the SADC observer mission whch will monitor Angola.
“Anything that will require SADC intervention, Namibia has to clarify, and after the elections we have to know how SADC observed it,” she says.
The minister says another reason for accepting the chairmanship is because Namibia has always been helped by other member states.
“It is along those lines that when the member states said to us Namibia understands, we said fine, but we may not be able to attend due to one reason or another, particularly in terms of resources,” she says.
Regarding costs, Nandi-Ndaitwah says: “There are costs that have to be covered by member states. For example: All the meetings related to the organ are covered by the chair of the organ. And the chair has to host such meetings.”
Presidential spokesperson Alredo Hengari on Tuesday, however, told the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in an interview that Namibia is expected to assume the position of the chairperson of the SADC’s organ on peace, defence and security.
“Currently president Hage Geingob has been serving as the deputy chairperson to the chair, president Cyril Ramaphosa. During this summit, Namibia is expected to take over as chair,” Hengari said.
He said Namibia has informed the organ that the country is not in a position to assume the position of chair. That position involves frequent travels to a number of SADC countries,” he said.
The spokesperson said as a chair one needs to travel to deal with security and peace issues in the region.
“At this point, president Geingob has informed that in light of the physical position of the Namibian government it is not an assignment in the best interest of Namibia, even though there is demand for Namibia to take the position,” Hengari said.
He told NBC a decision was still to be taken on which country is to take over the chairmanship.
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