Africa-Press – Namibia. POLITICAL analysts and politicans have criticised president Hage Geingob’s habit of theming different years, saying the practice does nothing to achieve the expectations of Namibians, nor does it ensure them of a better standard of living.
Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader McHenry Venaani says rhetoric is not going to improve the country’s socio-economic situation.
This comes after the president dubbed 2023 the year of revival in his annual new year’s speech, replacing last year’s theme, which was the year of reimaging.
“All this naming of years is just academic rhetoric. You can only ‘reimage’ and ‘revive’ a country if you touch on the fundamentals of the economy,” Venaani says.
He criticised Geingob for failing to address the education crisis during his new year’s address.
“The investment and return on investment we put in education is a joke,” Venaani says.
He says for as long as Namibia is a net exporter of raw materials without value addition and the government turns a blind eye to problems on the ground, the economy cannot be revived or reimaged.
Political analyst Henning Melber describes Geingob’s habit of theming years as “bizarre”.
He says the president has never done enough to explain to ordinary citizens what he means by revival, nor has he done enough to show the country his push for a year of reimaging last year.
“I think president Geingob started a somewhat weird, if not bizarre, habit . . . It has already in the past invited ridiculing. One wonders what had been reimaged – as interpreted imaginatively – in 2022,” Melber says.
He says there is no clear strategy on what Geingob’s plans are for the year.
“Maybe that he will set a new record of presidential travels and S&T allowances? Or that he will deviate from previous habits by not endorsing the successor candidate for the next presidency elected by the party’s congress.
“It may help if he would explain what he had in mind . . . It may also be more instructive if the president could be more specific about what the year of revival means,” he says.
Melber says reviving old habits is not a good idea, nor would the revival of party infighting or a revival of corrupt practices be.
“Some clarification could avoid misunderstanding and further ridiculing,” he says.
Sharing Melber’s sentiment, is political analyst Rui Tyitende, who says Geingob’s slogans mean very little, while 1,6 million people are still living in poverty, and more than one million people are living in shacks or undignified housing.
Tyitende says Geingob has provided no grounds for hope, and that the green hydrogen mantra is a buzz phrase which does not address the population’s material conditions.
“Based on last year’s track record, some modest assurance that good governance remains the ultimate goal would be sufficient and not require any name calling,” he says.
PDM parliamentarian Maximiliant Katjimuene says: “Firstly, the notion of ‘reimaging’ was a vague concept with no clear ideological plan or direction as to what was going to be ‘reimaged’ and how it was going to be ‘reimaged’.
“Hence the whole concept was entirely set up for failure just like the themes that preceded it.”
He said youth unemployment in particular and unemployment in general is still incredibly high.
“Inequality has not been resolved, and the scourge of landlessness and homelessness still prevails. So absolutely nothing was ‘reimaged’ during 2022,” he says.
“The Geingob administration remains a rhetorical administration rather than an administration of implementation.
“I can guarantee to Namibians now nothing is going to happen under this new year of supposed ‘revival’ under the Geingob administration.
“It is just the same old rhetoric we have been hearing since his ascendancy to the Presidency in 2015,” Katjimuene says.
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