Africa-Press – Namibia. NATIONAL Democratic Party leader Martin Lukato says he wants the appointments of governors by the president to be reversed so they can be elected by the people.
Lukato says he will soon table a motion in the National Assembly to discuss and agree that the appointment of regional governor by the president, as provided for under Article 110 (a) of the Namibian Constitution, be reviewed and reversed to ensure accountability.
“This will enhance regional democracy, strengthen transparency and promote equitable representation of citizens at regional level,” he says.
He further proposes that the Electoral Act, 2014, be amended to provide for the electoral process of regional governors in line with Namibia’s constitutional principles of democracy and sovereignty of the people under Article 1 (2).
Katima Mulilo political activist Dobson Kwala says Namibia is a democratic state and everyone has their opinion about progress in governance, adding that down memory lane, opposition parties dominated regional governance through governors.
He says the Zambezi region, formerly known as the Caprivi region, was once under opposition party Democratic Turnhalle Alliance – now known as the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM). He adds that the governor at the time participated in the region’s secession, which led to the gazetting and appointment of governors across the country.
Kwala says Lukato winning against this is minimal and he will not succeed.
“We saw how difficult local authorities are being run by opposition parties such that the government fails to attend to people’s needs due to political conflicts, now if any of the regions will have a different governor from opposition parties, surely a rival mentality against the state will erupt again,” he adds.
He says governors are people who should report to the head of state and be honest with information and instructions from the central government.
He says his only problem is that even the governors appointed by the ruling party are not highly skilled in service delivery. Some appointed governors are contributing to the downfall of good governance in Namibia, Kwala says. He says governors must have a mindset of understanding the dynamics of the society and their needs and wants while maintaining the rule of law.
“For now governor purposes are not important as we failed to see their role in the past 10 years. Constituency councillors and local authorities are the hard workers, and the reason why I say so is that in the Zambezi region green schemes never saw the light and there is high cross-border crimes due to a lack of strong support to national security,” he states.
He says it should have been spearheaded by the then governor to convince the government to prioritise such areas for positive economic growth.
PDM leader McHenry Venaani has also been proposing for governors to be elected.
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