From which every angle one analyses Swapo’s conduct presently, one is struck to see the extent to which Namibia’s ruling party is sunk deep into the morass of a leadership crisis.
Swapo is an organisation which has clearly lost vision.
By vision, we are talking here of a realistic, credible and attractive future for our country.
We are, in other words, talking about the articulation of a destination towards which Namibia should aim, a future that is better, more successful, and more desirable for our nation than is the present.
The right vision for Namibia is an idea so energising that it is, in effect, able to jump-start the future by calling forth the nation’s skills, talents, commitment and resources to make the desired future a reality.
During the struggle for independence, Swapo had a compelling vision around which the movement could motivate, organise, orient and focus the nation’s attention and energy on the fight for liberation.
And even when crosscurrents such as the “spy saga” threatened to sweep the Swapo vision into another channel, the liberation movement was able to weather the storm and to keep the vision heading in the right direction.
But with the achievement of independence, the nation began to see the disturbing process of distortion of what we have known as the Swapo vision.
That process of distortion was being driven by self-centred and self-serving interests.
These are the interests which began to rear their heads as early as the 1989-1999 period, when the “founding father” started to put in place his design or scheme for clinging to power in this country.
First of all, these self-serving interests were unhappy about the concept of a presidential term limit by which the writers of the Namibian Constitution stipulated that the country’s Head of State would only serve a maximum of two terms of office.
The “founding father”, who himself was not a part of the team that wrote the Constitution, could only accept the concept of term limit grudgingly.
Since a vision is fundamentally about a better future, some in Swapo thought that the movement’s coming to power represented the end of the liberation process.
And from such a standpoint, it follows that once it has succeeded in its liberation struggle, Swapo should stay in power forever.
No other party should succeed it because that would imply that the liberation forces, the force of righteousness, had been overthrown.
Thus, even if the liberation movement, now in power, is clearly failing to implement the policy objectives that were originally declared to be fundamental national goals, the Namibian people are now told that no regime change can be entertained here.
Whether such change is being called forth in terms of democratic will of the people or on the basis of crucially needed policy initiatives aimed at poverty reduction and overall socio-economic transformation of our country, there must be no, we are told, regime change in this country and region full-stop.
As such, there should be no scope for a long-term perspective or a better tomorrow.
Having, therefore, lost a vision for a desired bright and prosperous future, Namibia’s ruling party is content to supervise over a visionless society.
Of course, some would argue that Namibia has Vision 2030.
But this is a mere abstract concoction meant to fill an ideational void in the country’s socio-economic management.
Clearly, the Swapo leadership has been averse to having serious debate on the issue of values.
Thus, 18 years down the road, the ruling party has not seriously set the agenda for addressing the normative values of human rights, the rule of law, equality, justice and human welfare with a view to instilling, cultivating and internalising them in that movement as key democratic values and norms.
It is, therefore, no wonder why the ruling party is failing to become democratic in its practices.
Many in Swapo today have little understanding as to what the concepts of good democratic governance entails.
They have accepted them as imperative necessity then required by the international community for the independent process to move forward.
As such, they are not the kind of political values that Namibia’s ruling party, particularly its leadership, is comfortable to forcefully articulate and promote as noble ideas that should be made a part of Namibia’s political and social culture.
As part of the disarray in which Swapo finds itself today, the nation is witnessing a mushrooming of discordant voices, all supposed to speak on behalf of Swapo.
Among them, are the views of the Swapo Youth League, the NUNW and individual ministers like Jerry Ekandjo and Erkki Nghimtina who are habitually firing from the hip.
The aim of their utterances is neither identical nor necessarily congruent.
But they reflect the leadership crisis at whose heart is the loss of vision in Swapo.
With regard to the NUNW one only needs to remember the recent TransNamib debacle which has already cost the nation over N$180 million and which Evilastus Kaaronda wanted to lay at the doorstep of the Rally for Democracy and Progress – the allegations are of course absurd and malicious.
About the Swapo Youth League the nation will remember the utterly irresponsible fabrication of Elijah Ngurare that he “knows the military training centres in the Ohangwena Region”, implying thereby that the Swapo Government cannot flush out groups of armed men that are camping and training militarily in the country.
Of course, this is a figment of Ngurare’s ever-fertile imagination.
A story by Jerry Ekandjo that the Swapo Government should strictly employ and supply water and tenders to those Namibians who are loyal to Swapo is out of tune with Namibia’s Constitution, democratic norms; and history informs us that the last time such utterances were made was in Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
The existence of the Rally for Democracy and Progress in this country has, indeed, destabilised the thinking process of many in this country.
And in this connection it is difficult to fathom some of the actions of some of the Swapo leaders.
The recent intimidation of a family member by Minister Nghimtina because of alleged RDP links is unfathomable.
There is also the issue of Governor of Ohangwena, Usko Nghamwaa, who drove more than 200 km to go and talk about the issue of adorning a tree with Swapo flags.
Just imagine the cost of Government petrol to cover more than 200 km just to talk about a flag on a tree? Where can one find more proof of a leadership that is in crisis than the above?
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By HIDIPO HAMUTENYA