President says law bars her family from oil interests

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah says neither she nor her family will benefit from Namibia’s oil and gas sector while she is in office.

She said the country’s oil and gas framework prevents any direct or indirect benefit to her family.

The president added that the 2025 Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Amendment Bill explicitly bars decision-makers and their relatives from holding interests in the sector.

"If you go to the Act itself, it even makes it very clear that anyone close to the people who are taking decisions should not be involved," she said during an interview with Network Television’s The Agenda yesterday, which will air on Sunday.

"The Act now gives the power to the commission and clearly says that the spouse of the commissioner should not have anything to do with oil and gas. So the law is there,” she stressed.

“In fact, [oil and gas] being put now in the Office of the President, it is taking the family of the president out of oil and gas because of that article of the Constitution… That’s the reality, that [my family members] are removed [from this sector] until maybe I leave this office because of the law itself," Nandi-Ndaitwah said.

Senior officials set to run Namibia’s upstream oil and gas sector will be legally compelled to declare their assets and financial interests under proposed amendments to the Petroleum Act, as the government moves to ring-fence the emerging industry from corruption and conflicts of interest.

Politics and families don’t mix

The Act will require the director-general and deputy director-general of the proposed Upstream Petroleum Unit in the Presidency to disclose their assets and liabilities as a condition of holding office.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said her children, like all Namibians, are entitled to pursue economic opportunities, but these should not be linked to her political role.

“You cannot say the family of the president should all be [excluded from doing business]... unless the nation is saying ‘we want to pick up the bill of the family of the president’, or what is the nation saying? The nation then picks up their bill so that everything is on their shoulders… [my children’s] houses, their insurances, their children, their pensions."

She added that "no one should be discriminated against. And for me, I cannot fight, and I cannot discriminate against them. If it's a right for them, just like any Namibian. That should really be fully understood. And really, they should be taken away from my political life."

She warned further that some individuals might "just [be] getting into the music of saying the president wants to do this for family. There might be those who want to manipulate them because they are the ones who know exactly what they want to do.

However, the president said she takes her oath of office seriously.

“I just want to assure the Namibian people that with the oath of office that I’ve taken, I take it very seriously. And there is no way I can do anything that is against the oath of office."

Securing Namibian interests for all

Nandi-Ndaitwah also defended the decision to place the upstream oil and gas mandate under the Office of the President, arguing it is both practical and strategic.

“Oil and gas, we know all over the world, is an industry that can destroy nations or build nations. It depends on how you handle it at the beginning. Putting it in the Office of the President is not unique.

“Due to the few members of parliament that [Swapo is] having, I was forced to combine ministries. And one of the big ministries is the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy… and you also have oil and gas.”

At the same time, she said government must refocus on industrialisation and energy security.

“Namibia has set itself to be an industrialised country. We want to build industries. And for me, I just don’t want this word ‘industries’ to be put on this ministry, and I’m not seeing industries coming up.

“Therefore, I decided that this oil and gas, which is completely new to all of us, should come to the Office of the President. And this minister should concentrate on industries to be built in Namibia… as well as on how we are to generate our energy."

Moving towards the future

On accountability, Nandi-Ndaitwah rejected criticism that the Presidency cannot be held to account.

“I’m not in parliament, but I have a budget. It is presented by the prime minister… Why do we think that the prime minister will not be able to be answerable to what is happening in the Office of the President? So that is really just an argument that people want to make,” she said.

Reassuring the nation, Nandi-Ndaitwah said the ultimate goal is to maximise national benefit from oil discoveries.

“We really want to see to it that, moving forward as a nation, we should have maximum benefit from our oil and gas. That’s why we talk about value addition," she said.

“And very soon, I will be able to tell the nation about the sectors we are starting with in our value addition," she added.

**The full interview premieres this Sunday at 19:00 on NTV (DStv channel 285 and GOtv channel 25).

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