EDITORIAL: Oil dreams, leadership drift at Namcor

Namibia’s march toward oil production should be a moment of disciplined preparation and strategic certainty. Instead, it is unfolding alongside a troubling leadership vacuum at Namcor – the very institution tasked with steering the country into what many hope will be an era of unprecedented prosperity.

Since the exit of former managing director Imms Mulunga in April 2023, the company has drifted through a carousel of acting executives. Five individuals have occupied the acting managing director’s chair in less than three years – two of them parachuted in from outside the organisation.

For three full years, the board has failed to secure a substantive, steady hand at the helm. Employees have been forced to adjust repeatedly to shifting leadership styles, priorities and internal power dynamics. Strategy cannot mature in an environment alien to permanence.

Oil governance is not a rehearsal stage. It is a high-stakes arena where billions of dollars, investor confidence and national credibility intersect.

It does not inspire confidence that an entity struggling to finalise a recruitment process could seamlessly manage petroleum revenues, negotiate complex contracts and insulate the industry from greed and corruption.

When Maureen Hinda was controversially appointed as interim managing director, many believed it was a tactical pause – a six-month window for the board to conduct a thorough and credible search for a substantive leader. Instead, that window closed with no permanent solution in sight. Her term expired, and over the weekend yet another acting managing director was announced.

This is not strategic patience. It is paralysis. A company that cannot settle its own leadership cannot convincingly promise to safeguard a nation’s resource future.

If there is a test for measuring board performance, the current Namcor board will not pass it.