Bold move on fuel cut for bigwigs

The Hage Geingob the calamitous 2019 election birthed is a bolder version of the man who, in his first five years, was scared to offend his parishioners, perhaps for political dividends.

In the new Geingob, we are seeing a president who has learnt his lessons, perhaps the hard way, and is willing to offend his lieutenants for society’s sake.

His directive in May to reign in perks for political office-bearers, including that they would not receive new official vehicles, has started to bear fruits as our front page lead story today suggests.

It was argued at the time that Geingob found convenience in the fact that state coffers were dry anyways, so government already couldn’t have afforded a new luxury fleet.

That may be true, but it still requires a certain level of thoughtfulness and restraint to reject the devil’s temptation of equipping oneself with the finest things in life.

In the re-birthed Geingob, we see a leader who had declared, before Covid-19 struck, that he would not travel outside the country until June. The pandemic eventually brought about restrictions that meant he could not go anywhere anyways.

The point we are driving home is that had this boldness existed in his first term, we would have been a country mile ahead of where we are today.

The new baby that is Geingob deserves a pat on the back – and support from all citizens of goodwill - in his push to arrest wastage.