Opposition grills Geingob
JEMIMA BEUKES
DTA leader McHenry Venaani has told President Hage Geingob that he is only “talk and no action” when it comes to corruption.
After the State of the Nation Address yesterday, Venaani challenged Geingob - who said his administration would “do something bold” about corruption - to explain why no heads had rolled in the Hosea Kutako International Airport tender saga.
Geingob hit back, saying it was because of his intervention that the tender was stopped and that the opposition simply wanted to disagree, having failed to work together with the government to curb corruption.
“People are about to be charged, there is a due process which is an important thing. You cannot just grab people because they are implicated… the next time it can happen to us. Why can we not be encouraged for addressing corruption? I would have thought you would have joined us,” Geingob said.
Venaani also demanded that Geingob explain why he had spent N$700 000 on a two-day hotel stay recently.
Geingob rejected this claim as a “blatant lie” and urged Venaani to bring him the bill as proof.
“Which hotel is that? I went to New York where I paid US$10 000 a night,” he thundered.
Venaani also asked Geingob to explain why N$9 million was spent annually on new furniture for the Office of the President, to which Geingob failed to respond.
Geingob also failed to respond to Venaani’s question on what his administration was doing to see to it that foreigners were not appointed in jobs at the expense of qualified Namibians.
Genocide
Geingob took a swipe at genocide activists when he responded to questions from Nudo president Asser Mbai regarding the issue, saying, “Many of you think you are going to get cash to buy your cars.”
Geingob also snapped at government critics who had criticised the appointment of Dr Zed Ngavirue as special envoy on the genocide reparation negotiations.
“As president, I have the prerogative of appointing someone, not on tribal basis. We appointed Dr Ngavirue, a respected man. We live in a representative democracy, where selected or elected people have to represent the greater majority. Swapo is elected by 80% of Namibians to represent them. Many of you are who are talking do not even have royal blood,” he mocked.
Swapo parliamentarians were mostly silent during question time.
DTA leader McHenry Venaani has told President Hage Geingob that he is only “talk and no action” when it comes to corruption.
After the State of the Nation Address yesterday, Venaani challenged Geingob - who said his administration would “do something bold” about corruption - to explain why no heads had rolled in the Hosea Kutako International Airport tender saga.
Geingob hit back, saying it was because of his intervention that the tender was stopped and that the opposition simply wanted to disagree, having failed to work together with the government to curb corruption.
“People are about to be charged, there is a due process which is an important thing. You cannot just grab people because they are implicated… the next time it can happen to us. Why can we not be encouraged for addressing corruption? I would have thought you would have joined us,” Geingob said.
Venaani also demanded that Geingob explain why he had spent N$700 000 on a two-day hotel stay recently.
Geingob rejected this claim as a “blatant lie” and urged Venaani to bring him the bill as proof.
“Which hotel is that? I went to New York where I paid US$10 000 a night,” he thundered.
Venaani also asked Geingob to explain why N$9 million was spent annually on new furniture for the Office of the President, to which Geingob failed to respond.
Geingob also failed to respond to Venaani’s question on what his administration was doing to see to it that foreigners were not appointed in jobs at the expense of qualified Namibians.
Genocide
Geingob took a swipe at genocide activists when he responded to questions from Nudo president Asser Mbai regarding the issue, saying, “Many of you think you are going to get cash to buy your cars.”
Geingob also snapped at government critics who had criticised the appointment of Dr Zed Ngavirue as special envoy on the genocide reparation negotiations.
“As president, I have the prerogative of appointing someone, not on tribal basis. We appointed Dr Ngavirue, a respected man. We live in a representative democracy, where selected or elected people have to represent the greater majority. Swapo is elected by 80% of Namibians to represent them. Many of you are who are talking do not even have royal blood,” he mocked.
Swapo parliamentarians were mostly silent during question time.
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