Swapo liberation victory falsified – Diescho

JEMIMA BEUKES



Professor Joseph Diescho believes that Swapo has lost its idealism and has been captured by a political elite who are tenderpreneurs and “corrupt warlords in the making”.

According to Diescho this climate makes people lie about who they are and where they are, at the expense of the true history.

Swapo secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa said: “It is fine. That is his opinion and his right.”

Diescho also demanded that President Hage Geingob implement a lifestyle audit and an academic qualifications audit to clean up the public sector.

“Politicians who are abusing the history of Swapo in pursuit of quick wealth need to be jailed to defend the narrative of the liberation struggle that so many people lost their lives for. People appointed to serve must be on merit and not falsified stories. We are free and independent and no longer at war,” he said.

Diescho emphasised that Namibians must understand their identity is not wrapped up in the politics of who fought against whom, but must be based upon the truth.

“The truth is there was no party that won a war. We lie when we say we defeated the white regime. We defeated nobody. It was an international peaceful negotiated settlement, with no winner, no loser. Resolution 435.

“Swapo did not march in here with tanks to throw the white people out. The white people who are in Namibia were part of those negotiations. As a matter of fact, Swapo lost the election in 1989 - that mitigates against the lie that they defeated the enemy,” he said.

He added that credit was due to Swapo for bringing Namibia so far and other political parties who participated and abdicated their right in the constituent assembly to give Swapo the power to rule.

Diescho believes that the rot in Namibian politics began when the purpose of governance was reduced to friendship and comradeship and not competency or merit.

“If you can claim that your father or uncle was in Lubango and was fighting, you are legitimate to lead whether you are competent or not,” he said.

He added that the political opposition needs to help Namibians understand the purpose of governing an independent Namibia and not liberating the country.

“We are not fighting a war any longer. In other words, the opposition needs to recalibrate that citizenship in Namibia is the most and most fundamental principle,” he said.

Accountability

He further urged Namibians to demand that the president take action in order to hold office-bearers accountable.

According to him President Hage Geingob must make the government bureaucracy size commensurate with the size of the Namibian nation.

“[A nation of] 2.3 million people cannot afford to have a president, vice-president, prime minister and all the ministers and deputy ministers. Now we have the special advisors and two governors per region.

“We have a governor and an advisor – two governors and both appointed by the president. So we are admitting that a governor is a titular head and the advisor is the functional head. Can we afford that?” he asked.

He added that there is no need for two education ministers and no need for a gender affairs minister, nor a safety and security minister when there is a home affairs minister.

“When you cut that out, like South African president Cyril Ramaphosa is doing now, you save more money for education, healthcare and infrastructure development,” he said.

Diescho also questioned why Geingob has failed to introduce a lifestyle audit after announcing it.

“If the president says zero tolerance of corruption, how come not one member of parliament has been jailed? In fact you can say Sam Nujoma appointed more than 13 commissions of investigations into corrupt practices and none of them have seen the light of day.

“The only presidential commission of inquiry that was published was health under Richard Kamwi. If the taxpayers are paying for the investigations why are they are not told of the outcomes?” he asked.

Diescho also challenged Geingob to do as Tanzanian President John Magufuli by demanding that all senior public servants provide evidence of the qualifications they claim to have.

According to the BBC, Magufuli in 2017 fired nearly 10 000 civil servants, including the head of the government’s anti-graft body, the tax chief, a senior rail official and the head of the port authority for having fake education certificates.

“That is how you clean the system. That would you help us define honesty and integrity in the Namibian nation,” Diescho said.

Lack of leadership

Diescho emphasised that Namibia needs a new leadership to redefine Namibians beyond party identity.

“Political parties are by nature divisive and in our context as a diverse nation all political parties are tribalistic, they all have an ethnic base. There is no political leader in Namibia right now that stands out and stands up and says ‘forget tribe, we are a nation’. None,” said Diescho.

Questions sent to the office of the presidency are yet to be answered.