EDITORIAL: Of Speaker Katjavivi’s draconian moderation

Speaker of the National Assembly Professor Peter Katjavivi needs to live up to the billing of being a professor and an impartial moderator of the august house.He is walking in the big shoes of intellectual giants Theo-Ben Gurirab and Mose Penaani Tjitendero, who both led the house firmly but fairly.Two weeks ago, Katjavivi refused to entertain questions related to the so-called Farmgate saga in parliament, amid allegations that the publicly-funded Namibian police was used to do Cyril Ramaphosa’s dirty work.“I am not going to permit that question, we move on,” he told McHenry Venaani, who needed answers from police minister Albert Kawana.As if singing from the same hymn book of draconian moderation, Katjavivi again this week banned questions regarding taxpayer-funded upgrades at the private farm of Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba.In both cases, Katjavivi does not offer the courtesy of explaining why such discussions are banned and which rules he is applying to arrive at such extreme reprisals.In a different matter, it had to take the country’s Supreme Court to rule that Katjavivi’s suspension of Landless People’s Movement leaders Henny Seibeb and Bernadus Swartbooi was unlawful.At the age of 81, Katjavivi seems to have faint memories of the very ideals of a parliamentary democracy – chief of which is to allow the free flow of ideas and accommodating questions, even uncomfortable ones.

EDITORIAL: Of Speaker Katjavivi’s draconian moderation

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-19

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EDITORIAL: Of Speaker Katjavivi’s draconian moderation

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-19

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