EDITORIAL: The misleading cheerleaders

When Nudo publicly called its lone National Assembly representative Vetaruhe Kandorozu to order yesterday following his racist outburst in parliament, it demonstrated something increasingly rare in today’s political climate – leadership.

In some corners – mostly in the echo chambers of social media – Kandorozu’s racist attack on Dino Ballotti has been celebrated as a hero.

To these misguided admirers, demonising white Namibians is apparently a patriotic act. 

Nudo’s national executive committee deserves credit for distancing the party from Kandorozu’s remarks and instructing him to issue a public apology. That decision sends an important signal – that racism cannot be defeated by reversing its direction. It can only be defeated by rejecting it entirely.

Namibia belongs to all who live in it – black, white or khaki. That principle is not sentimental rhetoric; it is the constitutional foundation of the republic. 

A Namibian who received citizenship last week enjoys the same legal standing as someone whose ancestors have lived here for generations. The republic was deliberately designed that way.

Our lawmakers should therefore be debating ideas, policies and solutions – not pigmentations of others’ skins. Race does not ensure that hospitals are stocked with medicine. It does not guarantee that water flows through the taps of settlements like Mix. It does not create jobs or feed hungry households.

Those are the real issues demanding parliament’s attention.

Martin Luther King Jr urged societies to judge people not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character – their honesty, courage and sense of responsibility. That principle remains as relevant in Namibia today as it was in the struggles for civil rights elsewhere.

Those who cheer on racial discrimination, no matter how loudly, are not defending the nation – they are misleading it.