6| INFORMANTÉ
14 November - 20 November 2013
LETTERS/EDITORIAL
Retrospective
letters
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Kaunda’s house in Windhoek
By Nghidipo Nangolo
Preparing 2014 elections
in time is the key
NEXT year, the national elections will be in full
swing, and the fever can already be felt rising from
all sides of the political spectrum.
It is an opportunity for the Electoral Commission
(ECN) to put all mechanisms in place to ensure that no
one will conceive an idea unnecessarily to claim that the
election has been rigged, or that it was unfair.
There’s no time to grandstand on how great a nation
Namibia is by voting every fifth year. The veracity is in
the mistakes of the previous elections made by omission, deliberately, or sheer cunning by the powers that
be. The 2014 elections are expected to be flawless in
nature and character, to avoid monotonous and back and
forth allegations, and sometimes proven facts of election rigging or unfairness. To achieve that milestone, the
ECN needs to up its game now, and ensure voter education does not only take place from January to March
next year, but that it becomes an integral part of our
democratic culture.
Despite assurances of good planning and flawless
electoral legislation in the past, there’s no doubt that the
electoral law needs to be brought up to speed with the
reality of the meaning of a free and fair ballot, in order
to refute any ambiguities that have been dogging the
ECN as legitimised by an ineffective legislation in the
last 23 years.
The anticipated amendments to the electoral law
should leave no unanswered questions about the validity of the forthcoming 2014 elections, or loopholes that
could be exploited for political expediency. However, it
was flabbergasting to hear technocrats and public servants making a case for an antiquated voting mode by
sworn statement, notwithstanding the glitches, such as
foreign or ghost voters in the past election. Voting is a
right of every eligible citizen, but in common law, voting without national documents is also a transgression
of the same constitution. Two wrongs can never make
a right.
What needs to be addressed is the competency of
Home Affairs to provide all citizens with IDs, passports,
birth certificates, and, most importantly, not only issue
death certificates, but update the death register to ensure that dead people don’t end up on the voter register,
as insinuated in the past. Technocrats and civil servants
are not lawmakers or politicians, and therefore have no
agreement with the citizenry to promote or make a case
for voting under sworn statement. The practice should
be abolished without any delay.
Reports this week indicate that some Home Affairs
offices in the country are out of action, notwithstanding
the usual criticism of poor service, lack of basic equipment (cameras), incompetent staff, selling of national
documents to foreigners, and bribery charges. That’s the
kind of stuff that the Home Affairs PS should be looking
at to solve, and subsequently support the smooth running of the 2014 election. They say if you can’t offer
solutions, don’t exacerbate old problems.
Now that the nation will vote electronically for the
first time, it should be a challenge that needs to be conquered to inspire confidence in technology, and not discredit the new voting mode at the end of the elections.
Voter education should be visible in all communication
mediums to ensure that the messages reach every literate or illiterate citizen. As for the political parties, acting
by example will get every eligible voter to return the
favour by acting orderly and with patience, in a free and
fair, democratic election.
It should be acknowledged that the victory of the party that will win the 2014 election will eventually be the
victory of Namibia and all its citizens, despite political
differences. The losers will be those that are hell-bent
on rigging the elections for their political parties, not
knowing that any trickery will eventually catch up with
its initiator.
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AS much as we are all
aware of the drought situation facing our country,
we are also aware that the
government is trying it
best to minimize the effects
of disastrous phenomenon.
However, this is not my
topic nor is what I want to
write about. I feel I have
voice to say as much it is
my dull duty as a citizen of
this country. I want to talk is
about the donated house to
the former Zambian president.
Why should we Namibian
forget so easily? Why are we
Namibians so selfish? Why
should we have to link this
issue to every occurrence in
this country? It’s only taken
23 years to forget all the
suffering our people have
to endure for 100 years! I
once was in exile and have
seen how we as Namibians
made these people (Zambia,
Angolan, and Cubans etc.)
suffer because of our presence there. And I know the
people were not happy at all,
and it is because of this firm,
brave leadership by the likes
of Kaunda, Agustinho Neto
and others we managed to
be accommodated in their
territories. Angola and Zambia suffered emotional and
economically, were made to
be battlefields by the white
minority who terrorised all
the inhabitants of these two
great countries, so that they
cannot support us! Today the
same people are now behind
doors promoting hatred and
distorts information through
the so-called news and SMS
in the public and private
newspapers.
It is shameful to read
every now and then people complain about useless
things. The money donated
has done nothing to alleviate poverty, being donated
or not this money was not
made for that specific project, therefore Namibians
must learn to appreciate
what others have done for us
as a Nation.
Pages on my Mind
BOB KANDETU
Adventure Travel Summit in
Namibia: What an Achievement!
THE world converged on
Namibia with 650 bookings culminating into a
total audience of 700 from
around the globe to witness this adventure, the
first on the African continent.
This is the global hub for
the adventure industry, and
indeed a growing sector of
the tourism global industry.
Little wonder that the secretary-general of the United
Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) was
impelled to exclaim that
“Adventure travel is the future of tourism”.
Evidently, Namibians had
little understanding of what
was destined to hit the country, but given the nation’s
capacity to welcome all but
keep the best, this one was
among the best, to be overrun only by the FIFA World
Cup, still to hit the shores of
the Land of the Brave.
This summit brought to-
gether decision makers in
the adventure travel and
tourism industry, who, after
all formalities, focused on a
single over-arching subject,
interrogating how best to
make adventure tourism an
industry of businesses that
is profitable, planet friendly, and supportive of local
economies. Delegates to
the summit covered a number of sectors: international
tour operators about 55%;
media about 15%. Delegates
included outlets such as
AFAR, Backpackers, BBC,
Comde Nast, National Geographic, and Men’s Journal.
The summit came to Namibia against the backdrop
of the 2010 summit: Visit
to Scotland, believed to
have yielded about USD1,6
million for that country.
The organisers for the Namibian summit intended
to showcase the country as
the world’s preferred tour-
ist destination, and banking on a projected number
of 600 participants, they
anticipated the country to
benefit from hotel bookings,
an estimated 650 to include
those who travelled with
families, meals and bar tabs
all around, local operators
to connect to international
partners, media and buyers,
increasing connectivity and
direct sales.
Just how did this go, what
benefits accrued to Namibia
and, was it worth the trouble? Maggy Mbako of the
Public Relations Unit in
the Namibia Tourism Board
contends that this was a
unique experience and that
the summit went very well.
They had planned this with
the intention that it remains
on the minds of people
globally for the ensuing ten
years, and she is confident
that it will happen. The
Tourism Board recorded
that representatives of about
The house given to an
old man is just a symbol of
the recognition for what the
Zambian people have done
for all of us. It was through
their sacrifices that today
most of you born-free are
enjoying freedom and good
education in this country.
The donated house will
remain a symbol of appreciation and will serve as
symbol of unification for
both nations. Kaunda is old
and soon or later he will go
where all of us will go, but
this property will remain
there for the future and will
serve all Zambians.
- Comrade I. Kanamutenya
50 media houses globally attended the summit, and this
was the bonus for Namibia
to be marketed internationally. Even more encouraging, was that during the pre
and post summit expeditions
about 49 packages were
sold, out of which 27 went
to conservancies around the
country. I heard the Minister
of Environment and Tourism say on radio that the
estimated income from this
four-day summit revolved
around N$30 million. This
was a first for Namibia, a
society often treated to a
litany of deficits accruing to
ministries and state-owned
institutions as a result of erratic management of international conventions.
The Adventure Travel
World Summit reflected
well on the tourism industry
in general, and on Namibia
in particular. The challenge
remains with Minister Uahekua Herunga, the Namibia Tourism Board, and the
broad hospitality movement
in Namibia to pick the mettle
and sustain the momentum
for the advent of adventure
tourism in Namibia. Needless to belabour, this exercise was a stage-setter for
serious endeavours aimed at
national development.