Chronicle Editor
Zvamaida Murwira, Harare Bureau
NAMIBIA has a lot to learn from Zimbabwe’s economic trajectory which has transformed political independence into economic emancipation, in the process uplifting the lives of ordinary people, under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, Utoni Nujoma, son of Namibia’s founding President, Dr Sam Nujoma, has said.
Namibia, he said, would draw lessons from Zimbabwe as it prepares to hold general elections to elect its President and members of the National Assembly on November 27, 2024.
Briefing journalists after paying a courtesy call on President Mnangagwa at State House in Harare yesterday, Mr Nujoma said after liberation movements from Southern Africa collaborated to attain political independence, Zimbabwe took the lead in pushing for economic independence through economic models such as the land reform programme.
As Namibians prepare for their seventh general election since gaining independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990, he said, they also had a lot of lessons to draw from Zimbabwe under the astute leadership of President Mnangagwa.
“So we are happy now we have succeeded. Now we look forward to how we can achieve meaningful economic independence. We have learnt great lessons from His Excellency President Mnangagwa.
Basically, this is freedom fighters meeting and sharing experiences. Namibia will soon have elections and we are also learning from Zimbabwe,” said Mr Nujoma.
Namibia’s ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) has nominated Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who will be SWAPO’s first female presidential candidate in the election.
Current President Nangolo Mbumba took over as interim president of Namibia after President Hage Geingob died in February this year.
Commenting on his visit to Zimbabwe, Mr Nujoma described it as mainly private, which was however, meant to share experiences given the long-standing relationship he had with President Mnangagwa.
He said he had benefited a lot from President Mnangagwa from the time they were both Ministers of Justice in their countries.
Mr Nujoma started working with President Mnangagwa when he was Minister of Justice on the Sadc Tribunal which was disbanded to allow a new protocol that would reconstitute another tribunal, whose role would be mainly advisory, rather than adjudicatory.
This was after the Sadc Tribunal had made a ruling whose effect would be to undermine Zimbabwe’s land reform programme that sought to address historical land imbalances where the white minority owned large tracts of land at the expense of the black majority.
“I am here on a private visit and as you know when His Excellency, the President was Minister of Justice, I was the Minister of Justice in the Republic of Namibia. Since then we have been working together trying to resolve the region’s problems. As you know during that time the land issue was very hot. There was an animal created called the Sadc Tribunal, so I and the President had to strategise so that we make sure that the land reform programme in Zimbabwe became successful and I am happy we have done a great job,” said Mr Nujoma.
Accompanying him was Ambassador Moses Kerekou, son to Benin’s former president, Mathieu Kerekou.
“This visit is primarily private and I am here with my colleague from Benin. He is the son of former President of Benin Mr Korekau. Before Namibia’s independence through (former Libyan leader) President Muammar Gaddafi, he used to bring us together as youth activists.
“I was also a former youth activist, representing the liberation movements in Southern Africa and I was based in Algeria. So that’s where ANC, Swapo, Zanu-PF and many other activists from Mozambique and Angola were meeting, strategising how we can liberate Southern Africa and our region,” said Mr Nujoma.
Mr Nujoma is the current Namibian Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation and a member of both the Central Committee and Politburo of the ruling party SWAPO.
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