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Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday congratulated Dr Hage Geingob for successfully winning the Namibian elections, the department of international relations said.Geingob, leader of the Swapo party, was elected as the president of Namibia during the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections that took place on Friday.
He won 4.74 percent more votes than in the last elections in 2009.
Zuma congratulated the people of Namibia for conducting “peaceful, credible and free and fair elections”.
“The successful elections in Namibia attest to the stability and strength of democracy in this Southern African country, he said in a statement.
Zuma said South Africa would continue its mutually beneficial co-operation with Namibia.
“South Africa and Namibia enjoy strong, warm and fraternal relations that are characterised by regular and increasing interaction at all levels.”
Friday’s election was Africa’s first electronic ballot and had been expected to see Swapo extend its 24-year rule with people in the mineral-rich state regarding stability as the priority in the face of a global commodities downturn.
Second placed presidential candidate McHenry Venaani of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance limped in with 4.97 percent. Swapo also consolidated its power in parliament, retaining a two-thirds majority with 80 percent of the national assembly ballot.
The former liberation movement turned governing party has won widespread support at the helm of one of Africa’s healthiest economies through its investment in railways and other infrastructure, and provision of free primary education.
Geingob, from the minority Damara ethnic group and known as “Omake” (Unifier), will have to defuse growing discontent over land and housing in the diverse country of 2.3 million people with at least 11 ethnic groups.
Two weeks ago more than 100 protesters chanted slogans calling for land distribution in the capital Windhoek, although in his election campaign Geingob said government would spend N$45 billion over the next 18 years to build 185,000 new homes. – Reuters
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