The Namibian dream has not been deferred
MANDELA KAPERE
WINDHOEK
I want to dedicate my maiden contribution, Comrade Speaker, to the memory of the late Christian Hatutale Hawala, a natural born leader from my generation in the Swapo Party Youth league and Nanso, a young man who was a natured, organic intellectual from the dusty streets of Okahandja, who was radical in spirit and thought and was not afraid to stand up as a voice for his generation. I do so in the belief that had he still been alive today, he would undoubtedly have been a member of this distinguished house.
Like all other millennials, we are a generation of paradox, the generation of the middle, a generation at the intersection between the past and new, representing both the heroic struggles of the past and the hopeful lamenting for a better future. A generation born during deep-seated racial division, which now has to contend with the possibility that our struggle for racial inequality may very well one day end up as a new class race for equitable access to our country's resources.
I represent a generation that will die defending the legacy of liberation struggle gained under the leadership and sword of the mighty Swapo Party, but who at the same time live every day in search of answers as to how we should advance the post-independence gains achieved by your generation of visionaries.
Chris Hawala and I represent a generation of Namibians who are old enough to have been born during the time of Namibia's colonial occupation and yet are also young enough to appreciate and share in the unique growing pains of millennials today. It is with this dual consciousness and responsibility in mind that I rise today, to speak on behalf of young Namibians, whom I firmly believe deserve an opportunity to share in the privilege of leadership in these uncertain times.
This budget gives me hope that the dream of the Namibian House continues to be nurtured, in this era of an Africa pregnant with opportunity.
Not deferred
The Namibian dream hasn't been deferred, as Langston Hughes would lament in his famous 1951 poem, Harlem. This government continues to shore up measures to tackle our people’s most fundamental challenges; with this budget we again demonstrate that despite the complexity of post-colonial development in Africa, that it's only through systematic and consistent focusing on the fundamentals of health, education, entrenching human and democratic rights and through expanding economic opportunities for all, as this budget does, that we shall we emerge victorious in our fight for development.
I encourage all political actors to embrace national unity and social harmony and to share in the development planning processes, by reaching across political lines, so as to ensure all ideas and efforts that will move Namibia forward, regardless of political affiliation. A crisis not only requires us to form new ways of doing things, but also to stand together, united as a people.
I have always believed that the purpose of seeking public political office is to ensure positive social transformation and to contribute to building strong institutions, processes and systems, which is the only way we can ensure that Namibia works for every Namibian.
Creative industries
In respect to arts and culture. I believe we must do more in our post-Covid-19 economic recovery to support the growth of Namibia’s creative industries. I appeal to the information minister, as a concrete first step, to ensure that radio and television broadcasters play at least 75% African content of which no less than 60% must be locally produced in Namibia.
Furthermore, I urge public and private organisations to only purchase art produced by local artists. We cannot sell our creativity to the world, if we ourselves do not appreciate it. Supporting Namibian creatives is in my view a fast and effective way to safeguard livelihoods in the arts.
In respect to the bridging of the digital divide, the paradox of development in Namibia today, is not that there is no development. The paradox is that the more we develop and evolve as a society, the more complex the needs and desires of our citizens become.
At independence, our people yearned for greater democratic freedoms, literacy, development institutions in the regions, rural water supply, rural electricity, schools and clinics in rural areas for teachers, for nurses and for doctors in the regions.
Global leader
The HIV/Aids scourge was rife, deadly and plummeted life expectancy. Today many of those challenges have largely been met; in fact, Namibia has become a global leader in the fight against HIV/Aids, eliminated polio in 2008 and has made globally recognised gains in the treatment and prevention of HIV/Aids, TB and malaria. With respect to Covid-19, we were one of the first countries to introduce PCR testing on the African continent. These are not the attributes of a failed state, honourable Nico Smit.
Furthermore, rural water supply and rural electrification programmes have made tremendous strides towards universal access. We have gone from a desire for mere literacy in 1990, to a demand free tertiary education today. In 1990, the bulk of the black educated class, honourable Nico Smit were at best teachers, pastors and nurses. Today our public higher education institutions are producing doctors, engineers, pharmacists, social workers, dentists, architects, lawyers and PhD graduates.
Furthermore, government has moved closer to the people, with regional councillors in 121 constituencies and numerous new local authorities promulgated, all in an effort to expand people-driven development and to expand development to even the remotest expanses of our vast country. Our people went from wanting radio transmission towers in 1990 to now demanding 3G and 4G networks in rural areas today. Yes, there are still shortcomings and many milestones ahead but it is certain that Namibia has evolved.
Comrade Speaker, honourable Shiimi, Covid-19 has also illuminated new forms of inequality, as a case in point, the closing of the digital divide, is no longer merely an academic policy debate but a human development imperative.
Digital access for all our people is becoming fundamental to participation in the economy, for human interaction and in education. Digital access must be universally available, affordable and reliable. Our government has made significant strides in achieving universal access and we are well on our way to achieving this goal in the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) period, as outlined in the Swapo Party Manifesto of 2019.
PSEMAS reform
On the healthcare system, I agree with honourable Shimmy’s suggestion that PSEMAS must be reformed. I wish to push the envelope further by suggesting that along with the reform of PSEMAS is an opportunity to reform our entire public healthcare system. The dual healthcare system is no longer tenable, in fact if our public healthcare system is not good enough for some of us, it should not be good enough for any of us. I believe vehemently that if we pull together public and private goodwill and resources, we could very well be on a path to a quality, accessible and affordable healthcare system.
There are few public servants more gracious, hardworking and dynamic than the honourable minister of health. I truly believe that with his leadership, we can achieve greater parity between private and public healthcare outcomes in Namibia.
‘I respectfully disagree with Swartbooi’
I respectfully wish to also disagree with my brother, honourable Bernardus Swartbooi, who also served as my president in the leadership of Nanso. Honourable Swartbooi suggested that Swapo has degenerated into a rearguard movement. I contend that Swapo remains the vanguard of the interests of the Namibian people. Honourable speaker, allow me to expound. My brother, honourable Swartbooi, quotes Ben Turok in defining the ANC government post-1994. Honourable Swartbooi does so to find fault lines in the ideological relationship between Swapo the party and Swapo in government. To this I can only say that the state will never be a complete reflection of the ideology of a political party in government, as the state in many ways is only a temporary arbiter of the collective interest of society, not only of the voters of the ruling party.
This is the reality of the modern liberal state. This is unlike in 1917 Russia when the Bolsheviks founded a new socialist order in which the revolutionary vanguard party was expected to completely overthrow the previous order and govern solely on the dictates of the revolutionary party.
In a constitutional and democratic order, we cannot rule by decree and ideology, but we rule in accordance with a national constitution. However, and despite this, Swapo has been able to bend the apparatus of the state, within the confines of the constitution of course, to its will in order to serve the broad interests of our people and our developmental agenda. This is so, despite neoliberal and neo-apartheid cleavages that still vestige in our society and economy to this day.
Swapo ideology
That Swapo’s ideology may be more left than that of the state is not an indictment on Swapo at all, but is in fact a reflection of Swapo’s respect for our constitutional order and its commitment to the rule of law.
I gladly concede to honourable Swartbooi that the solutions to the malaise that confront our people lie to the left of the policy spectrum, but in doing so, I also have no doubt that Swapo will continue to establish a new radical social and economic order, which has at its core greater equality and human development.
Honourable members, we can choose to be one of two kinds of Namibians: those who sell dreams and do nothing or those who join hands, minds and shoulders to move Namibia forward.
I urge us all to choose to be the latter. With that said and in the context of today's global despair over inequality, injustice and racism, I wish to again invoke Langston Hughes and his haunting lament in his poem, Harlem. I do so in memory of George Floyd, Chris Hawala and millions of young black and oppressed people around the world, including in Palestinian, Western Sahara, Venezuela and Cuba, who continue to cry for a place under the sun free from imperialist oppression.
What Happens to a dream deferred ?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Let us work together, shoulder to shoulder, day by day to ensure that the dreams of all Namibians are met and not deferred.
*This is an edited version of a speech delivered by Swapo MP Mandela Kapere in the National Assembly as part of the national budget debate on Wednesday.
WINDHOEK
I want to dedicate my maiden contribution, Comrade Speaker, to the memory of the late Christian Hatutale Hawala, a natural born leader from my generation in the Swapo Party Youth league and Nanso, a young man who was a natured, organic intellectual from the dusty streets of Okahandja, who was radical in spirit and thought and was not afraid to stand up as a voice for his generation. I do so in the belief that had he still been alive today, he would undoubtedly have been a member of this distinguished house.
Like all other millennials, we are a generation of paradox, the generation of the middle, a generation at the intersection between the past and new, representing both the heroic struggles of the past and the hopeful lamenting for a better future. A generation born during deep-seated racial division, which now has to contend with the possibility that our struggle for racial inequality may very well one day end up as a new class race for equitable access to our country's resources.
I represent a generation that will die defending the legacy of liberation struggle gained under the leadership and sword of the mighty Swapo Party, but who at the same time live every day in search of answers as to how we should advance the post-independence gains achieved by your generation of visionaries.
Chris Hawala and I represent a generation of Namibians who are old enough to have been born during the time of Namibia's colonial occupation and yet are also young enough to appreciate and share in the unique growing pains of millennials today. It is with this dual consciousness and responsibility in mind that I rise today, to speak on behalf of young Namibians, whom I firmly believe deserve an opportunity to share in the privilege of leadership in these uncertain times.
This budget gives me hope that the dream of the Namibian House continues to be nurtured, in this era of an Africa pregnant with opportunity.
Not deferred
The Namibian dream hasn't been deferred, as Langston Hughes would lament in his famous 1951 poem, Harlem. This government continues to shore up measures to tackle our people’s most fundamental challenges; with this budget we again demonstrate that despite the complexity of post-colonial development in Africa, that it's only through systematic and consistent focusing on the fundamentals of health, education, entrenching human and democratic rights and through expanding economic opportunities for all, as this budget does, that we shall we emerge victorious in our fight for development.
I encourage all political actors to embrace national unity and social harmony and to share in the development planning processes, by reaching across political lines, so as to ensure all ideas and efforts that will move Namibia forward, regardless of political affiliation. A crisis not only requires us to form new ways of doing things, but also to stand together, united as a people.
I have always believed that the purpose of seeking public political office is to ensure positive social transformation and to contribute to building strong institutions, processes and systems, which is the only way we can ensure that Namibia works for every Namibian.
Creative industries
In respect to arts and culture. I believe we must do more in our post-Covid-19 economic recovery to support the growth of Namibia’s creative industries. I appeal to the information minister, as a concrete first step, to ensure that radio and television broadcasters play at least 75% African content of which no less than 60% must be locally produced in Namibia.
Furthermore, I urge public and private organisations to only purchase art produced by local artists. We cannot sell our creativity to the world, if we ourselves do not appreciate it. Supporting Namibian creatives is in my view a fast and effective way to safeguard livelihoods in the arts.
In respect to the bridging of the digital divide, the paradox of development in Namibia today, is not that there is no development. The paradox is that the more we develop and evolve as a society, the more complex the needs and desires of our citizens become.
At independence, our people yearned for greater democratic freedoms, literacy, development institutions in the regions, rural water supply, rural electricity, schools and clinics in rural areas for teachers, for nurses and for doctors in the regions.
Global leader
The HIV/Aids scourge was rife, deadly and plummeted life expectancy. Today many of those challenges have largely been met; in fact, Namibia has become a global leader in the fight against HIV/Aids, eliminated polio in 2008 and has made globally recognised gains in the treatment and prevention of HIV/Aids, TB and malaria. With respect to Covid-19, we were one of the first countries to introduce PCR testing on the African continent. These are not the attributes of a failed state, honourable Nico Smit.
Furthermore, rural water supply and rural electrification programmes have made tremendous strides towards universal access. We have gone from a desire for mere literacy in 1990, to a demand free tertiary education today. In 1990, the bulk of the black educated class, honourable Nico Smit were at best teachers, pastors and nurses. Today our public higher education institutions are producing doctors, engineers, pharmacists, social workers, dentists, architects, lawyers and PhD graduates.
Furthermore, government has moved closer to the people, with regional councillors in 121 constituencies and numerous new local authorities promulgated, all in an effort to expand people-driven development and to expand development to even the remotest expanses of our vast country. Our people went from wanting radio transmission towers in 1990 to now demanding 3G and 4G networks in rural areas today. Yes, there are still shortcomings and many milestones ahead but it is certain that Namibia has evolved.
Comrade Speaker, honourable Shiimi, Covid-19 has also illuminated new forms of inequality, as a case in point, the closing of the digital divide, is no longer merely an academic policy debate but a human development imperative.
Digital access for all our people is becoming fundamental to participation in the economy, for human interaction and in education. Digital access must be universally available, affordable and reliable. Our government has made significant strides in achieving universal access and we are well on our way to achieving this goal in the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) period, as outlined in the Swapo Party Manifesto of 2019.
PSEMAS reform
On the healthcare system, I agree with honourable Shimmy’s suggestion that PSEMAS must be reformed. I wish to push the envelope further by suggesting that along with the reform of PSEMAS is an opportunity to reform our entire public healthcare system. The dual healthcare system is no longer tenable, in fact if our public healthcare system is not good enough for some of us, it should not be good enough for any of us. I believe vehemently that if we pull together public and private goodwill and resources, we could very well be on a path to a quality, accessible and affordable healthcare system.
There are few public servants more gracious, hardworking and dynamic than the honourable minister of health. I truly believe that with his leadership, we can achieve greater parity between private and public healthcare outcomes in Namibia.
‘I respectfully disagree with Swartbooi’
I respectfully wish to also disagree with my brother, honourable Bernardus Swartbooi, who also served as my president in the leadership of Nanso. Honourable Swartbooi suggested that Swapo has degenerated into a rearguard movement. I contend that Swapo remains the vanguard of the interests of the Namibian people. Honourable speaker, allow me to expound. My brother, honourable Swartbooi, quotes Ben Turok in defining the ANC government post-1994. Honourable Swartbooi does so to find fault lines in the ideological relationship between Swapo the party and Swapo in government. To this I can only say that the state will never be a complete reflection of the ideology of a political party in government, as the state in many ways is only a temporary arbiter of the collective interest of society, not only of the voters of the ruling party.
This is the reality of the modern liberal state. This is unlike in 1917 Russia when the Bolsheviks founded a new socialist order in which the revolutionary vanguard party was expected to completely overthrow the previous order and govern solely on the dictates of the revolutionary party.
In a constitutional and democratic order, we cannot rule by decree and ideology, but we rule in accordance with a national constitution. However, and despite this, Swapo has been able to bend the apparatus of the state, within the confines of the constitution of course, to its will in order to serve the broad interests of our people and our developmental agenda. This is so, despite neoliberal and neo-apartheid cleavages that still vestige in our society and economy to this day.
Swapo ideology
That Swapo’s ideology may be more left than that of the state is not an indictment on Swapo at all, but is in fact a reflection of Swapo’s respect for our constitutional order and its commitment to the rule of law.
I gladly concede to honourable Swartbooi that the solutions to the malaise that confront our people lie to the left of the policy spectrum, but in doing so, I also have no doubt that Swapo will continue to establish a new radical social and economic order, which has at its core greater equality and human development.
Honourable members, we can choose to be one of two kinds of Namibians: those who sell dreams and do nothing or those who join hands, minds and shoulders to move Namibia forward.
I urge us all to choose to be the latter. With that said and in the context of today's global despair over inequality, injustice and racism, I wish to again invoke Langston Hughes and his haunting lament in his poem, Harlem. I do so in memory of George Floyd, Chris Hawala and millions of young black and oppressed people around the world, including in Palestinian, Western Sahara, Venezuela and Cuba, who continue to cry for a place under the sun free from imperialist oppression.
What Happens to a dream deferred ?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Let us work together, shoulder to shoulder, day by day to ensure that the dreams of all Namibians are met and not deferred.
*This is an edited version of a speech delivered by Swapo MP Mandela Kapere in the National Assembly as part of the national budget debate on Wednesday.
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