Namibia plans ‘mini state houses’ for President Hifikepunye Pohamba

They say the money could be better spent on buying medicine for hospitals,
textbooks for schools or boosting the meagre pensions of the country’s
elderly, who survive on an average of £38 a month.

Around half of Namibia’s 2.1m population lives below the poverty line, and
half is unemployed.

The idea was first floated in the National Council, the lower house of
parliament where MPs representing the different regions sit.

Cletius Sipapela , a Swapo MP, said it was wrong that the “Founding Father”
should stay in the same hotel rooms that “anybody with money can pay
and sleep”.

The president was, he said, put “at risk because people occupying those
rooms before the top citizen are not all known to the state and what has
been done in those hotel rooms is also not known”.

The plan is now making its way through parliament where Swapo’s two thirds
majority means it is almost guaranteed to be approved.

Critics believe that President Pohamba, who cut the length of his police
motorcade when he came to power seven years ago and has declared a “zero
tolerance” approach to corruption, is unlikely to be keen on it himself.

He has previously complained that the new, bunker-like state house is too “cold
and huge”, and is known to enjoy staying in his rural home when he
visits the north.

But in his second term, his resolve against corruption has weakened. He is
surrounded by politicians on whom he depends for his own survival, and who,
commentators say, are keen to get a cut of what are likely to be lucrative
construction contracts in partnership with the Chinese firms that dominate
the industry.

Steven Mvula, a human rights activist, said cabinet ministers were most likely
also relishing the prospect of somewhere to stay “where they can do
their deals in private”.

“It’s a serious abuse of state resources. Namibia has around 400,000
citizens who go to bed with an empty stomach each night,” he said.

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