STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY DR HAGE G. GEINGOB, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ,

TO

THE ASSEMBLY OF HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT

14 JUNE 2015

JOHANNESBURG,

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Your Excellency, Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa;

Your Excellency, Mugabe, President of the Republic of and Chairperson of the African Union;

Your Majesty, King Mswati III, the King of Swaziland;

Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government;

Your Excellency, Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations;

Your Excellency, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission;

Distinguished delegates;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

I would like to begin my statement by thanking our hosts, the Government and the people of the Republic of South Africa for the warm welcome and excellent hospitality accorded to me and my delegation since our arrival in this City of Gold, Johannesburg.

You will all agree with me that the greatest achievement of our organization, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) is the eradication of and apartheid from our continent. When people are oppressed, they either submit or fight. Those who choose to fight and resist are often led by

2 extraordinary personalities whose will, determination and bravery were able to spur the people on towards victory and freedom.

These extraordinary personalities were the likes of of Dr. of , Modibo Keita of Mali, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, Sekou Touré of Guinea, of , Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of , of , of , Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and of South Africa. These are the stalwarts of the battle for the independence of Africa and her people. They are the ones who paved the way for African unity. Inspired by Pan Africanism, they fulfilled the dream of a united Africa, which Kwame Nkrumah talked about when he said, “The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart.” Therefore, the OAU was established to free and unite Africa from Cape to Cairo, from to the Gold Coast.

In this context, I would like to pay tribute to Brigadier Hashim Mbita, Executive Secretary of the OAU Liberation Committee for his commitment and dedication to the liberation of Africa. May his soul rest in peace.

The OAU could be considered as transactional since it focused on freeing Africa and aimed to promote the unity and solidarity of African States. Later on, the OAU would transform into the African Union (AU), which is transformational by nature. Under the AU we have the Pan African Parliament, which represents people and which is the legislative organ of the AU.

Under the AU not only is the focus on the five Regional Economic Communities (RECS) of Africa but also a sixth spatial region has been added that represents the . Because of the transformational nature of the AU it has the mandate to intervene in the internal affairs of African states and deploy troops in areas of conflict. As a result, military coups are not recognized in New Africa.

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In this context let me also pay tribute to three iconic leaders who led revolutionary wars to liberate their people and thereafter introduced reconciliation in order to maintain peace. Southern Africa was a region in Africa having a unique situation of white settler minority rule. And to that we must add Kenya whose iconic leader Jomo Kenyatta and the Mau Mau also fought against white minority rule. Our leaders had to fight wars wherever there was a white minority but later on they reconciled with their erstwhile enemies who had jailed them or killed their compatriots.

Firstly, let me mention President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who upon Zimbabwe’s attainment of independence, decided to pursue reconciliation. He appointed General George as General of the Zimbabwe Army and was able to live and die peacefully at his farm in Zimbabwe. Secondly, in Namibia we have our icon, the Founding Father Sam Nujoma, liberator and unifier who laid a firm foundation by adopting a reconciliatory approach to bring unity and peace to a war torn country. Lastly, the iconic President Nelson Mandela who had a unique and volatile situation to deal with in South Africa, but achieved what some thought could not be possible by creating the Rainbow Nation. This was expertly done by all three of these leaders and these are the icons whose footsteps I want to follow. And it is in this spirit that I am joining you here today, Your Excellencies.

In Namibia, upon achieving our Independence, we elected President Sam Nujoma, who I have just described as the unifier. He was succeeded by President , the stabilizer, who recently passed the baton to Yours Truly in order to continue the legacy. The nation is expectant, for I am the one tasked with bringing prosperity to the Namibian people.

4 All three of us have been elected in peaceful, free and fair elections where the Namibian people have exercised their democratic right to elect their leaders. All over Africa we are now in a democratic milieu.

In Kenya, the people also exercised their democratic right by electing Mr. and Mr. William Ruto as their President and Deputy President respectively. The Kenyan people went to the polls as a sovereign people and sat in judgement of these two gentlemen about whom much was being said. The highest court of Kenya, the people have spoken. Therefore the case is res judicata.

In the words of our icon Julius Nyerere, “No nation has the right to make decisions for another nation; no people for another people.” And I may add, no institution or country can dictate to Africans, who and by whom they should be governed. The International Criminal Court (ICC) must therefore stay out of Kenya’s domestic affairs.

Some people are saying we are the ones who created the ICC. However, when one creates something to be an asset but later on it becomes an abomination, you have right to quit it since it has ceased serving its intended purpose. In the same vein, let me once again confirm Namibia’s unwavering commitment to the total liberation of all Africans. I therefore urge unity and solidarity in support of the realization of the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people and the liberation of our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

In Namibia, we have made significant strides in developing a robust Governance Architecture as well as a robust Macro Economic Architecture. Since Independence, our GDP growth has averaged around 5% while we have managed to keep our deficit below 5%. In fact, for a long time it has been below 3%. Inflation is in single digits, averaging between 4-6%. We aim to keep Our Debt stock below 25% at the moment it is 30%. We have minimal foreign debt and most of our debt is serviced from local institutions.

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Furthermore, we do not incur a deficit on our recurrent budget. We only incur a deficit when we add our development budget and there is nothing wrong with that. Our banking system is ranked 25th in the world by the World Economic Forum and well regulated through a prudent monetary policy. Global rating agencies such as Fitch and Standard & Poors, have consistently accorded Namibia triple BBB plus ratings which is confirmation that the country enjoys prudent economic management and credit worthiness. The Mo Ibrahim Index also ranks us 6th least corrupt country in Africa. I would like to see the day that African institutions are the ones rating our countries as well as observing elections in our countries.

While we have our democratic fundamentals in place, we have an unequal distribution of resources, meaning that not enough of our citizens are economically empowered. Our Socio-Economic Architecture is still not fully in place and this means that many of our citizens struggle to get access to decent houses, employment, schools and other basic necessities that are needed to improve one’s quality of life. These are the basic needs of the people. People do not eat democracy or good governance. They need food, clothing, schools and shelter. This is why, before I had even set foot in office; I declared all-out war on poverty in Namibia.

Our challenge in Africa is equitable wealth distribution and thus the eradication of poverty. We have an important task ahead of us, which is to transform our economies from resource-based economies to knowledge based and technology based economies. We need to remedy the situation of poverty and unemployment through value addition and beneficiation. We cannot continue being resource rich but economically poor nations.

6 In conclusion, Your Excellencies, the time is now for Africa to have its own narrative. Let us take our own decisions, determine the destiny for Africa and her children without any interference. I am here to join you on this crusade to ensure that African people will enjoy the fruits of freedom. I count on my elders for advice. Africa is rising. Now is Africa’s time. Long live the New Africa.

I thank you.

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