Free cabinet from negative energy

THE dismissal of former cabinet minis­ters, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana and Jerry Ekandjo, last week, signalled that Pres­ident Hage Geingob edges closer to a full re­dress of the current policy discordances and attendant administrative logjams. These count­er-productive vices have almost paralysed Gov­ernment business as some ministers have lost focus pursuant of peripheral matters that are divorced from their core duty of serving the nation.
In light of last week’s event, the President remains justified to have pulled the plug on cabinet ministers that late last year, in the run-up to the Swapo elective congress, prioritised personal differences to openly criticize govern­ment policies with which they had been trusted to pursue in their respective ministries.
Whilst this sent highly misleading and dam­aging signals to potential investors and other supporting stakeholders, forcing them to shun the Namibian market or sit on the fence, wait­ing for the dust to settle between peers in Gov­ernment, it should not be allowed to happen again in the future by selecting the right people to lead ministry’s in the widely speculated soon to be announced cabinet reshuffle.
This should also be done with the view that, to the expectant electorate who see a brighter future in the consummation of the Harambee Prosperity Plan, any Cabinet dissonance pres­ents a portentous hurdle that could derail the objectives of the people-centred economic blueprint.
As the country looks to move out of an eco­nomic recession, President Geingob must look to wielding the axe on corrupt ministers who are always being accused of abusing state re­sources, deeds that always cast aspersions on the country’s image and concomitantly push the country towards unchartered waters of shame.
The axe must also not evade lazy Cabinet ministers who bunk question-and-answer ses­sions in Parliament. These truant ministers have disrupted Parliament business and have regressed the progressive reforms of govern­ment.
The reconfiguration would be a dose of med­icine required to cure the rust in the cabinet machinery and allow a rededicated cabinet to redirect its energy towards the fulfilment of the Harambee Prosperity Plan among other national blueprints. It would also be a friendly nudge on those newly drafted into Cabinet and the surviving ministers to pull in the same di­rection for the betterment of the country.
A reshuffle would also be a welcome move that would send a reverberating message that the President is fully in control of all Govern­ment levers. Confidente acknowledges that contrary to claims by naysayers, the President is fully behind the wheel and would do every­thing to keep the country on track. Needless to say that anyone new who is to be drafted into the new Cabinet would be alive to the fact that any lackadaisical approach to work would at­tract a penalty from our ever-vigilant President.
In any case, any new team that now will in­evitably come sooner or later, should work ex­tra hard to send the right signals to would-be investors and all other stakeholders who want to partner Government in rebuilding the econ­omy. Ministers to the new Cabinet should also ensure that their loyalty is solely to their ap­pointing authority for the sake of harmony in the vision shared for Namibia