Phosphate mining: A political liability

JUST like the New Equitable Economic Empower­ment Framework (NEEEF) which is a sad front to continue the politics of the belly, the missing Kora millions of dollars, misguided attempts to muzzle media freedom and the controversial Citizenship Bill – the awarding of the phosphate mining certificate outperforms the rest in terms of political liabilities.
From the onset, the awarding of phosphate mining has short-term individual financial gains and has no long-term interest for our eco-system and future gen­erations. It is also well-known that the proponents of phosphate mining are prominent middle-men who are interested in their financial cut as facilitators or lobbyists who want to drive the latest Bentley than create a sustainable economic workforce.
This is clear from the history of the businessmen of posing as name-dropper with little overhead costs and only bearing the cost of the barrier of their brief­case company.
How they swayed custodians of public policy into the reckless decision making of awarding a certificate of an environmental clearance that would allow Na­mibian Phosphate (NMP) to mine phosphate off the Namibian coast remains to be revealed.
The proposed area where marine phosphate min­ing is envisaged to happen is a designated fishing area where fish lay eggs and new fishes are born and it therefore does not require expert opinion to under­stand the irreparable damage phosphate mining will have on our eco-system. Even before independence the colonial apartheid regime considered this area as fragile and environmentally sensitive making it dif­ficult to understand why our own custodians of our natural resources would want to destroy a preserve for our next generations.
Whether this reckless decision sails through Cabi­net or not – it will have a negative political impact on Namibia’s landscape and our next generations will remember us as reckless forbearers driven by short-term greed.
Founding Father of the Nation, Dr. Sam Nujoma dismissed phosphate mining when he was then President of the country and reiterated his rejec­tion against phosphate mining last week – echoing similar concerns by Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Bernard Esau.
President Hage Geingob ought to most signifi­cantly reprimand his Minister of Environment and Tourism for allowing such reckless behaviour of is­suing a certificate of an environmental clearance to allow phosphate mining which portrays Namibia as a leaderless country.
The political costs for such reckless decision mak­ing are high at global level if not severe for the good leadership demonstrated by President Geingob since taking over the power almost two years ago.
Ironically the same Ministry of Environment and Tourism attracted negative attention after it helped controversial Kora awards founder Ernest Adjovi to disappear with N$23.5 million aimed to promote the country at an awards ceremony that was supposed to be held in Namibia.
Just a few months after the Kora controversy, the Ministry is now enjoying attention for the obvious scandalous reasons by helping to damage our eco-system through the awarding of the certificate to al­low the mining of phosphate off the Namibian coast.
Just like New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF), the missing Kora millions of dollars, misguided attempts to muzzle media free­dom and the controversial Citizenship Bill – the awarding of the phosphate mining license, attempts to entertain phosphate mining is a clear endeavour to undermine the political stewardship of our Presi­dent.