Andrew Kathindi
President Hage Geingob’s State of the Nation address (Sona) was brought to an unceremonious end when chaos broke out in Parliament on Thursday.
Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader, Bernardus Swatbooi, and the party’s second in charge, Henny Seibeb, where thrown out of Parliament during a question-and-answer session after the President had delivered his Sona. Seibeb appeared to have been removed by the President’s guards from the chambers after flinging documents in the direction of Geingob.
According to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Peter Katjavivi, he foresaw this coming. “This has been coming for a while. I really thought we would be able to go through without these kinds of hassles. I have no choice but to have them removed because what is happening is no longer permissible.”
“According to rule number 1.1, you can either remove yourself by walking away, but if you are imposing yourself, we have no choice but to have you removed.”Katjavivi brought the session to a close, stating in light of what had transpired, the Sonacould no longer continue.
Seibeb has, however, threatened legal action against both the Speaker and the officer who removed him from the Parliament. “Those were state intelligence officers, not allowed to enter Parliament. Their plan was to beat us up. Outside the man who had grabbed me wanted to fight me and missed the punch. He also tore my suit. I will definitely institute charges against him and Speaker,” Seibeb told Windhoek Observer.
Political analyst, Henning Melber, said there seemed to be no moment where the President’s physical integrity was at risk. “If the Honourable MP is ordered by the Speaker to leave the NA (National Assembly) due to misbehaviour ,but refuses, it might be within the House rules that he is guided away to restore order. But a personal body guard of the President is certainly not authorised to do so. It must be Chamber personnel.”
This constitutes the second time that chaos has broken out while Geingob was delivering his Sona.
Last year, the President was interrupted on multiple occasions, forcing him to take a seat while the Speaker brought the House to order.
This comes as Geingob revealed that he has ordered the Auditor General, Junias Kandjeke, to look into the books of the commercial arm of the Defence Ministry, August 26. “I wrote a letter to the Auditor General this week, instructing him to do a forensic on August 26,” Geingob said.
In his Sona, Geingob stated that Namibia was strategically positioned to competitively produce clean energy fuels required by global investors. “To date Namibia has received six written offers from prospective developers to locally manufacture these clean fuels. The interest originates from as far afield as Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, but also from local companies.”
“I am pleased to share that the possible capital expected to be deployed into these projects ranges from N$32 billion to N$150 billion, with the possible number of jobs to be created through the development and operational cycles exceeding 20,000.”
