Oil only be ours if we nationalise, says Geingob

President Hage Geingob yesterday stuck to his remarks that oil discovered off the coast of Namibia by Shell and Qatar last month is not owned by Namibians, unless the constitution is amended to nationalise the resource. Geingob, in a recent Al Jazeera interview, said the oil is legally not owned by Namibia. He repeated the same position during a meeting with leaders of local political parties, saying: “Legally it is not ours. Legally it is owned by the investors, with 90%, but we are going to get it through taxes and royalties until we nationalise and become socialists, and we do not want that.” During his meeting with the leader of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), Dr Panduleni Itula, yesterday, Geingob reiterated the same position, saying the constitution does not dictate otherwise – unless it is amended to allow for nationalisation of resources. Geingob told Itula that resources found in Namibia belongs to those who discover them and that Namibia can collect revenue through taxes. “Those who discovered the oil own about 90% and government has 10% through the state-owned company (Namcor). I am telling you it is so costly to explore, government cannot do that and taxpayers’ money on exploration,” he said. “Let those with insurance do that, and we will have a free carry. These companies are privately owned and our laws allow for a mixed economy. Mention nationalism in this country, you will have a war. “I say those who discovered the oil have 90%, if you have 90% in something, who owns it? Ownership, land is ours but if a white person or private person owns that land it belongs to them. We can amend the constitution and have a revolution and have a proper socialist state then we can talk about ownership. Yes, let’s nationalise them so we own them,” said Geingob. Itula concerned Itula told Geingob that his biggest concern is the legal framework which should take in consideration his oath office and the Namibian constitution that the use of the resources that shall belong to the state and sovereign shall go towards the development of Namibia. “We looked at some of the legal frameworks around the petroleum and mining industry and we seem to have a reasonable but weak legal framework that lacks prominence in beneficiation on value addition in our country to be able to generate employment for our people,” said Itula. Speaking at the same event, the director-general of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Obeth Kandjoze, told Itula that exploration is a very expensive exercise that cannot be carried by the Namibian taxpayers. “If the state feels it has the money yes, but so far we have not had a case where we felt we could take that risk and spend all that money. It takes US$2 million to get a rig there and sometimes when it does not go well then it goes beyond 120 days,” said Kandjoze. [email protected]