EDITORIAL: Walk the talk, Mr Venaani
President Hage Geingob is being burdened with requests to cancel the medical supplies tenders recently dished out by the Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) - something he barely has any powers to do.
Geingob doesn’t have a blank cheque to do anything and everything he wants, which in itself would be a very dangerous scenario. When he won the legal appeal to have the award of a tender to a Chinese company for upgrades to Hosea Kutako airport declared null and void, he didn’t use his presidential powers.
He, as a person of interest, sought recourse in courts and - in fact - lost the matter in the High Court. He eventually won on appeal in the Supreme Court.
There is nothing stopping McHenry Venaani, as a lawmaker and leader of the second largest party in the country, from following Geingob's lead from 2017 and contesting the legitimacy and fairness of these bids.
That route can be walked by anyone who qualifies in legal terms as a person of interest. Venaani went all the way to the Supreme Court to stop legitimately-elected members of his party from entering parliament, but on a matter of national interest, he would rather convene a press conference and bark out instructions.
It’s time Venaani became a real cock of the walk in our politics, rather than always reducing himself to a feather duster in a muddy situation that requires shovels.
Geingob doesn’t have a blank cheque to do anything and everything he wants, which in itself would be a very dangerous scenario. When he won the legal appeal to have the award of a tender to a Chinese company for upgrades to Hosea Kutako airport declared null and void, he didn’t use his presidential powers.
He, as a person of interest, sought recourse in courts and - in fact - lost the matter in the High Court. He eventually won on appeal in the Supreme Court.
There is nothing stopping McHenry Venaani, as a lawmaker and leader of the second largest party in the country, from following Geingob's lead from 2017 and contesting the legitimacy and fairness of these bids.
That route can be walked by anyone who qualifies in legal terms as a person of interest. Venaani went all the way to the Supreme Court to stop legitimately-elected members of his party from entering parliament, but on a matter of national interest, he would rather convene a press conference and bark out instructions.
It’s time Venaani became a real cock of the walk in our politics, rather than always reducing himself to a feather duster in a muddy situation that requires shovels.
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