A Masterclass in Presidential Abscondment

I must marvel at the Namibian presidency’s performance art posing as a communications strategy. Madam president’s PhD thesis could be ‘The Comprehensive Guide to Evading the Free Press’ because her execution of it is flawless.

How inspiring to watch the Namibian Presidency refine the art of the state-sponsored vanishing act.

Let’s drop the pleasantries: President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s communications strategy is not performance art, it is an eviction of the public from their own democracy.

The local media – burdened with the audacity to ask about nepotism, unemployment and a starving working class – are apparently so terrifying our leaders must flee the continent to find a safe space to speak.

Are Namibian journalists that frightening? Flying all the way to Beijing to hold a press conference says so.

There, in the embrace of foreign state-vetted media, our vanguard of ‘economic diplomacy’ could pontificate about green revolutions and critical minerals without the unrefined, inkstained hands of domestic scrutiny begging for answers.

The president has not faced a real domestic press conference since a half-hearted attempt to explain her relationship with Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa shortly before taking office.