Lt General Hangula heads NCIO
By Asser Ntinda and Esau Muzeu

President Hifikepunye Pohamba has reappointed Lt General Lucas Hangula as Director General of the Namibia Central Intelligence Organization, NCIO, thus allaying fears and uncertainty over the future of the country’s biggest intelligence gathering organization.

The President has also appointed the Governor of the Bank of Namibia, Tom Alweendo, as Director General of the National Planning Commission, NPC. The NPC’s post became vacant when its Director General, Professor Peter Katjavivi, was appointed as a member of the National Assembly, among the six Presidential nominees.

The appointments came four days after the appointment of the Cabinet, which was inaugurated on Sunday evening at State House. At that event, President Hifikepunye Pohamba said that the two posts would be filled at a later stage.

“I now have the honour to inform the nation that I have appointed Mr Tom Alweendo as Director General of the National Planning Commission and Lt-General, Lucas Hangula, (retired) as Director General of the Namibia Central Intelligence Organization,” said President Pohamba in a one page statement.

To allay fears and skepticism among the financial markets, the President also immediately appointed Mr Ipumbu Shiimi to replace Alweendo. Shiimi has been Alweendo’s right-hand man who has served as Assistant Governor of the Bank of Namibia for several years until his appointment on Thursday.

Both Hangula and Alweendo were immediately sworn in by Chief Justice Peter Shivute at State House. The President commended and congratulated the new appointees, saying that he looked forward to working with them for the benefit of Namibia.

Hangula was first appointed as NCIO’s Director General in 2005, shortly after President Pohamba was sworn in as Namibia’s second President. He was previously Inspector General of the Namibian Police.

He is the second Director General of NCIO. He replaced Peter Tshirumbu, the first Director General of NCIO, who moved from NCIO in 2005 to head the then newly created Ministry of Safety and Security before he retired a few years ago.

Alweendo has been with the Bank of Namibia since 1993 and was appointed as Governor in January 1997. He first served as Deputy Governor of the Bank as an understudy to Jaafer Ahmad, a Malaysian banker who later left the bank to serve as Managing Director of Air Namibia.

The Central Bank of Namibia has the sole statutory right to print and issue Namibian Dollar banknotes and coins. Shiimi takes over the reign at BoN at a time when it steps up measures against counterfeit currency.

Last year, Alweendo warned that currency counterfeiting , if not prevented and dealt with accordingly, could pose a significant risk to the economy and could lead to a loss of public confidence in the dependability of the Namibian Dollar because the confidence placed in a currency was ultimately dependent on its stability and security.

In 2008, the incidence of Namibian counterfeit was recorded at 4.5 parts per million notes in circulation. Compared to other countries, Namibia does not have a serious problem with counterfeit.

“Nonetheless,” warned Alweendo, “a steep increase in the occurrence of false currency in this country is cause for concern.”