Daniel Nghiwilepo takes on NWR and Tobie Aupindi
By Daniel Nghiwilepo

I wish to respond to an orchestrated campaign against Dr. Tobie Aupindi and the Namibia Wildlife Resorts. This response is in my personal capacity as Mr. Daniel David Nghiwilepo. Namibia Wildlife Resorts was established in 1999 through NWR Act No. 3 of 1998. Its principle focus was to conduct “Wildlife Resorts Services” on a commercial basis on behalf of the Government in Etosha National park and other game parks and nature reserves and any other resorts acquired and managed by the Company under this Act including any accommodation establishment defined in section 1 of the Accommodation Establishments and Tourism Ordinance, 1973 (Ordinance 20 of 1973).

When Dr. Aupindi assumed duty as MD, this company was in ICU – the shareholder had just stepped in to save the company from certain bankruptcy by providing a loan guarantee of 120 million. Dr. Aupindi and the new management plus the Board had to implement a Cabinet approved Turn- Around Strategy (TAS) while stabilizing the company at the same time.

The results of the just completed TAS is there for everyone to see: timely production of Annual Financial Statements (AFS), holding of regular AGMs, full compliance with PAYE and VAT payments, stabilized financial status of the company, new and upgraded resorts, a brand proposition that commands respect with tourists internationally, and many more! The company is now focused on a Sustainable Growth Strategy after the successful conclusion of the TAS.

Would you find these successes reported anywhere in the liberal-controlled media? No!! Why not?? I will attempt to answer that question as follows: Racism and the embodiment of the “Devil”.

At a visceral level, white racism is about proving incompetence on the part of blacks and their leadership of government and other institutions such as NWR. That is why you will never see any reporting by the white-controlled media, especially The Namibian daily, about the VERY OBVIOUS successes at NWR. In fact that particular newspaper chooses to use grandeur and spectacular headlines to undermine the good work done by the parastatal in order to both sell papers as well as to aid the agendas and attempts by selected white rich minorities in direct competition with NWR to negate any kind of progress.

At an economic level white racists wish to exclusively retain economic privilege and respond rather aggressively to any meaningful attempt at black economic empowerment.

This applies to, for example, the case of Von Bach, where a group of very rich white citizens through the Water Ski Clubs (We know who they are and their personal interest) had used Von Bach through rental agreements where they paid the Government peanuts and illegally erected infrastructures on State Land and also invested nothing for the benefit of the whole country. These seem to have escaped the investigative journalistic eye of the white-controlled media. However, when a group of Black citizens committed to investing close to half a Billion in making Von Bach a world class resort for the benefit of Namibia and of course for their own benefit as investors then it suddenly attracts the “investigative” journalistic eye and all sorts of underhandedness (corruption) is being suggested. Would that not fit the racist narrative of Black = Corruption?

The fact that NWR has remained a State owned enterprise with a clear strategic location has not gone down well with many and mostly “white” tour operators who had been in the business before independence and who were seeking to have legislation overturned in order for them to also have access to tourism assets inside the Parks.

It has therefore come as no surprise that mass brainwashing techniques have been employed by the “white controlled” media to suggest that the Resorts in Etosha had become unaffordable to the general Namibian. This is a point that had been highlighted in “The Namibian” newspaper and rewarded with a huge front page space. The same newspaper however fails to report on the state of the resorts before Dr. Aupindi’s management came in for the rescue act. I expect a newspaper of The Namibian’s stature to be more educative and informational and in fact “tell it like it is”.

For example, has this paper ever reported on the dilapidated, rotten and run-down facilities prior to the TAS? Or the inherited and outdated booking systems and service techniques of that time? No? Why? The answer lies in the ownership of NWR’s competitors – because operating in the sad state that NWR was in before 2006, suited the white-owned lodges on the periphery of Etosha National Park as well as other places around the parks in Namibia, as tourists would rather sleep at their “luxurious and well maintained lodges” than at the NWR “Rest Camps” in the Parks.

I duly suggest that the notion of responsible journalism should prevail at all times and that The Namibian newspaper stops misinforming our people with myths such as;

· WATER PRICES TO INCREASE because Von Bach Dam is privatized! No, all water resources in Namibia are managed, regulated and controlled by NAMWATER, Von Bach Dam included.

· NWR TECHNICALLY BANKRUPT! Which was a sensational headline by the way, but it lacked any objective investigation into the transfer of tourism assets.

Which brings me to the question - Does this kind of reporting really aim to contribute to the success of a State enterprise like NWR and for the benefit of all Namibians or does it aim to support the agendas of “white owned” lodges?

Namibia in general and SWAPO Party in particular has witnessed seminal political developments since 2004 of peaceful transition from a Founding President to a new President much to the chagrin of white doom-Sayers and their hibernating friends. As I said earlier and I repeat: white racism is about proving incompetence on the part of blacks and their leadership of government and other institutions such as NWR. That is why you will never see any reporting by the white-controlled media, especially The Namibian, about the VERY OBVIOUS successes at NWR.

The hibernators within SWAPO Party also wish to discredit SWAPO Party and its leadership of government and other institutions such as NWR. They will stop at nothing in this shared mission: disinformation campaigns through selective leaking of internal company documents, economic sabotage such as with the ever constant reporting of NWR insolvency without reporting the reasons such as the non-transfer of assets necessary to strengthen NWR’s financial position, the conduct of phony and expensive investigations for which no one takes responsibility, character assassination such as the jealous-driven venomous targeting of Dr. Aupindi and his leadership of NWR, and many such actions are the order of the day!

When our Founding President and Father of the Namibian Nation hinted at a policy of reconciliation after independence on 21 March 1990, the message was aimed at nation building – blacks and whites together. This has however not being the case with our white and wealthy “brothers” still choosing to sabotage and derail progress towards an economically stable State; and using the white controlled media to discredit key Black and strong people leading the change process, such as Dr. Aupindi.

The youth such as myself will never allow history to repeat itself – what happened to Dr. Aupindi’s grandfather will never be repeated in this lifetime – and definitely not in an independent SWAPO Party led Namibia. Today we have a stable and peaceful country, a society where we have embraced all willing contributors towards nation-building and economic emancipation. We have however not forgotten about the ill-treatments and economic marginalization of black people in the past and would like to warn all detractors wishing to take advantage of our peace and stability to remind us of the past, that “We will die fighting” before we allow any repeat of the past! Black Namibians and Black South Africans share the same history. If you don’t respect the policies and legal frameworks put down by our first sovereign Presidents (Dr. Sam Nujoma & Nelson Mandela, respectively), we will be quick to remind you who the true sons and daughters of this soil are; and show you the Atlantic Ocean as an escape route.

In spite of our detractors, we remain focused on making NWR a success and the proof of that is there for every patriotic Namibian to see. Our detractors in the form of those that fail in their jobs such as not being able to execute proper risk management, the white racist in the media, and the economic saboteurs hibernating in our midst are welcome to try BUT they will never succeed in stopping our progress!!