Utafiti: Journal of African Perspectives

 

Call for Papers: Utafiti is inviting you to submit your manuscript – any topic in the humanities - for consideration in the next issues.

 

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This was a bumpy year for Namibians. The economic crisis continued with another year in recession, hampering socioeconomic development. The governance of the former liberation movement swapo (South West African People’s Organisation), which has been in power since independence, suffered again from a failure to deliver on promises made. The results of the National Assembly and presidential elections in late November marked a turning point in the country’s political history: for the first time swapo lost its two-thirds majority obtained in 1994. Hage Geingob, who campaigned for a second term in office, was the first party candidate who received fewer votes than the party and had to compete with an unexpected contender from his own party, swapo. The voting behaviour resonated with the general dissatisfaction over lacklustre performance by the party and government and pointed to hitherto unknown (or at least invisible) proportions of party-internal divisions and power struggles. In addition, a corruption scandal in the fisheries sector on an unprecedented scale involved highest-ranking political office-bearers and damaged the reputation of the government even more.