By Chinoyi Chipulu
Citizens First (CF) leader Harry Kalaba says President Hakainde Hichilema’s decision to skip the state funeral of Namibia’s founding President Sam Nujoma is not just insensitive but undiplomatic.
Kalaba said Nujoma had deep roots in Namibia’s freedom struggle, with strong historical ties to Zambia, where the fight for independence was forged with the help of first president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda.
Kalaba stated that the habit of skipping crucial diplomatic engagements would cost President Hichilema and Zambia dearly once he left office “next year” and would take a great deal of effort to repair the damage.
In a statement yesterday, Kalaba stated that Hichilema chose to ignore the significant diplomatic occasion just to bestow a village headwomanship title and a national honour to his his friend, Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland.
He stated that this was nothing more than a personal favor.
“As CF president and a long-serving Foreign Affairs Minister, I still cannot fathom how our President could snub the Namibian people and indeed, the entire SADC region in this manner,” he stated.
Kalaba stated that the favor President Hichilema was repaying stemmed from Scotland’s role in negotiating his release from Mukobeko Prison after he was arrested for obstructing the state motorcade of former president Edgar Lungu just before the 2021 elections.
“While we understand Mr. Hichilema’s personal gratitude to Ms. Scotland, international diplomacy should never be sacrificed for personal transactions. Namibians will remember this snub forever, even though he attempted to cover it up by sending Sylvia Masebo and a retired civil servant in his place—not even affording the courtesy of delegating Vice-President Ms. Mutale Nalumango, his symbolic “show pony” in office,” he stated.
He urged the Head of State to take lessons in diplomacy because he was not doing a very poor job whether it was in Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Israel, the African Union or SADC.
Sam Nujoma, died at the age of 95 in February, 2025.
Nujoma led the long fight for independence from South Africa in 1990 after helping to find Namibia’s liberation movement known as the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) in the 1960s.
