NewAfricanWoman Issue 35 - Flipbook - Page 22
NAW Interview
tion with former oppressors, to nation
building through inclusive policies to
accepting the input of youth activists right
up to giving his children the freedom to
freely articulate their views at home. Our
home is a place where robust debate is
encouraged so the youth must feel rest
assured that they have indirect representation in our home through our children
who have strong views which are reflective of their generation’s aspirations.
To directly answer your daughter’s question of what do I say to him if I don’t
agree, the position I’ve taken is that
Namibia is a democratic country and is
lauded as having the most free press in
Africa. The press makes full utilisation of
this freedom so he is often subjected to
both constructive and destructive criticism and as a leader throughout his life,
this is a reality he accepts as part of his
public life. In his private life, his home is
his sanctuary so I am reluctant to subject
him to unsolicited views in the only space
that he should feel safe.
Can you give us an example of a day,
how to you the first lady or the first
family, how is a day like in your life?
There is so much to do in a day so we
both sleep late and wake up early. The
day is usually a balance of office work and
meetings which is usually punctuated by
official engagements and persistent meetings. My husband is a workaholic who
works very late hours so we both try our
best to balance working late with family
obligations.
You still do your 9-5?
Yes, I have maintained my pre-First Lady
employment as that is a role which will
outlive the temporary designation of
First Lady. I however have many obligations and programs as First Lady which
I am deeply passionate about and which
keep me very busy so I have reduced my
professional working hours. The decision
to remain employed is what motivated
my decision to declare my assets with
my husband, despite there being no legal
obligation for either of us to do so.
You started at the age of 24 working
there, am I correct?
That’s right. I cut my teeth at the Namibian Stock Exchange from the age of 24
and after heading the Listings division,
I left to do Corporate Finance for an
Investment Bank. I left the investment
bank to become the Managing Director
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and one of the founding shareholders of
Namibia’s first and largest private equity
fund, which position I occupied for eleven
years. In addition to the private equity
fund, I served on the former President’s
Economic Advisory Council for eight
years. The former President also appointed me as the Deputy Chairperson of
the Public Office Bearers Remuneration
Commission, which I served for nine
years and resigned from on account of my
relationship with a Public Office Bearer. I
am also the Chairman and a shareholder
of a commercial Bank with a mobile
banking technology focus. I am fortunate
that all of this happened before a relationship started with my husband.
To address potential or real conflicts of
interest, my husband and I contracted the
audit firm, PriceWaterHouseCoopers to
analyse our respective assets and advise us
on whether any would present a conflict
of interest and further requested that they
evaluate all our assets and list them for
public disclosure. I was advised to resign
from the boards of investee companies as
well as to dispose of an investment which
relied on a government license, which I
have done. The three directorships I have
retained and the assets I own are fully
disclosed.
The public knows the full details and
values of bank accounts, properties and all
other assets and the idea is to do another
disclosure in the future to allow the public
to compare asset values and details and