Leaders must apologise
By Victor Angula /
It has been a while, quite a while really, to hear someone in a leadership position admitting his or her mistakes or failures.
This week it was reported in the media that the Commissioner General for Correctional Services Raphael Hamunyela said that he was sorry and he asked for forgiveness for the tragic loss of lives of the correctional officers who perished in a car accident recently.
That is a sign, not of weakness, but of leadership. Leaders must admit their failures and apologise.
So many times people perish in shack fires, but nobody admits error. Nobody apologises. Everybody goes on pretending and acting as if it were the mistake of the victims themselves which led to their deaths.
Leaders must apologise. Nobody wants to die. And nobody deserves to die. Nobody wants to suffer or deserve to suffer in Namibia.
Namibia is a rich country, but the population is small. Therefore Namibia must be run and managed in a manner that corresponds with the wealth of the country. When people die because they are travelling in overloaded vehicles, vehicles which are not even supposed to be used by them, someone must apologise.
And so Commissioner General Hamunyela apologised.
Perhaps his apology will be followed by legal actions against the Correctional Service. But what could he do best, if not to be honest and own up for his failures?
Leaders must take the responsibility for their actions or lack of action. The Commissioner General’s job is to ensure that the Correctional Service is running efficiently, meaning that there must be enough cars to transport correctional officers to work every day.
If he is not given enough money or cars by the government, he must always say so and not just keep quiet. If he keep quiet and people die negligently he will be held accountable.
It is the same with all other state institutions. The leaders of those institutions must take personal responsibility for the failures of their institutions.
The City of Windhoek or of Walvis Bay must apologise everytime someone dies in a shack fire. Hospital leaders must apologise everytime someone dies who could have been saved.
MVA Fund, or whoever, must apologise for every death on the roads caused by lack of knowledge on road safety.
The president must apologise for every death caused by hunger and malnutrition.
Leaders must apologise.
– Victor Angula is the editor of Omutumwa News Online.
