By: Dwight Links
A recent panel discussion hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Windhoek brought together leading thinkers and government officials on access to information as a tool for social justice in the digital age.
The foundation noted that the aim is to have discussions on how accessibility to information can leverage strengthened democratic participation in a country.
The panel consisted of social justice activist Herbert Jauch, human rights lawyer John Nakuta, and Shasimana Uugulu, deputy director for production at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.
Uugulu noted that “this is not a subject matter that is a far-off concept, but rather that it is a notion of what we as the government promotes through different platforms so that Namibians have access to the information.”
Nakuta indicated that the rights-based path is the best course to view the access to information for everyday living.
“In my mind it is a human right and what the lack of accessibility does to various people, and seeing this through a human rights lens across the society. This leads to the creation of a social justice issue out of the very lack of access to information,” added Nakuta.
Jauch stated that the question of who accesses information and who uses it is actually a political aspect to consider.
“If it was what I usually speak on workers’ rights and other related subject matters, no problem, but this specific subject carries many political dimensions around it on how to use information and how to get it,” remarked Jauch.
Commenting on whether access to information is a fundamental pillar of democracy and justice, Uugulu noted that this boils down to bread-and-butter issues from the society at large.
“We also talk about life-and-death issues when it comes to the same accessibility to information. One good example is the government’s Covid response strategy during the pandemic back in 2020-2021,” shared Uugulu.
He outlined the related updates on deaths, daily rate of infections, notifications on vaccine efficacy, and the related updates part of the strategy back then. The Covid-19 information centre also formed part of this strategy.
Uugulu claims that the Namibian society was able to make informed decisions on which vaccines to access or where the closest vaccine point was.
Another governmental strategy, which Uugulu cites as important, is the strategy by all government agencies and ministries to operate updated social media platforms.
According to Uugulu, the government strategy now includes the involvement of the public relations officers in ministerial management meetings for proximity to where decisions are made to better inform the public.
On a rights-based aspect, Nakuta referenced a case study from 2018. “In that year we had the second land conference, to discuss a very emotional subject matter,” he said.
He noted that many people at the conference tied the political endeavours of independence with the possible outcomes of the unresolved national land discussion.
“A group of civil society organisations back then said they cannot participate fully in the conference without access to information. They asked the former Lands minister Uutoni Nujoma how many people were resettled, how many people benefitted, and [to] provide a desegregated list of these beneficiaries,” Nakuta added.
Nakuta cited that at the time of the land conference, there was no other legal recourse to assist in having the ministry produce the needed information on beneficiaries of the resettlement program, even though Africa has a legal instrument that Namibia had not adopted at the time.
“The land activists could not make a claim for ancestral land without the access to information. Even currently, students are protesting as they want specific information along with their demands to be met,” Nakuta mentioned.
One of the organisers of the public discussion, Ndemufayo Kaxuxuena, queried “if information is so readily available, why does social injustice continue to persist?”
“We should realise that access to information is not simply about technology or reading the newspaper, or having a smartphone that is connected to most applications contained on it,” Kaxuxuena noted.
He added that the reality is about who gets to know, speak, participate, and influence decisions impacting the masses.
Even though Namibia is trying to make strides in upgrading its connectivity and internet access, Kaxuxuena made a claim that more than half of communities in the country are inadequately connected or not at all.
