Namibia gets a "weak" rating in the Public Integrity Index, which tracks corruption, openness and accountability in 25 countries. This peer-reviewed country report includes a timeline covering corruption over the past one to two decades, a reporter's notebook on the culture of corruption and an assessment of the six main integrity categories. The integrity scorecard lists the full set of integrity indicators with scores, commentary and references.
The politics of patronage on the part of the ruling party, South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), play a dominant role in setting the scene for the spread of corruption and nepotism in Namibia. In addition, the strong possibility that President Sam Nujoma will seek a fourth term in office, when the Constitution provided for only two, may only serve to further entrench cronyism and a culture of entitlement.
When Namibia gained its independence from apartheid South African rule on March 20, 1990, it ushered in an era of democratization with a progressive Constitution hailed in all parts of the world as one of the first of its kind in Africa. >>
Namibia is commonly viewed as one of the countries in Africa with an environment conducive to media freedom. The worst media restrictions have been isolated incidents, where the government or a large company has canceled advertisements in a few newspapers for the papers supposedly being too critical. Recently, two journalists on assignment in the north of the country for Die Republikein, the Afrikaans daily newspaper, were detained for four hours by armed Special Field Force (SFF) members and their vehicle was confiscated. The SFF members were unable to provide a concrete reason for detaining the journalists and filing charges against them, which ranged from entering a prohibited border area to driving an unlicensed vehicle, which quickly changed to trying to falsely pass themselves off as reporters working for one of the state-owned newspapers. Meanwhile, the confiscated vehicle was safely returned, and the National Society for Human Rights has released a statement asking the inspector general of the police to lay charges against the SFF members. >>