Statement on the Hyphen Hydrogen Energy project

Statement by the Shadow Minister of International Relations and Trade

The issued office PDF has not yet been attached. The passages below are the statement as quoted by Namibia Business Review on 6 October 2026.

1. In 2023 Namibians were promised 15,000 jobs. In 2026 we are told the investment decision is at the end of 2027. Parliament should see the clock, and who is paying to keep it running.

2. This matters because Namibia is no longer a spectator. In December 2023 Government took up its 24 per cent stake in the project through the SDG Namibia One fund. Every delay is now partly ours, and so is every cost of keeping the project alive while it waits.

3. When Cabinet approved the feasibility and implementation agreement in May 2023, the public was promised up to 15,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent ones, with 90 per cent going to Namibians. The agreement set out its own phases: up to six months of preliminary work, two years of feasibility, and 120 days for the Government to validate the results. On those published phases, the feasibility work should have been on the Government’s desk by about the first quarter of 2026. Instead, the investment decision sits almost two years further out.

4. Without a signed buyer, no lender will fund a US$10 billion plant.

5. The Green Hydrogen Programme and the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy should table a report to the House on where the agreement stands against its own phases, what the 24 per cent stake has cost and will cost, and whether any offtake agreement has been signed.

Namibia is all we have
Namibia is not for sale
We must and can save it!

Back to rodneycloete.com.na · Earlier on this site: Statement on the sale of De Beers (2 October 2026)