Employment Creation: A Non-Economist View

“I DO not know what must be done but something really needs to be done.”

That’s Namibia’s Prime Minister, Nahas Angula, reflecting on the problem of unemployment recently. A cry in the wilderness it is.One hopes the Labour Ministry is listening.Assuming that people there know what the solutions to unemployment are.The ‘closest’ Government has come to creating employment was to ‘create’ a National Commission/Council on Employment Creation – to create employment.From the look of things, however, no one seems to know what the solutions to unemployment are.All one hears are the usual trite phrases like: ‘private sector is the creator of wealth’, ‘sectoral approach’, ‘social partners’, ‘the youth, women, the disabled, rural dwellers’ are the most affected, and ‘Government cannot create jobs, it is only a catalyst for job creation’ etc.If you read some of the statements by our Ministers, you would end up asking yourself how these people get these portfolios in the first place.Listen to former Labour Minister, Marco Hausiku, commenting on a 2000 labour survey results.”…Namibia has to address attitude problems if the country is to effectively deal with unemployment among its citizenry.”Then he goes on to say: “People’s attitudes towards self-employment is zero as people only want to be employed by Government and companies without having to start up self-employment initiatives.”I’m sure you have heard that line a thousand times in the context of Namibia – people shouldn’t just expect everything from Government.What then is Government for? “The essence of the welfare state”, wrote Harold Wilensky in a classic book, “is government-protected minimum standards of income, nutrition, health, housing and education, assured to every citizen.”Now, Namibia is not a welfare state in the classical sense.But that does not absolve it from the broader responsibilities that a state ought to fulfil.Some of the problems that bedevilled welfare states in other settings have been the incapacity to raise resources and to transform them into services.Namibia does not have such a problem.Yes, the tax base, for example, is low, but Namibians are highly taxed.And resource-wise, Namibian is not a poor country by any standard.But Government has not come close to fulfilling those minimum standards that Wilensky refers to.It all boils down to government policies that have gone helter-skelter.Every country that concentrates on the interests of one group – whether this is class or tribe – is bound to fail – especially if this is tied to corruption.In such an environment the resources that ought to go into public projects and programmes to create employment are squandered by a minority.I have argued elsewhere that the parastatal sector has become a black hole – either through the astronomical salaries and benefits packages that we pay the managers at these entities or the money they keep on stealing.These stratospheric salaries represent a siphoning off of public resources for private advantage and are equivalent to an unfair distribution of excess revenue and resources.Then there is the waste that goes in the name of S&T by all and sundry and the furniture, clothing and entertainment allowance by ministers, their deputies and other lower souls.What is to be done? Lenin, a Russian revolutionary, asked that question and then got into action.We always ask the same question and then go into a deep slumber – only to ask it again five years later.So, what is to be done? Let’s agree that employment is a means, not an end.The end is to eliminate poverty, hunger and suffering so that every citizen can lead a decent, meaningful and happy life.There was once something called the developmental state.And I’m not talking about a state ‘creating an enabling environment for capital’.What I’m talking about is a state taking an active role in the development of the country.This is the model that the ‘Asian Tigers’ followed and just look where they are today.China is also following the same model.These states are involved in all facets of the national economy.Don’t be fooled, many countries in Europe follow the same model too.The private sector is not there to create employment but to make money.So, states have to look after their citizens.That’s their role.I would therefore urge the Namibian Government to branch into manufacturing and into other more productive ventures and not just concentrate on the service sector in which most of our parastatals are currently involved.How we use the country resources is also crucial to employment creation.So, let’s cut the criminal waste and spend resources on essentials things that would move our country ahead.For every dollar we spend on a luxury car is a school library foregone – opportunity lost.The starting point for a radical overhaul should be the parastatals.Also cut on those unnecessary foreign trips by Government officials.How about the education sector? This is not just about statistics as to how many kids fail every year thus ending up on the streets.It’s a major social and economic issue.Ideally you would like to have students stay longer in schools and colleges so that in the meantime new jobs are created.In other words, you delay new entrants into the job market – instead of having a 15-year-old competing for a job with a 30-year-old job seeker.So, if the present educational system is not working, then we should look for workable alternatives.The fact is we have no control over the Cambridge system.So stop lamenting.And in the absence of meaningful employment Government must provide some sort of a safety net to the jobless.The basic income grant has been mooted though Government wants nothing to do with it, and so is the increase for pensioners.Broadly speaking, the issue here is how to control resources democratically and how to establish an equality of power over the way resources are used in Namibia.Presently there is none.A cry in the wilderness it is.One hopes the Labour Ministry is listening.Assuming that people there know what the solutions to unemployment are.The ‘closest’ Government has come to creating employment was to ‘create’ a National Commission/Council on Employment Creation – to create employment.From the look of things, however, no one seems to know what the solutions to unemployment are.All one hears are the usual trite phrases like: ‘private sector is the creator of wealth’, ‘sectoral approach’, ‘social partners’, ‘the youth, women, the disabled, rural dwellers’ are the most affected, and ‘Government cannot create jobs, it is only a catalyst for job creation’ etc.If you read some of the statements by our Ministers, you would end up asking yourself how these people get these portfolios in the first place.Listen to former Labour Minister, Marco Hausiku, commenting on a 2000 labour survey results.”…Namibia has to address attitude problems if the country is to effectively deal with unemployment among its citizenry.”Then he goes on to say: “People’s attitudes towards self-employment is zero as people only want to be employed by Government and companies without having to start up self-employment initiatives.”I’m sure you have heard that line a thousand times in the context of Namibia – people shouldn’t just expect everything from Government.What then is Government for? “The essence of the welfare state”, wrote Harold Wilensky in a classic book, “is government-protected minimum standards of income, nutrition, health, housing and education, assured to every citizen.”Now, Namibia is not a welfare state in the classical sense.But that does not absolve it from the broader responsibilities that a state ought to fulfil.Some of the problems that bedevilled welfare states in other settings have been the incapacity to raise resources and to transform them into services.Namibia does not have such a problem.Yes, the tax base, for example, is low, but Namibians are highly taxed.And resource-wise, Namibian is not a poor country by any standard.But Government has not come close to fulfilling those minimum standards that Wilensky refers to.It all boils down to government policies that h
ave gone helter-skelter.Every country that concentrates on the interests of one group – whether this is class or tribe – is bound to fail – especially if this is tied to corruption.In such an environment the resources that ought to go into public projects and programmes to create employment are squandered by a minority.I have argued elsewhere that the parastatal sector has become a black hole – either through the astronomical salaries and benefits packages that we pay the managers at these entities or the money they keep on stealing.These stratospheric salaries represent a siphoning off of public resources for private advantage and are equivalent to an unfair distribution of excess revenue and resources.Then there is the waste that goes in the name of S&T by all and sundry and the furniture, clothing and entertainment allowance by ministers, their deputies and other lower souls.What is to be done? Lenin, a Russian revolutionary, asked that question and then got into action.We always ask the same question and then go into a deep slumber – only to ask it again five years later.So, what is to be done? Let’s agree that employment is a means, not an end.The end is to eliminate poverty, hunger and suffering so that every citizen can lead a decent, meaningful and happy life.There was once something called the developmental state.And I’m not talking about a state ‘creating an enabling environment for capital’.What I’m talking about is a state taking an active role in the development of the country.This is the model that the ‘Asian Tigers’ followed and just look where they are today.China is also following the same model.These states are involved in all facets of the national economy.Don’t be fooled, many countries in Europe follow the same model too.The private sector is not there to create employment but to make money.So, states have to look after their citizens.That’s their role.I would therefore urge the Namibian Government to branch into manufacturing and into other more productive ventures and not just concentrate on the service sector in which most of our parastatals are currently involved.How we use the country resources is also crucial to employment creation.So, let’s cut the criminal waste and spend resources on essentials things that would move our country ahead.For every dollar we spend on a luxury car is a school library foregone – opportunity lost.The starting point for a radical overhaul should be the parastatals.Also cut on those unnecessary foreign trips by Government officials.How about the education sector? This is not just about statistics as to how many kids fail every year thus ending up on the streets.It’s a major social and economic issue.Ideally you would like to have students stay longer in schools and colleges so that in the meantime new jobs are created.In other words, you delay new entrants into the job market – instead of having a 15-year-old competing for a job with a 30-year-old job seeker.So, if the present educational system is not working, then we should look for workable alternatives.The fact is we have no control over the Cambridge system.So stop lamenting.And in the absence of meaningful employment Government must provide some sort of a safety net to the jobless.The basic income grant has been mooted though Government wants nothing to do with it, and so is the increase for pensioners.Broadly speaking, the issue here is how to control resources democratically and how to establish an equality of power over the way resources are used in Namibia.Presently there is none.