The Shame Of Incompetent Governance

THE rubbish dump feeding frenzy, which this nation witnessed recently through extensive media coverage, has thrown into sharp relief the Namibian Government’s failure to care for the interest and livelihood of the people of this nation.

The high rate of unemployment, officially at 51.2 %, is widely used to illustrate the scandalously poor performance of our country’s economy and bad governance.This high rate of unemployment is the underlying reason of widespread poverty, which is now finding its blatant and tragic expression in mass hunger. Although some people in this country are surprised and shocked to see mass stampedes to scavenge for discarded and rotten food, we have known for at least the last two years, that 400 000 Namibians are on the verge of starvation, according to a report of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of November 8 2009.Just as the multitude of unemployed people who are daily seen sitting on the street corners has revealed how alarming and shameful the unemployment crisis has become, the hungry fellow Namibians now daily seen scavenging and often fighting over discarded, expired or rotten food, have drawn the attention of the nation to the extent of the hunger that prevails.When I raised this issue in the media in 2009, my good friend, John Mutorwa, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, went public to disagree with me. He took issue, essentially saying that I was lying. But he did not need to take me to task on this. He could have just checked the facts of the issue with FAO before jumping in to attack me. But being arrogant and dismissive is typical of the incompetence of the Swapo Government.However, since I know that FAO is a reputable and credible agency of the United Nations, I was, as I am now, convinced that this information is correct.The FAO report, entitled ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2009’ states, among other things, that 400 000 Namibians were hungry and that this figure translates into 19% of the population. Furthermore, the report points out that ”the affected people do not get the quality of food they need in order to be in a healthy state of mind”.The Director General of FAO concludes in that report that countries of southern Africa have the economic and technical means to defeat hunger. But what is missing is a strong political will to eradicate hunger forever. Mutorwa is, I believe, an honest man, and won’t disagree with this conclusion. And I ask him to concede this point, now that he can see with his own eyes the mass scavenging at rubbish dumping sites.The budget that our Parliament adopted barely six months ago envisages expansion of resources to the tune of N$22.8 billion to be spent mainly for job creation. I whole-heartedly support this objective. But the challenge is for the Government to be able to mobilise human and technical resources, and, to most importantly, summon the political will to make things happen.Without such single-minded political will, the funds will not help to eradicate poverty, unemployment and hunger in this country. The Government needs to overcome its inertia or the tendency towards a knee-jerk approach to policy implementation.It has, for instance, adopted way back in the 1990s, a very sound SME policy and development programme which was intended to grow the economy and create new jobs. The SME strategy and programme entails measures, such as credit guarantee scheme and infrastructural support. But the programme stagnated and failed in its intent because it did not receive the political and financial support it needed to succeed.The same has been true with regard to the EPZ initiative, of which Ramatex was an important component. Ramatex concretely delivered thousands of jobs and manufacturing skills to Namibians.But it too, was allowed to collapse and virtually faded away because there was no political will to give the necessary implementation support. Some N$25 million was required to address the problems facing the Ramatex factories. But that support was not forthcoming.Realising how important Ramatex was to Namibia’s economic development, the Danish government expressed willingness to look into environmental issues with a view to offering mitigating assistance regarding them. But there was more vacillation than firm commitment to grab the opportunity for that support. The result was the closure of all three Ramatex factories and the loss of thousands of jobs. Thus an opportunity to make Namibia a garment manufacturing and exporting nation was lost through an indecisive approach to policy implementation.The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act opportunity, too, has been allowed to fade away, through political vacillation and zig-zag behaviour of our Government.The Swapo government failed to aggressively drive the green scheme to its full blossoming. This scheme was announced in 2003. It received the nation’s blessing including private sector endorsement. It showed great promise and good prospects to address the need for food supply domestically. But, alas, it was not until last year that some feeble attempts were made to implement the project.The point that needs reiterating here is that without political will and unity of purpose to overcome poverty and to set our country on a firm and resolute path of economic growth and development, we will continue to live a shameful life of unjustified poverty. We must learn to act to implement our policy decisions without fail. No amount of talks and mere resolutions will enable us to break out of the trap of poverty and underdevelopment in which we are now locked. Namibia must be focused and single-minded in exerting pressure on the Government and its public service to strive to achieve the unfailing duty of job creation and poverty alleviation. This is one area where we dare not fail any longer.