Martin Endjala
Bernadus Swartbooi has called for the dismantling of NamPower, citing its inability to provide adequate electricity to people and its disregard for the fundamental issues facing society. The Landless People’s Movement leader was of the opinion that the debt accumulated by NamPower belongs to society. According to him, local authorities electricity and water debt must thus be written off.
Swartbooi, during a media conference in Windhoek, yesterday said that the national electricity supplier must be dismantled for failing to build adequate power stations over the past 33 years and being a monopolistic retailer buying and selling electricity.
“It is a company that is against the economic development of society because the more you have to pay for electricity the more you lose potential investors that could have been the people to help you generate wealth, by creating employment and it is a company that has lost its fundamental compact to make sure that electricity in this country is both available, affordable, consistent and for developmental,” said Swartbooi.
He lamented that the company has instead decided to hijack society’s direction and has made itself to be a sole enterprise which decides when Namibia will have lights and when it cannot and for how many hours.
Swartbooi stated that it does not demonstrate a proper business strategy having to be a monopoly for so many years.
“Once we have built sufficient hydroelectric power stations and sell enriched uranium for electricity generation, there won’t be a need for a monopolistic neocolonial monster called NamPower,” he said.
Namibia finds itself in a precarious situation when it comes to electricity provision, with an estimated 70 percent of its electricity imported, which Swartbooi described as worrisome and in need of urgent intervention.
“We find ourselves in a perfect storm because we have not yet begun robust and innovative conversations on how we can create a basket of vast energy to sustain ourselves,” Swartbooi said.
He maintains that a reliable source of energy is a necessity for individuals to have a quality of life beyond survival, and for enterprises to function effectively. From the point of households, electricity brings the greatest benefit as an energy source, although other sources of energy-liquid fuel, gas, wood, and coal for instance, remain widely used, particularly in rural areas and informal settlements.
Commercial and industrial enterprises are also highly dependent on electricity, with electricity being a key facilitator of economic growth.
Namibia is a country that is dependent on its energy supply from external suppliers. Its energy bulk is mostly imported, it’s estimated that Namibia needs 4000 to 4500 Gigawatt hours (GWh) annually as it stands, a drop in the ocean compared to the needs of nations but we fail tremendously in being able to stand on our own two feet,” Swartbooi added.
Namibia is highly dependent on Eskom from South Africa, ZESCO from Zambia and SAPP from various African countries. Eskom is often the largest supplier of electricity to Namibia, often succeeding the amount we generate domestically.
However, Eskom unlike Namibia, has several means of generating energy, ranging from the traditional form of using coal but also using Hydro energy, Wind energy and Nuclearenergy. Though Eskom sells energy to several southern African countries Namibia and Zimbabwe remain their biggest clients.
Namibia being dependent on these nations means that it would be at the mercy of their economic systems or strategic plans.
According to Swartbooi, if these institutions charge more or decided to regroup and produce less electricity Namibia will find itself in a crisis, as the country does not have any current plans that are radical enough to lead us to a position of self-reliance.
Given the fact that Namibia is a desert country, with high temperatures, similar to Dubai, the LPM leader believes that it should venture into massive solar energy projects to generate energy. This could be more sustainable than the project of wind energy, which will not be as consistent or frequent and will fluctuate, whilst the sun and the high temperatures would be more consistent and reliable in comparison, therefore it will need to seriously jump into investing into solar energy.
He is recommending that since Namibia is the third largest Uranium producing country in the entire world, yet has no real plans or discussions of using this as a means to venture into nuclear energy.Nuclear Energy in South Africa is said to account for five percent of the energy produced in South Africa, but this five percent equates to 12 355 GWh. This is three times the amount Namibia needs annually.
