Economically, Namibia has for some years now since independence been going through a rough patch. This has been partly due to the administration’s own actions, and partly due to the unstable global economic situation.
The ongoing economic headwinds have affected all countries in equal measure, irrespective of any mode of production, including the capitalist or free market one. However, the impact on all countries has not been uniform. By virtue of their differing modes of production, the impact has equally been different. Differing from countries with
purely capitalist modes of production, and according to their peculiar characteristics as it may be and whatever this may mean, from one continuum to countries with socialist modes of production and their characteristics. Namibia, with its capitalist production system included, falls into this category. Basically, Namibia during this period has been economically stagnant. Once again, such stagnancy has been wrought about by various dynamics, internal and external. Among Namibia’s internal dynamics has been an immature and fluctuating fiscus, vulnerable as it is and has been, on the one hand, and on the other, imprudence in financial and economic matters. Meaning the way those in charge have been dealing with the country’s public financial affairs in an imprudent way. Bumps in the global financial and economic system have exacerbated an already vulnerable and unstable economy. Hence the persistent abyss in which the country has been finding itself, both economically and financially. The incoming administration has pledged to address these issues, in line with the election promises of the incoming president and the Swapo Party of Namibia’s election manifesto. By the dictum of President-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (NNN), it would be’business unusual.”
But what are the issues of concern, not solely to NNN, Swapo and its incoming administration but to the whole country? The socio-economic issues the country is and has been grappling with are anchored nowhere else than in the capitalist economy. Unemployment; crime; a chronic lack of housing and deficiency and a deficit in the supply of houses in a sector that is rapidly being dominated by tin houses or shacks, as you may have it. With such becoming the norm for many, with decent shelter for them becoming a distant dream. And the normalisation of informal settlements is seemingly the only resort for the government of the day for now, if not forever. There’s no reason whatsoever to hope and believe that things may change, even with the incoming NNN’s administration, notwithstanding her “business unusual” political rhetoric.
The alleviation and amelioration of a few, if not some, of the given socio-economic issues affecting mostly the masses is the least that can be hoped for in the long term, if ever. For all these years, the Swapo government has been proving infeasible and/or unattainable. Yet, promises have been made year after year with no solution in sight. Simply because the situation has been of a weakened, if not rundown, economy, has arisen, well before the reign of Dr. Hage Geingob in 2015, there has been no cure for the seeming endless economic woes.
Nevertheless, the country has been promised by all and sundry, no less Swapo, despite its realistic experience as a ruler, of its unattainability, milk and honey, that the promises have been tantamount to. Swapo and all, including the so-called opposition political parties, have been debilitated by a lack of an ideology to engineer true and meaningful socio-economic transformation.
Poverty reduction; doubling the number of people in informal employment; and increasing the participation of the previously disadvantaged in the mainstream economy are among the achievements Swapo is claiming for its administration. Granted! But the unfortunate thing is that “significant” achievements over the past 34 years have been less obvious than the socio-economic ills that the mass of the citizens of the country have been evidencing and subjugated to.
This means whatever progress the country may have been making since independence has unfortunately been eclipsed and continues to be eclipsed by what it may have done for the people. Thus, needless to say, the incoming Meme NNN administration, true to her own resolve, determination, and willpower, can only be consequent when the polls themselves declare, like her, “business unusual.”
If NNN and her administration’s efforts are to have any tangible meaning in the livelihoods of the hard-pressed citizens of Namibia, the people must not only declare “business unusual” but act consequent to such a declaration. Every step of the way, from day one of NNN, the people who have been continuing to suffer under the yoke of socio-economic marginalisation must hold her accountable to her promises. For them it must be “business unusual.”. That the poverty and economic retrogression and regression that have been becoming a divine reality and norm, if not an everlasting destiny, cannot any longer continue to be usual business.
While the dictum of liberation seems to have been the “seeking of the political kingdom,” which was entered 34 years ago, chasing the “economic kingdom,” whatever it may mean to many different people, to most, especially the previously and still downtrodden, has been seeming like chasing a morass.
Unplugging the marginalised citizens from their socio-economic doldrums, admittedly partly a colonial legacy but also the makings of Swapo and its administration, cannot be business as usual, having all these years of the Swapo administration unfulfilled. Thus if NNN is to be true to her determination of “business unusual,” a better and more appropriate beginning is nowhere than within her own political party, which has been the anchor of the Namibian administration the past 34 years, as it would be for the next five years of her administration. As much as Yours Truly Ideologically may believe in NNN’s resoluteness, and whatever else it may take to realise her resolve of “business unusual,” it would be naïve to expect her to move mountains. If there are those who so believe and hope, as seems to be the case amongst many, still I cannot but adopt a wait-and-see and seeing-is-believing attitude.
For the track record, accepting that NNN may not have been in charge all these years is there. The policies pertaining to this day have been there ever since independence. The sole distinction lies in the captain overseeing their execution. Now there would be a new sheriff in town who apparently shall ensure their implementation. That is if one assumes implementation is and has been the problematic. Therefore, NNN’s inclination to observe civil servants executing the Swapo policies is understandable. However, one cannot help but question the nature of these policies, their intended benefits, and whether they should be changed or not. Before deducing the problem of non-implementation, one must first understand the nature of these policies.
