The decision about 5G technology in Windhoek in order to allow the city council to create what will be effectively, another an SOE is alarming. A quasi-SOE jointly owned by the City of Windhoek (CoW) and Huawei will supposedly run a fast, state-of-the-art internet ‘system’ conceived, financed, installed and operated by the Chinese. This is supposed to be a good thing for Windhoek. We disagree.
First off, Huawei has been blocked from installing its high-tech internet infrastructure in the United States because there are concerns of Chinese control and access to national concerns. Also, THEY will have the on/off switch for the entire thing. By approving this deal, the City of Windhoek is saying on behalf of the whole country, “That’s ok with us.”
Fine. But, be assured that Huawei, a Chinese SOE can smile in our faces while they easily install spyware or latent malware that suits their national interests. In effect, Huawei will be in the driver’s seat of the capitol city’s ICT capacity and will say, “Jump” and we will ask, “How high?”
We could be wrong, but we speculate that some council members that voted to accept this ‘smart city’ plan did so without reading (or understanding) the huge technical reports. They likely voted for this without independent consultants reviewing the upside/downside of the agreement. Is this system compatible with what we already have? Remember back when Namibia bought new rolling stock from China and it didn’t fit our rail sizes?
In this Fishrot climate, we believe there were Huawei ‘gifts’ in the right pockets. And that means Namibia’s needs weren’t the first consideration.
City officials can’t be so naïve to believe that the Chinese tech giant will finance, design and build the super expensive 5G network and give 51 percent to the CoW while only accepting 49 percent ownership? That is nonsense. “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” There is more to it than what we’ve been told.
We would not be surprised if in fact, a significant portion of the 49 percent owned by ‘other investors’ are all either front companies for some involved in the decision-making process or Chinese entities hiding behind Namibian faces.
China via Huawei could exercise (even more) control over Namibia. Consider this real case: the Australians criticised the Chinese saying there was late and insufficient presentation of correct statistics on COVID-19 at the beginning of the outbreak. The Chinese are bristling over these comments. All of a sudden, China has cancelled huge grain sale deals with Australian farmers. Our Sino-friends inscrutably insist that the two things are not linked. We don’t buy it.
Imagine if Namibia decides to welcome His Holiness, the Dalai Lama to Windhoek for whatever reason. Imagine that the 5G Huawei infrastructure is up and running. The Chinese will demand that Namibia disinvite the peaceful Tibetan Buddhist leader. They did this to South Africa in 2014 when the Dalai Lama was set to visit there.
If we hesitate to comply with their demands, the 5G services will mysteriously ‘crash.’ Spare parts only available in China will be ‘delayed.’ There will be no local expertise to make the repairs anyway. The tech handbooks about the system will be in Mandarin. Huawei will have proprietary rights over all software used to run the system.
Result: Namibia becomes a no-Dalai Lama zone.
This is just a hypothetical. The point is that allowing a foreign country to own Windhoek’s internet infrastructure might threaten national security. That should be mitigated somehow as this country does not have the capacity to do 5G on its own.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room regarding 5G is whether Namibia needs it right now. Who has the expertise and savvy to manage the newco, resist the ‘gifts’ that will be offered, and oversee/challenge (if necessary) Huawei step by step? Short answer: ?
The CoW is busy fighting about Police Chief Kanime; that is what they know best: Squabbling. They have no idea about 5G vs 4G vs Hep E. They likely did not get different tech quotes for the same work from independent companies. They likely jumped on the Huawei marriage proposal like an unattractive man desperate for any kind of wife.
Are our priorities right? The majority of Windhoek citizens are living in shacks with no water and electricity. There are empty promises about serviced plots still pending. Unemployment is set to double in many areas. Substance abuse, domestic violence, violence against LGBTQ citizens, and other evils are out of control. Downtown Windhoek is dying commercially. Trash is everywhere. These things should be the city council’s focus, not ‘nice-to-haves’ like 5G. In a time of crisis, the focus must be on the CORE business.
Major pre-pandemic decisions must be reviewed with post-pandemic eyes. Let us think again before we go skipping down an Independence avenue that soon will be controlled (even the traffic lights!), by Huawei.
