Africa-Press – Namibia. Erongo governor Natalia /Goagoses is calling for fairer natural resource governance to ensure local communities benefit from mining and fishing activities in the region.
Speaking at the opening of a capacity building workshop with stakeholders for the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources at Swakopmund yesterday, she emphasised that residents deserve a fair share of the economic activity they generate.
“Of course it is a national natural resource, we are mindful thereof, but at least give a certain quarter of the residents of the region meaningful opportunities. We must rethink how governance can support the eradication of unemployment,” she said.
The governor criticised the repeated mention of the same socio-economic challenges in national plans without tangible results.
“Unemployment, low educational outcomes, a lack of coordination – these keep coming up. Let us put ourselves in different gears and work towards real change,” she said.
/Goagoses pointed to poor stakeholder coordination as a major hindrance.
Committee chairperson Tobie Aupindi at the event warned stakeholders from both the public and private sector that parliamentary oversight is not an optional courtesy, but a constitutional mandate.
Aupindi highlighted the committee’s power as granted by the Constitution and called for full participation from all stakeholders.
“Some institutions, including some private or governmental, which are being invited by the parliamentary committees, even think they are doing the committees a voluntary favour. No you are not,” he said.
Aupindi issued a strong warning to public institutions and corporate executives who fail to cooperate with parliamentary committees, saying those who deliberately avoid appearances will be subpoenaed in the future.
He said: “The founders of our Constitution were not out of order when they put these provisions in the Constitution. So any official who will systematically absent themselves upon being invited by the committee, let them be on notice that our powers are provided for by the Constitution.”
Aupindi further called for top-level executives to pay personal attention to meetings with executive committees rather than delegating these duties.
“It is particularly important to us to be on the same page with all stakeholders. You carry out very important national responsibilities.
“Therefore, when we invite accounting officers, executive directors, directors and chief executives, we expect them to show up and not delegate these responsibilities to their distinguished junior officers,” he said.
The workshop, which will run until Saturday, aims to foster collaborative dialogue between the committee and key stakeholders on pressing issues such as electricity security, renewable energy development, green hydrogen, as well as oil and gas, environmental management, land use, tourism, and fisheries.
“The natural resource committee will demand a people-centred, ethical leadership among the industry players in the natural resources sector – a leadership where captains are more people centred and not just profit mongers. We need to care about people over profits,” Aupindi said.
He raised concerns over the many Namibians experiencing poverty and economic devastation, attributing these problems to greed and a lack of action.
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