{"id":40156,"date":"2023-02-26T15:20:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T15:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn"},"modified":"2023-02-26T15:38:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T15:38:41","slug":"will-we-ever-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn","title":{"rendered":"Will We Ever Learn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>FINANCE MINISTER IIPUMBU Shiimi tabled a national budget for 2023-24 that may be viewed as a sign of encouragement that Namibia is turning the corner following years of depressive economic conditions for most of the population.<\/p>\n

Shiimi labelling the budget pro-sustainability and pro-poor should, however, be taken with a pinch of salt because our government leaders have perfected the art of promising prosperity while delivering hardship and despair.<\/p>\n

For most of the years since Namibia’s independence in 1990, it would not be far-fetched to say our leaders have been reckless and irresponsible in how they have used taxpayer funds.<\/p>\n

Billions of dollars have been spent on projects to deliver better services. Yet the results in education, health, safety and security have been dismal if not abysmal.<\/p>\n

In short, the more tax money used, the greater the problems Namibia got.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, the government still professed to keep public debt under 35% of GDP. Now that ceiling has been raised to 75% of GDP, with actual debt standing at around N$150 billion (71% of GDP), which future generations will no doubt be saddled with.<\/p>\n

Taking on more debt and spending without an improvement in people’s lives is nothing short of reckless.<\/p>\n

Except for minor signs, Shiimi’s latest budget provides little indication that fundamental changes will be made to ensure quality of life and that the country never again falls into the financial distress that politicians and their cronies have plunged Namibia into over the past three decades.<\/p>\n

There’s no indication of addressing the hugely bloated civil service, which was around 20 000 at independence but has ballooned to 100 000 largely idle bodies. This figure does not even include state-owned enterprises and institutions like universities and local authorities, whose existence depends entirely on the national tax coffers.<\/p>\n

Examples of reckless actions are still glaring in the budget, even within the finance ministry, the custodian for the responsible use of taxpayer funds. The ministry constantly bails out entities that should operate as profitable businesses and in some cases are monopolies.<\/p>\n

Shiimi this year allocated more than N$400m to the Agro-Marketing and Trade Agency (Amta), Epangelo Mining, Lu\u0308deritz Waterfront, Meatco, Namibia Airports Company, Namibia Institute for Pathology (NIP), Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR), the Roads Contractor Company (RCC) and the Zambezi Waterfront.<\/p>\n

In addition, more money is already earmarked for those entities and TransNamib for at least three years.<\/p>\n

The less said the better when it comes to the need for the type of subsidies extended to companies operating in the media industry, i.e. Nampa (N$27m), New Era (N$27,5m) and NBC (N$320m).<\/p>\n

For the sake of peaceful co-existence with fellow professionals at these entities who take offence over genuine questions about the quality use of taxpayer funds, let’s just say queries about the use of taxpayer funds need to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

The RCC is probably the best case study pointing to the reckless and irresponsible use of taxpayer funds by politicians in control of the public’s money.<\/p>\n

How can government leaders justify pumping taxpayer money into the RCC for the past 10 to 15 years when its business operations have ended? Why should taxpayers give N$56m a year (it used to be more than N$100m) simply to pay people who do not have work to do?<\/p>\n

Under normal circumstances, such decisions would land directors and managers in deep legal trouble for reckless trading and misuse of shareholder money.<\/p>\n

Those wasted billions should have been used to practically improve livelihoods rather than empty rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Small wonder Swapo Youth League leader Ephraim Nekongo feels sufficiently liberated to exhibit the buffoonery of claiming Meatco was being sabotaged by white Namibians. Nekongo went as far as threatening Zimbabwe-style land grabs.<\/p>\n

Meatco has operated as a monopoly for decades, yet directors and managers appointed by the Swapo politicians managed to run the entity into the ICU, to quote minister Calle Schlettwein.<\/p>\n

The audacity of ignorance and political silliness never fails to amuse. Sadly, such tragicomedy comes at a huge cost to the population.<\/p>\n

Government leaders need to wake up. They need to learn that productivity, underpinned by ethical good governance, is the only thing that will get Namibia into a position of sustainability and prosperity for the majority.<\/p>\n

Anything short of good managerial acumen will only lead Namibia further into the abyss.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. FINANCE MINISTER IIPUMBU Shiimi tabled a national budget for 2023-24 that may be viewed as a sign of encouragement that Namibia is turning the corner following years of depressive economic conditions for most of the population. Shiimi labelling the budget pro-sustainability and pro-poor should, however, be taken with a pinch of salt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":40155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-40156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nWill We Ever Learn? - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FINANCE MINISTER IIPUMBU Shiimi tabled a national budget for 2023-24 that may be viewed as a sign of encouragement that ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will We Ever Learn?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FINANCE MINISTER IIPUMBU Shiimi tabled a national budget for 2023-24 that may be viewed as a sign of encouragement that ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-26T15:20:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-26T15:38:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1677412211.88.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Will We Ever Learn?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-26T15:20:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-26T15:38:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn\"},\"wordCount\":736,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1677412211.88.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/will-we-ever-learn\",\"name\":\"Will We Ever Learn? 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