By: Efraim Shimbali
Namibia is a country of opportunities and is full of potential.
However, a huge portion of its population still lives in absolute poverty, hunger and deaths are observed, and many other problems arise daily.
Though there are visible efforts to fight problems arising, there is one visible challenge that sets them back in terms of observed capacity.
Statements, such as “we must learn to do a lot with the little we have,” present a visible financial problem.
This highlights that there is not enough revenue generated to fund the arising problems, various socio-economic.
This stamps a card identifying the root cause to correctly prescribe medication.
This card digs deep into understanding the economy of the country. Namibia’s economy is defined as a mixed economy, in which both the private and public sectors play a role.
However, in this mixed economy, the public sector is set to play a role in addressing challenges experienced by the nation and service delivery.
Though it serves as the governing sector as well, there is evidence of financial instability.
On many occasions, it has called out on the private sector to assist and collaborate towards solving the problems.
While this is not wrong, there is really no defined formula for this callout. Hence, it has not, and it will not really materialise.
The uniqueness and the difference between these two sectors lie in who runs the economy.
In basic terms, the generation of domestic products measures an economy, and the driving force becomes those who own those means of production.
While the public sector manages the economy, it is undeniable that the private sector owns the means of production.
Revenue generation of the public sector, which is mostly taxation, depends on the private sector’s success.
When the private sector collapses, the public sector absorbs a deep fall, which funds the failure to respond to the nation’s needs and service delivery.
In addressing the fall, loans are usually a choice for a direct response to challenges.
For Namibia, loans became a long-term burden, challenges never disappeared, and the economy stagnated.
The ideology of revenue generation through taxation prevailed over the public sector, but never placed the public sector into economic independence to successfully solve the nation’s problems and efficiently deliver services.
This should be an insightful image of capacitating the public sector to run the economy instead of managing it.
This can only be achieved by means of employing people to run industries, to produce products, and make sales of products which directly enrich the state coffers.
The public sector ought to drive innovation and be at the forefront of steering the direction of the economy.
It’s a puzzle of using your own people to process your natural resources, getting them the required skills and machines to produce with.
Is this not a solution to unemployment as a rising threat of crime and mental health deterioration?
Investment and partnership should be about sharing of skills and machines instead of distancing for the private sector to take over.
This can only be done when there is a guideline of deliverables enforced by accountability.
What drives the private sector is accountability systems, and that’s what the public sector is disguised from.
The ideology of avoiding conflict with the private sector is a misconception that will never empower the public sector into economic stability.
The private sector will always survive on its own. It builds its own creativity around problem-solving, and yet it doesn’t hold the accountability for the suffering of the nation.
It doesn’t forget the return on investment, and if returns are not right, there is no hesitation in ceasing the operations.
The public sector ought to capacitate itself to earn direct revenue that will secure the bag towards addressing the inequality gap through equitable distribution.
With the outsourcing of work, under the cloud of a lack of capacity, will it ever be capacitated then?
It’s not rocket science; it’s the laziness of changing the system. It’s the fear of going through pain first to build self-dependence.
Surely, leaders never understood the system they inherited from the colonists, and they try to fight within what was created to depress instead of creating something new. Namibia, too few to be poor, but poverty is an ink typed in the system.
Efraim Shimbali is a Namibia YALI 2024-Partnership and Resources Mobilisation Coordinator
shimbaliefraim98@gmail.com
