By: Justicia Shipena
Former home affairs minister and Swapo Secretary-General Pendukeni Iivula-Itana says education should not be blamed for the derailment of the Vision 2030 agenda.
Her comments come after, Swapo’s Think Tank cautioned that Namibia might not attain its Vision 2030 because its education system fails to produce quality graduates.
According to her, the education part of the vision was just an aspect of it.
“I don’t know why people are talking about the derailment by education, meaning the students were supposed to be the ones to drive vision 2030 or what?” questioned Iivula-Itana.
She said Vision 2030 covered many areas of development.
“Well, education is part of it, but it cannot delay the achievement of the Vision 2030 because it was just an aspect that was not the main aim of Vision 2030,” she said.
She added that education was not going to be the vision’s driver.
“The driver was supposed to be government putting in place those policies and actions taken to achieve the vision’s end goals,” she adds.
Iivula-Itana said a five-year planner accompanied Vision 2030.
“It means that at every interval of five years, the nation is supposed to evaluate how much the vision has been achieved and what was achieved,” she added.
She also stated that since she was in the government, they had gone through five terms of five years of evaluation on the achievement intended by Vision 2030.
“Now, with the Harambee Prosperity Plan which has come into play, I do not know whether that was following the vision, or it replaced the vision, or what it was.”
“I don’t know. I lost track of it over the past ten years, so I cannot tell how far Vision 2030 has been followed and achieved.”
Meanwhile, political analysts have criticised the Tink Tank on Vision 2030 comments, stating they are coming alive to what is happening on the ground.
Political analyst Henning Melber says the Swapo Think Tank referring to the non-delivery of the Namibian education system as a root cause for not achieving vision 2030 is blaming a symptom.
He stated that the lack of delivery of the education system is an integral part of the overall lack of delivery during the last 30-plus years. He added that Vision 2030 was based on entirely unrealistic assumptions and wishful thinking.
“To assume that Namibia would be a fully industrialised country within the given time limit, self-sufficient in the food supply, autonomous with no unemployment and no poverty is just something which everyone could predict will not happen in the given time,” said Melber.
Melber expressed that the Swapo Think Tank, now after 25 years, is saying something that should have been common sense is simply a late effort to prepare the public for non-delivery.
“But that in itself was not needed because the public experiences it daily that there is no non-delivery,” he said.
Additionally, he said the existing policy where never able to implement Vision 2030.
“Even more and better-planned investments would not have achieved Vision 2030 considering the point of departure and limited means this government had at its hands,” he said.
Melber also emphasised that the government did not use the options that would have existed.
“It was obvious from the start that Vision 2030 is just a popularised prime, but almost nobody dared to say so out of respect for Tatekulu Sam Nujoma. But also because the culture of fear which is an integral part of Swapo politics, prevents almost everyone from pointing out that vision 2030 will not happen within the time frame.”
He further stressed that government authorities, institutions and line ministries pretended that Vision 2030, as the guideline, would be followed to be implemented by 2030.
“As we now know, that won’t happen, and we could have known then,” he stated.
Melber also observed that it is good to have plans, strategies and a concept against which the aims and goals can be measured and a degree of delivery.
“But that requires a realistic blueprint and good governance, and I’m afraid Namibia lacks both,” he said.
Another political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah says the reality is hitting Swapo.
“As I agree with the Think Tank, that Vision 2030 will never be realised. Lately, for the past five years, government officials have been careful not to talk about it,” he said.
He stated that the problem with the vision is that it is very broad, over-ambitious, and promises many things that could not be realised.
“But it is also because there is no clear road map to achieve or implement it. It was sort of a symbolic vision but over-promised many hopes with no agenda on how to move towards,” said Kamwanyah.
Hence he said he does not think it is realistic for politicians to talk about Vision 2030 because it is a vision to nowhere at this stage.
“Sometimes we have to be honest with ourselves, and I think the Think Tank should be thanked that they are being honest,” he adds.
On speaking policies, he said many Namibian policies do not speak to the agenda of Vision 2030.
“We also have a problem implementing our policies, and that is where the issue is. You can have good, well-written policies written on paper, but if we don’t have a strategy on how to implement them, you will have a problem. That is where we find ourselves,” he stressed.
He also aired that Namibian people have given up on Vision 2030.
“Unfortunately, that is a sad situation, but I think it speaks to how we plan things.”
VISION 2030 A BAD DREAM
Meanwhile, opposition leader McHenry Venaani paints Vision 2030 as a mirage and a bad dream.
“I have been saying that vision 2030 was a mirage and a bad dream. The think tank just came very late onto the party,” he said.
Venaani added that if one wants to industrialise a country, one must have niche markets in which they wish to industrialise.
“Those markets have never been identified. Namibia is a net importer 70 per cent of our food commodities are imported from South Africa,” said Venaani.
He adds that it is coupled with the education system that is “throwing graduates into the streets” and lacks research bodies and industrialisation.
“You have never heard President Hage Geingob speaking about vision 2030 because he knows that it is not going to be a reality, now he has gone into the Harambee Prosperity Plan, and now it’s green hydrogen. We are being sold dreams—one dream after another. Green hydrogen will not be implemented in the time of Hage Geingob. The government has failed to put up these things that will not be attainable.”
He also narrated that Namibian people had lost hope in the vision, and the hope was never there at the start.
“People knew it was a lie and a mirage,” he lauded.
STUDENTS LEADERS
Furthermore, student leaders say that graduates cannot be blamed for Vision 2030 not being attained.
Student leader George Kambala says there is a lack of cohesion in the government and commitment toward the citizenry.
He states that for the past 30 years, the government has been failing to produce proper graduates.
With 2030 just around the corner, Kambala said: “Seeing now that vision 2030 is only a few years away, they are trying to get an excuse why they can’t attain the particular goals.”
He also questioned what happened to Harambee Prosperity Plan II.
“One question that now, if we are not able to attain vision 2030 because of lack of education, what happened to Harambee II? Are we still saying the same thing?” he questioned.
Kambala said it is shocking that people who have been master’s degree holders and doctorates from the same university are calling them pathetic.
“Is disappointing of this coming from Swapo Think Tank.”
Students Union of Namibia (SUN)’s acting secretary-general Oscar Shikongo told The Villager that the Think Tank is confused and is losing focus.
“So far, we have a good education system, but as long as the government of Swapo just wants students that are doing medicine, engineering, teachers and nurses but are neglecting those who are in the arts industry,” he said.
Shikongo expressed that they are diverting Vision 2030 and are now trying to blame the education system.
“Now they are trying to blame graduates, but they are not pointing fingers at the line ministries. Swapo Think Tank should blame their cabinet instead of the graduates,” he stressed.
He claims that Swapo caused a lot of mess in the education sector.
“Now they are pointing fingers at us; that is a big insult, trying to insult innocent graduates instead of solving their problems with cabinet and line ministry.”
The ruling party’s Think Tank has proposed a complete revamp of the current education system. According to them, this is to bring about meaningful education, eliminate excessive dependency and instil a sense of self-reliance in graduates.
Think Tank member Professor Frednard Gideon’s paper presented to the party central committee shows that the basic education system has failed to produce graduates capable of realising Vision 2030.
He also had said existing policies indirectly or deliberately hinder qualified
Namibians from participating in the country’s development as
they are shut out from specific sectors captured by sister countries.
Gideon recommended a programme to attract talented Namibians and non-Namibians from overseas who can take up research and development careers.
Gideon observed that the existing state and parastatal policies make it structurally awkward for Namibians to establish private educational institutions.
