KEETMANSHOOP – Rehoboth Urban constituency councillor Harald Kambrude has called for the abolishment of 95% of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), saying the money spent on these should instead be channelled into industrialising the country.
He stated during a public enterprises’ ownership draft policy stakeholders’ consultative meeting organised by the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises for the Hardap and //Kharas regions on Monday that many SOEs are underperforming.
These SOEs also do not pay tax or declare dividends to the government, nor do they submit financial statements, with some being investigated for major irregularities, he observed.
“These SOEs do not benefit the government at all, and the people do us no good, serve us no purpose, but only create debt. We cannot continue putting in money and nothing comes out, plus there is also too much political influence,” he charged.
Kambrude added that since 2020, over N$3 billion has been pumped into public enterprises, while only N$672 million was allocated to the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade.
“Instead of public enterprise going into social programmes, let us kill them, and take that money and industrialise our country where we can create industries. We can sell those public enterprises to citizens, so they can buy them and use them as business,” he suggested.
In response, deputy executive director in the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises Louise Shixwameni said to date, 90% of the Namibian economy is owned by less than 15% of the Namibian people, which means the economy is still not in the hands of local people.
“If you say we should kill SOEs and privatise them, we do not have an indigenous private sector in this country. You will thus end up selling those public enterprises to the same people who benefited previously because Namibians do not have equity, and you do not want to create greater inequality by handing back the economy to those who owned it,” she emphasised.
Namibia currently has 81 SOEs, employing over 25 000 people.
– Nampa
Photo: Kambrude
Caption: Expressing views…Rehoboth Urban constituency councillor Harald Kambrude. Photo: Nampa