The Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises tabled the 2023/2024 national budget on 22 February 2023 which is anchored on three pillars: pro-sustainability, pro-poor and pro-growth. Although the culture and norm of allocating money according to ministries slightly changed, education still took the lion’s share of the budget and as usual followed by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. However, despite the fact that Namibia currently does not have both internal and external foes, the ministry of defence equally got a fairly big chunk. In some quarters, the budget has been described as positive, but shortfalls need to be pointed out.
A week before the tabling of the budget, a daily quoted the finance minister as saying that Namibia borrows N$29 million every day. And if we multiply this number on a weekly basis and further on yearly, it means a lot of money.
It was revealed that more than 1.6 million Namibians live below the poverty line.
Coupling these factors with the N$150 billion debt the country owes means that the budget may not adequately address and realise its aims of addressing the three pillars during the same financial year of the budget.
The most worrisome factor is the N$150 billion debt, as it will take ages pay it off. This means that every Namibian born now and in future will actually inherit the debt against their will as it is not of their making. With such huge debt, even if it is being serviced, the money paid is like putting water into a sieve.
In his book ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’, John Perkins (2004) details how the USA uses highly trained professionals to cheat countries out of trillions by using fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, and entice them to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development.
The countries which accept such loans became saddled with huge debts and come under the control of the USA government, World Bank and other USA dominated agencies such as the International Monetary Fund.
In the process, the initial debt ends up being quadrupled and the countries fail to pay back the loan which finally becomes a vicious circle in which the debt is never paid off and it goes on and on.
In countries which refuse to be enticed and lured, assassins slangy termed as jackals are sought and the political leaders are targeted for elimination. If the worse comes to the worst, the USA military moves into the country and forcefully and militarily removes the leader. We have seen that in Panama of Noriega in 1989, Saddam Hussein in 2006 and Gaddaffi of Libya in 2011. Similarly, Africans know very well the neo-colonial intentions of Europe and the slave trade by America, which was inflicted upon them.
This deprived Africa of its energetic youth who ultimately ended up working on American plantations. Namibia has already started borrowing billions of dollars from financial agencies, and has actually joined the queue of borrowers.
One may be tempted to ask how Namibia with such numerous resources has joined the vicious circle of borrowers.
Yes, in this era, no country can stand on its own, as it needs international assistance and cooperation with other countries. However, some countries are cautious when borrowing and do not exceed the money required for them to avoid ending up defaulting on their payments. Servicing the N$150 billion may lead to government scaling down on most and urgent projects intended to uplift the standard of living of the Namibian people. It could be one reason why the pensioners have an increment of N$100, violating the constitutional provision of Article 95 which mentions that:
The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting inter alia, policies aimed at the following: (f ) ensurance that seniors are entitled to and receive a regular pension adequate for the management of a decent standard of living and the enjoyment of social and cultural opportunities.
There could be many reasons why the country has incurred such debt of which some of them could be external and perhaps unavoidable.
The government equally shares the blame, especially when it comes to fiscal discipline.
Taxpayers’ money has been embezzled and used for things, which were not intended for.
In the process, this country saw an enormous amount of money running into millions being stolen and perhaps never recovered.
Rampant Cor rupt ion, mis appropr i a t i on , and embezzling of government monies through fraudulent tenders have always won the day. The current economic trend is that the poor become poorer and the rich become richer of course at the expense of the poor.
In order to service the national debt, the government will have to streamline some projects and focus on the debt.
This might be difficult for the elite as they are the ones enjoying a comfortable lifestyle.
The political elite have nothing to lose because in conjunction with the Western masters they control and run the economy of the country. In the process, the aim and vision of the founders of the liberation struggle are simply swept under the mat. It needs concerted efforts and commitment to address the plight of the people and at the same time service the national debt to a low margin.
During this process, the political elite should understand the suffering of the common person who cannot afford a meal a day, let alone three and discipline themselves to lower the debt.