It is often said only God reaps where He did not sow.
A true democracy ensures all citizens can play an active role in shaping the policies and course of action.
The stress on the government budget, arising from the strike of the economy itself, requires not only restructuring salaries but also the entire set of government policies, programmes and budgets.
Higher prices made it difficult for households to maintain the basic standard of living, including civil servants, who, ironically, is still the least paid in the economy.
The planned strike is against the government’s refusal to increase public servants’ salaries.
The issue of the non-implementation of the salary increase remains a thorny issue that requires urgent solving.
A caring government would have implemented the agreement to ensure the morale of workers remains high during this torrid time.
The effects of striking will be felt in the immediate and long-term future, as a strike is appearing to re-occur in some sectors and has in some cases become violent.
The Namibian economy is vulnerable at this point, and going striking could harm the country’s investment reputation internationally.
The effect of a strike on the economy is difficult to calculate, but it will be detrimental to the country and its workers.
GDP growth will be affected, and the consequences of higher wages in certain sectors would inevitably lead to higher inflation.
Generally, a lengthy strike has a negative effect on employment, reduces business confidence and increases the risk of economic stagflation.
In addition, such a strike has a major setback on the growth of the economy and investment opportunities.
It is common knowledge that consumer spending is directly linked to economic growth.
At the same time, if the economy is not showing signs of growth, employment opportunities are shed, and poverty becomes the result.
The Namibian economy needs rapid growth to enable it to deal with the high levels of unemployment and resultant poverty.
Furthermore, one of the measures that may boost the country’s economic growth is by attracting potential investors to invest in the country.
However, this might be difficult, as investors would want to invest in a country where there is a likelihood of getting returns for their investments.
The wish of getting returns for investment may not materialise if the labour environment is not fertile for such investments as a result of, for example, unstable labour relations.
Therefore, investors may
be reluctant to invest where there is an unstable or fragile labour relations environment.
The right to strike is important in a democratic country such as Namibia.
However, it becomes difficult if such strikes occur too often, damaging the economy and creating job loss, which is the main source of income in many families.
Various sectors are affected by the effects of lengthy strikes.
Most importantly, the economy is affected by the resulting poverty becomes the consequence.
Therefore, the issue of strike needs to be addressed by including interest arbitration to compel parties to resolve their issues and empower the Labour Court to intervene and suspend the strike or picket if the economy may be affected due to prolonged strikes.
Adopting this route will prevent the loss of many jobs as a result of the business not making profit and effect retrenchments.
If interest arbitration is made law in Namibia, there will be more advantages to strikes than we currently have.
Furthermore, scrap deputy ministers, as this is a duplication.
Why do we need a deputy minister?
Do we even know who the deputy ministers are?
For those who have not, they are deputy ministers, enjoying all the VIP perks and sizeable salaries that come with the job.
They are here to serve us – even if we did not know it.
The shocking truth is that the president is not constitutionally obliged to appoint even one deputy minister.
There is duplication of functions among ministers, their deputies and executive directors, which does not augur well for the proper functioning of government.
The monies being spent on these deputies put together could build more health centres and educational institutions in many deprived communities in the country than one can imagine.
Similarly, the resources being paid to our deputy ministers could fund many development programmes that could absorb hundreds if not thousands of our deprived youths in gainful employment, thereby easing tension around the employment situation in the country.
Therefore, I regard this as an additional burden on the meagre finances of the state, given the number of commitments government has pledged to accomplish in the areas of roads, infrastructure, energy, health and other strategic development projects.
Indeed, the government is being too uneconomical amid mass deprivation, and I believe there is a need to scrap deputy ministries.
Even without introducing the need for harmonising salaries, which is being misunderstood, there is a need to increase salaries for most civil servants.
Notwithstanding reserve capacity, strikes in public services are among those perceived as being the most disruptive of people’s daily lives.
The cost of the strike will be higher, causing a greater weight on the particular services in the economic life of the country.
In this respect, Namibia is especially vulnerable, compared to its near neighbours, in that public services occupy a very important position in terms of numbers of employees and as a percentage of GDP. To this end, the macroeconomic impact of a strike in public services can also be considerable.
There is often a significant fall in consumption and a loss of confidence in the future.
Therefore, the main effort should go toward improving industrial dialogue, which should involve users of public services, whose needs must be taken into account.
The aim is to arrive at social harmony in which the freedom of some does not interfere unduly with that of others.