After long Ovaherero-Nama genocide talks, Germany agreed to accept responsibility for the atrocities they caused in Namibia 100 years ago. Germany finally decided to pay Namibia 1.3 billion euros as an attempt to heal the wounds of the historic violence. With the level of corruption in Namibia, will it be a good idea to receive the funds in cash?
Namibia at her inception till today has been experiencing well-orchestrated syndicates around money. Due to corruption and the misuse of the State’s funds, many vital projects were left uncompleted. Millions of dollars went missing without a trace. Namibia is defeated by plaques of chains of corruption that the law-enforcement agencies themselves cannot control since our judicial system is slightly captured.
Clearly, this is an indication that we cannot handle such an amount of money. Germany should ensure that the money they are about to pay will be used on lifelong benefiting projects that will develop the country, improve the living standards, create massive employment opportunities and revive businesses and industries that are affected by both the economic recession and Covid-19.
Many would opt to send Namibian students to go study in Germany. An option like this nowadays is outdated. How many students have we sent overseas, and where are they today? Many of them are still unemployed, despite their level of education. Instead of sending students to Germany, our government should use that money to construct schools, training centres and universities. For how long will we keep sending our students to go study in other countries? We still have learners who are being taught under trees or in tents.
Yes, education might be free in Namibia, but many government schools, especially the ones that are located in remote places, have no textbooks. Some schools are hit by a shortage of tables or chairs. Yet, the ministry of education is taking back N$25 million to Treasury. State hospitals have no life-saving machines, while private hospitals have everything. In most cases, private clinics are owned by our leaders or their kids.
The most painful part of this is that not everyone can afford private hospital bills. An estimated 1.6 million people living with hunger cannot afford the services of private hospitals and schools. Is Namibia really a middle-income country, or are we just a low-income nation? A person has to travel many kilometres from any part of Namibia to the Windhoek Central Hospital to receive medical attention that he/she cannot get in his town or village. After independence, how many hospitals have we constructed for our people? Hospitals are running out of medicines, a basic need for that matter. We do not have enough Intensive Care Units in the country. What is the government doing about that? We must admit that we have failed the great nation of Namibia.
A nation that lost close to 100 000 people is eager to receive cash from Germany; forgetting that no amount of silver or gold would compensate for the pain our forefathers suffered and the lives we lost. Thousands of Namibians were massacred. Namibians lost their land and livestock to the German settlers. Our treasures such as diamonds and artefacts were taken out of Namibia. The artefacts should be returned to Namibia to be showcased in our own museums to generate funds in Namibia.
Genocide reparations shouldn’t be paid in cash. It should, however, be injected into development schemes that will entirely be controlled by Germany as the custodian of funds to avoid corruption. That’s the only effective method that can be used to avoid corruption. The World Bank and IMF implemented mechanisms that are meant to ensure that borrowers use the money for intended missions. Such approaches are a joke on our continent, as African leaders continue to enrich themselves with money borrowed to better the living conditions in their countries. Namibia should rather choose Germany to construct modern healthcare facilities in Namibia. Germany should construct schools and training centres in both rural and urban areas. We need more universities and TVETS. Namibia is still battling with inequality. We still have places without clean tap water and electricity. The money should be used on sustainable initiatives that are able to provide the greatest benefits over costs in the country. We need to construct boreholes, power-generating stations, proper roads networks, hospitals, schools in both Hereroland, Namaland and of course other parts of the country. The money being awaited should serve as a solution to the severe land and housing issues being experienced in Namibia. We need to service the land and hand it over to Namibians, not foreigners.
This is the great opportunity to improve and boost our farming and agriculture industry. Namibia needs to be producing her own food, and stop being a dependent country. It is very disturbing to understand how a country of less than 3 million inhabitants is depending on a country that has more than 50 million people in terms of food security. Namibia is the one supposed to be supplying her surplus to South Africa. With large, vast of unoccupied land, we still have 1.6 million people living in severe poverty, and we cannot produce food to feed our people. If there is anything that we need to secure in Namibia, it’s food security. Investing in agriculture will ensure economic transformation, food security and nutrition. Agricultural modernisation prepares conditions for industrialisation by boosting labour productivity, increasing agricultural surplus to accumulate capital, and increasing foreign exchange through exports. This would also result in a decrease in food prices, improving nutrition and avoiding malnutrition in kids. Okavango and Zambezi can feed the whole of Namibia. The two regions receive plenty of rain, and their soils are rich in nutrients. The most excruciating thing is seeing youthful people standing at traffic lights, searching for jobs which the government failed to provide. What does the Ministry of Agriculture do in Namibia? If we take agriculture seriously, nobody will be unemployed, even the uneducated will be employed either within the government or private entities, or even become business owners. One of the reasons the government wanted to sell Erindi was because it couldn’t sustain the land. Now, the money is coming that will help to turn such massive land parcels into agricultural hubs to grow crops and do farming to produce enough for local, regional and international consumption.
Reports had it that the Russian president might cut off a large portion of Russian gas flows to Europe in response to still unspecified economic sanctions that the USA and other Western members promised to impose. Russia supplies about one-third of Europe’s natural gas. Can Europe survive without Russian gas? Would Putin really cut off energy supplies? For years, Namibia has been depending on South Africa in terms of food security, and has spent billions of dollars on imported goods. Did we ever ask ourselves what will happen if South Africa closes her borders? Can Namibia survive without food from South Africa? As it stands, Namibia cannot survive without South Africa because we even import water from them. Namibia needs to learn from her mistakes and act up. Agriculture is the foundation of civilisation and any stable economy. I thought Covid-19 has taught us better that anything can happen. The Namibian youth should learn from Ndatulumukwa Haikali, the founder of Youth In Agriculture. The youth should stand by his side to support him. His vision on agriculture can take this country far.
Former youth minister Jerry Ekandjo brought up the discussion of a Bullet Train in parliament a few years ago. We need such projects, and we can benchmark straight from Germany. They have a proper train system in place. We need a well-coordinated train system. We cannot spend years trying to mend a dilapidated railway system. We need to ease pressure from our roads network. In events where plane tickets are so high, people are left with no choice but to travel via roads, where accidents are claiming many lives. The whole railway system needs to be overhauled. With the money we are expecting to receive from Germany, we can also restore football in our country. We need our beautiful game back; we need to upgrade our stadiums to be able to host international games. We cannot be renting sports fields as if we don’t have our own soccer stadiums.
Namibia is set to receive cash, but we don’t need money from Germany. We need the whole system (knowledge, skills, information) that Germany uses to improve our current state.
We need to be producing medicines and weapons. We have the uranium that is used to produce weapons. After 31 years of independence, we are still drawing up lucid plans but we don’t have strategies to execute them. Namibia stands as one of the best customers of Volkswagen vehicles.
We need those cars to be assembled in Namibia in order to cut all the costs accumulated in acquiring them, and also to create employment to avoid the monopoly that Peugeot is about to create in Namibia. Germany needs to monitor how the money will be used to avoid self-enrichment and corruption. Let whatever Namibia will receive first benefit the legitimate descendants of the victims before using it for any other reason. We want development in Hereroland and Namaland.
We appreciate Germany for acknowledging that they are responsible for committing the worst crimes against humanity in Namibia, and we hope that it will serve as an example to those who have committed similar atrocities in other African countries.
Namibia would like to maintain healthy collaboration and cooperation with Germany while improving the binding terms and conditions to be more of a win-win situation. Choosing humanity over arrogance was a smart move taken by the federal government of Germany. Germany should also consider bringing back the artefacts that they forcefully and illegally shipped out of Namibia. Those precious artefacts need to be in our museums.