Alvenus F. Dreyer
Our country needs drastic and immediate interventions by all the concerned and affected parties if we are serious about improving the social and economic conditions of our citizens.
Until when are Namibia’s citizens and in particular the previously disadvantaged ones going to be told that we have the resources (natural wealth), but they don’t belong to us since we don’t have the capacity to develop these resources? Investors put in a 100-00 and take 90-00 for themselves, which modus operandi has been continuing unabated for more than 30 years now.
If truth be told, the gap between the haves and have-nots (rich and the poor) continues to be created and supported by a system which is pro-capitalist.
If our well-informed and educated officials in the administration of Namibia’s political, economic, social, religious and cultural activities were serious about the people’s plight’, by now things could have been better.
The problem
If we are to achieve genuine social and economic justice for our people, capacitating civil society and religious institutions remains a priority. By the way, are we not 90+% Christian?
Ninety percent of the country’s wealth is in the hands of 10% of the population, and 90% of the country’s previously disadvantaged citizens have access to only 10% of these resources.
This 10% of the previously advantaged white minority, alongside the post-independence systematically empowered ones by means of black economic empowerment (BEE), tenderpreneurship, farmland allocations and strategic political appointments etcetera, has been the problem.
This problem over the years has been the main cause of lack of transparency and accountability. Namibia’s most vulnerable, including senior citizens, the physically challenged, rural/informal women, men and children, orphans and minority groups are continuously becoming the most destitute and remain the poorest of the poor.
We must have a 90+% representation on all levels dealing with Namibia’s administration issues for the purpose of truly addressing the pressing social and economic needs of this republic.
The solution
The tree bearing all sorts of corruptive and disrupting fruits must be completely uprooted for Namibians to live and enjoy descent lives.
As one elder very comprehensively pointed out, we are like fingers on our hands.
We can thus never be of the same lengths and/or sizes.
Thus, as much as we can never be the same socially and economically, we are still guided and protected by the same constitution that guarantees every Namibian a right to human dignity.