WINDHOEK- Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) lawmaker Mike Kavekotora says the poverty endured by many Namibians is man-made “because government chooses politically correct decisions over economic realities”.
“I am on record and I have consistently said that poverty in Namibia is man-made. Poverty is not due to a lack of natural resources. Unemployment in this country is not due a lack of employment opportunities,” lamented the RDP secretary general. Kavekotora, who next month will be competing for the party’s presidency, said the lack of sustainable economic growth is not exclusively as a result of external economic factors but to a larger extent internal ones. “I attribute some of these negative factors to poor planning by government, not understanding the implication of these plans, focusing on wrong priorities, focusing more attention on input and not conducting a proper impact assessment on government policies and implementation strategies,” he said, while contributing to the 2019/20 national budget in parliament on Tuesday.
“I would even dare to say that this country suffered economically because of government’s consistent reliance on political decisions,” he told lawmakers.
He said a lot of resources have gone to waste and continue to be wasted.
“The question that I want to pose is: why is government inclined to favor political pronouncement over economic realities? What type of economic system is the SWAPO government propagating? And who is creating wealth under this government?” he questioned.
For the past three years, Kavekotora noted, the country’s economy faced many challenges and endured its most precarious phase, yet government failed to mitigate wastage and the outflow of funds.
“These administrative hiccups led to this country experiencing higher than expected liquidity challenges,” he stressed. Quantifying some of his observation to the 2019/20 National Budget, Kavekotora said the development budget allocation was increased by 42% from N$ 5, 5 billion to N$ 7.9 billion.
On face value, he said this is indeed a positive move that might contribute to the growth in our economy. “I am using the word “might” deliberately because not every allocation to the development budget ends up in Namibia. I can assure you that under the current administrative flaws 75% if not more of the N$ 7.9 billion development budget will ends up in China, the government preferred tenderers,” he said. He said the construction industry was well functioning and well developed before China, North Korea and many other foreign counties came on board. “The Namibian construction industry was dominated by the Baster community of Rehoboth and they did an excellent jobs,” he said, adding that the houses and buildings constructed by Baster many decades ago still stand. In addition, Kavekotora said Baster kept the money in Namibia and contributed to economic growth because the money was circulating in the economy and stimulated economic growth.
“If one quantity these financial outflows coupled with other illicit flow, one would understand and appreciated that our economic dilemma cannot by attributed entirely to external factors,” he said.
He advises government to start by putting a stop on politically motivated projects and run the country and economy on solid economic principles.
“Stop initialing projects to win election and rather focus on long-term economic policies that will stimulate economic growth,” he warns.