The drought has caused severe food insecurity and water scarcity, exacerbated by low dam levels in the country. As a result, one in five Namibians is currently food-insecure, with many households already registered for government drought relief.

Under Article 26 (I) of the Namibian Constitution, read with Section 30 (3) of the Disaster Risk Management Act, 2012 (Act. No. 10 of 2012, President Nangolo Mbumba declared a national state of emergency due to the worst drought the country has experienced in 100 years.

A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that usually suspends a few normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alerts citizens to change their normal behaviour, or orders government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale for suspending rights and freedoms, even if they are guaranteed under the Constitution.

The country is in a national state of emergency, intending to protect the lives of all citizens, as articulated in Article 6 of the Namibian Constitution. After the Government issues the declaration, the state of
emergency operations plan should come into effect immediately, and a state of emergency operations centre should have full 24-hour staffing to coordinate and direct State response.

The governors should speed up State agency assistance to communities in need within a short time. This enables them to make resources immediately available to rescue, provide essential commodities such as food and water, and immediately distribute them to affected communities. The governors and councillors should be immediately trained to actively seek resources from local businesses to address the situation.

It is alleged that people have died and others were hospitalised in the Omaheke region, according to a report. In this regard, the President should have summoned the governor, and the governor summoned the councillor to the headman of the village to explain why it happened. The Office of the Prime Minister is also to point out that they are supposed to appoint very active emergency management staff to act on behalf of the state and employ the resources to arrest the situation.

The state of emergency declaration does not mandate administrative policies for individual businesses to address price increases due to natural disasters. Essential price gouging should intervene by formulating policy during a state of emergency to allow citizens to afford those basic needs, and directly prevent companies from increasing the prices of essential goods.

Citizens are suffering so much because of price gouging, which can be prevented by the State because it has the power to suspend some of the rights, and every business, small and medium, needs to follow instructions from authorities.

Price gouging is also noticed in municipalities and local authorities, which is making life difficult because of high cost of living. The government makes it an offence to inflate the prices of essential goods and services in times of State of emergency.

Prices tend to increase when demand exceeds supply, and when people want to buy more than firms have to sell. In instances where the demand for a good or service suddenly increases, it’s natural to assume the price of the product will rise. 

But what about the price of essential goods during a time of crisis? In these cases, most customers are willing to pay any price to get the needed goods. When costs rise to unfair levels due to a rise in demand, then price gouging begins, while the government becomes a fan of
the game instead of a referee.

I do not refer to this high living cost as inflationbecause inflation is a general increase in prices caused by economic factors like demand, costs and money supply over time. For this reason, inflation can be identified as an overall increase in prices throughout an economy over time, while price gouging is localised and opportunistic during times of disaster. 

Price gouging this time occurs when there’s a sudden surge in demand for a given good, service or commodity because of a disaster. In times like these, the demand for non-essential items and luxuries dwindles, while the prices for essential items increase drastically.

Although charging excessively high prices for essential goods and services during a state of emergency can be illegal, the state has failed to control the prices to protect people against price gouging. During a state of emergency, the best protection is that essential goods should be free of government VAT, as well as maintain assistance between supply and retail during the emergency.

*Arnold Ekandjo is a
Bachelor of Laws student at the University of Namibia, and writes in his personal capacity.