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Home / ‘It will take time to achieve economic independence’ - Niikondo
‘It will take time to achieve economic independence’ - Niikondo
2014-01-10Mathias Haufiku RUNDU – Unless the economy is placed in the hands of the majority of the Namibian people, the nation’s quest for economic independence will never become a reality, says a local political commentator and academic Andrew Niikondo. According to him the economy is currently dominated by a small minority, many of whom were previously advantaged individuals, and that is why achieving economic independence would take longer than what it took to gain political independence in 1990. “Those previously advantaged gave us the political power, but they did not give up economic power, hence they remain powerful and the previously disadvantaged Namibians are the ones suffering. We have to remember that economic power is more dominant than political power, because those with the money will always be the ones deciding how things must be done,” said Niikondo in an interview on how to grow the economy. Niikondo says the current generation of the previously disadvantaged will not be able to enjoy the fruits of economic independence, because the economy is firmly in the hands of the white [minority] and it will take a long time before the situation changes. “Perhaps our future generations will enjoy economic independence. As for now there is nothing we can do to expedite the situation, if you grab then the international community will surely condemn you,” he opined. Niikondo also feels Namibia is too overly dependent on South Africa for commodities that can even be produced locally. “For as long as we have this dependency syndrome, development will continue to take place at a very slow pace. Nowadays people do not even go to their villages during the rainy season to cultivate their fields in order to be food self-sufficient like in the past, because they know that the supermarkets will have food from South Africa. If someone else takes care of your every need, chances that you will stand up and do things for yourself are very slim,” said Niikondo. “For how long must we depend on South Africa for things such as electricity, toilet paper and matches, the things we can produce locally,” he asks rhetorically while blaming corruption and the poor-performing education system as the two primary factors delaying and hampering the country from attaining economic independence. “If you have money earmarked for a certain purpose, make sure it is used for the intended purpose, do not divert it. We have the Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (TIPEEG) programme that is meant to boost employment creation for our people, but it is just not delivering the desired results,” he said. TIPEEG is a good programme but the money is not being used for the intended purposes, he noted. Niikondo urged public servants entrusted with the responsibility of delivering services to the masses to, by all means, refrain from pocketing state funds. “As for the corruption, I blame our Anti-Corruption Commission for failing to investigate graft cases effectively. For instance, the process of resettlement on government farms, resettled persons are placed on farms simply because they are known to those leading the process,” he said. It would be much better, says Niikondo, if the state instead put cooperatives on the farms so that they can produce food for the country instead of people who just go to the farms to go and remain idle. “We should also move away from the tendency of giving jobs to people we know regardless of their qualifications. Nepotism is hampering development, because unqualified people are placed in strategic positions just because they are well connected, eventually the country suffers because development will be slower,” reasoned Niikondo. He also called on tertiary educational institutions to produce graduates who are equipped with skills that will lift the local economy and eventually channel the economy into the hands of the majority of Namibians. By Mathias Haufiku 2014-01-10Mathias Haufiku
