His Excellency the Head of State Hage Geingob proclaimed the year 2020 as the year of introspection. This implied that the past year, Namibia as a nation had a statal obligation for self-brooding with the aim of strengthening the good and recognizing the bad. As the year 2020 was rounded off, it was crucial to introspect on the life lessons the year 2020 has taught us.
The past year started with good rainfall in most parts of the country, people were happy because in 2019, the agricultural sector was hit hard by drought with livestock dying and people having to seek food aid from central government. Post the November 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections, history was made with the top three political parties electing young people under the age of 30 to parliament.
Geingob did not only appoint Emma Inamutila Theofelus as a member of parliament, but also ordained her as the deputy minister of information, communication and technology (ICT). The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) sent three young people to parliament. The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) made its debut in the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections and it managed to gain four seats with one belonging to the 24-year-old, Utaara Mootu.
Despite 2020 starting with good rainfall, world news emerging from Wuhan, China was to be the highlight of the year 2020. The coronavirus, which is also referred to as Covid-19 spread worldwide, infecting and killing millions.
The sovereignty of Namibia was tested during the lockdown and it is a sad thing to realize that our agricultural sector is not able to sustain the demands of its inhabitants. In terms of national food security and other essential services, Namibia had to risk travelling to other countries in order to procure both food and essential goods and services.
As of April 2020, the country having utilised its national budget on Covid-19, it was necessary to restart the economy to avoid the national budget of 2021/2022 being made up with external capital, an option the country would not want to employ considering the size of our public debt.
The newly appointed finance minister Ipumbu Shiimi injected N$8.1 billion in the economy by authorising stimulus grants of N$750 to unemployed citizens, as a way to stimulate the economy by providing consumers with disposable income.
The initiative by the minister was adequate in theory but practically, it did not prove to be so due to the fact that the country was still on lockdown and one of the key sectors that contribute greatly to ‘state coffers’ that being tourism was still non-operational due to lockdown consequences.
As the year went on, Covid-19 kept spreading and economically countries could not afford a longer financial setback due to a prolonged lockdown, hence pressure to reopen their borders surfaced. June came and Namibia was still on lockdown but central government had imposed various stages aimed at controlling the virus transmission rates. The country moved from stage two to stage three but yet again the country was still on lockdown and cases kept on rising.
Namibia only managed to open its borders to the international community as of September 2020 after pressure from the tourism sector, which was losing out on both revenue and employees (for a country suffering from a high unemployment rate). After close to seven months of having no international tourists, it is only sensible that our central government should not expect an increase in revenue from the tourism industry and broadly, it will be fortunate to receive anything from it.
The Covid-19 pandemic taught us a lot but mostly the importance of being self-sustainable. Namibia adapted to Covid-19 being a part of our livelihoods but yet again more happened in the mid of the virus.
Apart from the coronavirus pandemic claiming lives of Namibians, gender-based violence is also another national pandemic Namibian women and children are faced with. The killing of a 22-year-old Shannon Wasserfall at the coastal town of Walvis Bay broke many of our hearts and it led to the much-needed protests around the country to say enough is enough.
What is saddening is that while the protests were going on our police officers reacted to the call against violence with violence leading to the arrests of young protesters others being minors.
The moment we come to terms with the fact that gender based violence and any other form of abuse breaks families and destroys nations, is the moment government will see the need to invest heavily in campaigns and billing a harsh sentence to perpetrators to dissolve the lenient current sentences.
Moving on, the November 2020 Regional and Local Authority elections was probably the most surprising highlight of the year. Namibia’s democracy was tested, and it emerged victorious, with no violence prior and post the elections. The fact that we, as nationals are able to accept change in the political arena, means that we have legitimized our political independence both in writing and in practice.
Notably, one thing to take from the recent election outcome is that if change is not granted it can be influenced. Therefore, it is then the responsibility of every political party to either drive for change before change drives them out of power or positions.
The year 2020 has presented evidence that Namibia will not be able to achieve Vision 2030. With a lack of industries being established the country’s aim remains to be proclaimed as an industrial state in less than 10 years, and for a country that does not even produce the cheapest of many things while it imports more than it is able to export, I believe the country does need more than the projected remaining years.
On a positive note, one thing that the country has kept in check over the years and in 2020, is the preservation of peace and stability complimented by a safe and conducive environment for both Namibian nationals and foreigners to coexist.
Namibia’s drawback to prosperity is not a lack of planning but rather a lack of executing in accordance with what has been planned. Factually, for as long as corruption is the order of the day, Namibia’s prosperity will be compromised.
The year 2020 as a whole was unique in its own nature and regarding the coronavirus we need to accept that for as long as there is no vaccine for it then we have to keep coming up with measures to ensure that life goes on even during the era of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even though we are facing the second wave of the coronavirus, countries such as ours cannot sustain another lockdown because our economy will be negatively affected. In relation to our branches of government the work ethic of the judiciary branch of government cannot go unnoticed as it has been effective in 2020.
Despite the slow progress in concluding various cases, the judiciary branch has been instrumental in applying and enforcing the law with low level of corrupt activities taking place.
The executive branch of government has performed relatively fair considering the amount of pressure it received not only Covid-19 related but also demands from pressure groups that were not happy with some actions taken by government.
Sadly, the legislative branch of government has been the least effective branch of government as it has failed to deal with the land motion, housing motion, parliament was also indecisive when it came to the abortion motion.
Even though political parties are driven by their manifestos, the work of parliament should be of national interests.
However, our parliament has been degenerated to serve party interests at the expense of national needs and wants.
After careful introspection, Namibia of 2020 can be considered as a dependent country and there is a great need for the country to invest heavily in achieving total independence.
Political independence is meaningless when people are still living and dying in poverty, and receiving poor health care.
The principle of ‘One Namibia, One Nation’ should apply towards all decisions taken as well as those that are to be taken. I cannot say the year 2020 was a good year when the country has recorded a lot of deaths at the hands of hunger, Covid-19, violence, poor health care, and unemployment.