The loud voice of blame game, sabotage and circumvention have been regular things that have taken centre-stage in the Kavango regions. Statistics have it that the two Kavango regions are some of the poorest regions in the country. Scholars have written explicitly to show why this is the case.
Politics, whether in an attempt to garner votes, has spoken, to an extent where name-calling such as “voting cows” has persisted in the regions. Economists have evidently discussed the views in light of the national budgeting process and its distribution.
Inasmuch as we all agree to the magnitude of the aforementioned factors, it is also not difficult to see the loopholes. We are slowly being taught to expound on what we are already doing; agonizing much louder.
What the two Kavango regions need now more than ever are foundational solutions because all they need is found within their reach, and I am a firm believer in personal development and personal excellence.
Let us begin with the lifestyle ambition of the people who live within the region without an attachment of any defence mechanism. Secondly, let us look at the issue of patriotism and ownership of those who live in the regions. With the lifestyle, one gets worried, from the time it is 18h00 daily when driving alongside the roads within the two regions. Bars are filled with the youth, and their strolling or hanging areas are in the bars or along the road.
What is more worrisome is that the owners of the bars are the mothers, fathers and uncles who are enlightened, who are teachers, nurses, doctors, councillors and directors. This is practised with the full knowledge of the damage alcohol brings, and the dangers of entrusting bars to raise our children.
The freedom is too much that the outcomes of the young ones spending more time away from home brings a heavy burden to our communities, schools and homes. Unfortunately, the quality of the economy of a community is much dependent on the quality of thoughts of its people.
One is not shocked when the statistics of teenage pregnancy is presented because the very young boys and girls whose safe places are bars and streets can easily fall prey to social evils. And if the very young people become mothers and fathers at a tender age, we can expect the economy of the household to lose strength. We can start from this point to address under-development.
By far, we all know that every ministry or agency has departments in most of the major towns, of which Rundu is included as one of the biggest and fastest-growing towns.
But what seems to be a missing link is the fact that a department could have bad results, and hear no one accounting for that. For instance, the obvious one is roads infrastructure.
If we were patriotic enough, we would call to order the person in charge of roads in the town council, and more so, the regional council that reports to parliament. The handling of tenders of people who assume major projects is questionable, especially knowing that the leadership was supposed to be on meritocracy.
There should be checks and balances to ensure that the money paid is worth the service and product obtained in the end. To this point, we should understand that citizenship does not only mean privileges and rights, but also the production of quality products and services, and the guarding of whatever is in our possession.
If each professional in the region understand this, we would resolve so many issues. Again, planning as a management element seems to have passed us by. That great town that is strategically located requires a revamp of its face. One wonders how town planning is carried out as buildings are mainly allocated alongside the roads, but locations are more informal than they are formal.
This is not because every person wants informality, but the pace of planning is poor, if there is at all. The office-bearers should for once consider to be driven by a legacy they would leave behind, and not perks and hoarding power and looking powerful while the outcomes make you look powerless and incompetent. Doing away with the traditional way of campaigning is one of the ways.
Can you imagine how much a campaign is worth when you are competent and producing results? Being in leadership should not mean you know it all, but the ability to create a platform to bring the change desired. It should not be normal to watch things go wrong under our watch.
Yonder our ambitions at work, we should begin from home. Homes must have strategies to develop the infrastructure reflective of our income brackets. We should be inspirations to each other than following the ‘pull him down’ syndrome.
Right now, we need different role models than those who are obsessed with power for selfish ambitions and those who are pursuing distractive roles of being known to buy alcohol for the young ones more than they invest in their talents.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that each one of us must have a duty to carry out and make the regions great, and it should start from home.
Your sabotage and circumvention have cost the regions and the town in particular, thus it’s high time for us to realise that many investors were discouraged by this attitude, businesses were discouraged, and the respect was lost as a people.
Can’t we then look beyond tribal differences, political differences and reconcile our differences to forge a better future? There is hope; Kavango and Rundu can be great again, and it will take the wise to take centre-stage and shine the light in the dark.