One was an announcement by the Prime Minister, Nahas Angula, that Government has set aside more than N$200 million to support over 500 000 poor people this year.

This is in addition to N$30 million allocated to help flood victims in the northern regions.

Then came the bombshell from Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) management that it was leasing out some of the country's prime tourist destinations to private individuals for a mere N$7,4 million.

And as usual in this country, one is always told of the handsome profits that would be accrued through such deals - although the benefits hardly trickle down to the people.

And that explains why Government has to resort to spoon-feeding close to a third of our population through short-term social measures.

Is this is perhaps a classic case of a failed state? A failed state is one that is unable to provide the basic necessities for a good chunk of its own population.

And half a million people is quite a substantial number given our small population.

But how can one prevent this kind of scenario occurring when public resources are geared towards private profits? And this cuts across the whole spectrum of our economic life.

The fishing sector and the diamond industries are virtually in private hands with all sorts of shifty characters profiting while the rest of the population is turned into mere spectators waiting for the crumbs because even the so-called dividends and taxes don't actually reach the poor because a parasitic class of politicians and their friends 'chop' everything or they are spent on projects that have no long-term developmental impact.

Personally, I think the decision by NWR was ill-thought and short-sighted and an urgent public hearing on this is needed.

Here is a parastatal set up to run the country's prime resorts on a commercial basis but with a built-in social responsibility clause.

And after just a few years the management of NWR says it is unable to manage or invest in all facilities under its umbrella.

The management should have gone back to the shareholder - the Government - and either asked for more resources, both human and financial, or just simply say it is unable to manage the company.

And if all these private companies have millions of cash to invest, then they should buy private land and develop their resorts and lodges there and not on public land.

Because if you give someone a lease agreement of 50 years to develop lodges and other facilities on your property then it becomes very difficult for you to change the terms of those agreements unless you have to pay the developer a hefty some of money for the developments so made.

The NWR Managing Director, Tobie Aupindi, unconvincingly tried to explain that these agreements should not be seen as alienating state property.

In theory he might be right but in practice not because the services are effectively privatised.

Let's agree.

Namibia is a capitalist country and most of the resources are already in private hands and are not to be socialised anytime soon.

What I'm against is the use of public resources for private gain as is presently the case with the fishing, diamond and soon the tourism sector - this is privatisation through the back door - ownership versus access.

The majority of our people simply have no access to public resources.

Some leaders in Latin America such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Raffael Correa Delgado of Ecuador, for example, have all responded to the cries of global neo-liberal oppression from their populations.

Chavez, for example, has reversed the wheels of capitalist exploitation by telling all the major energy multi-nationals to hand over their assets to the state.

Not so in our case though.

And here enters Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, telling us that the companies involved must adhere to environmental protection.

It appears that she didn't learn a thing or two from the Ramatex fiasco.

In retrospect then, it looks like our politicians in Namibia and the rest of SADC are drunk from neo-liberal policies and mindsets which have failed their people.

Surely there should be a limit to private acquisitive activity.

The state has the power to either opt for laissez-faire or progressive state intervention.

But the current state of affairs is definitely unacceptable.

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