Are We ‘Just Another African Country’?

Not for the first time, the water pipes have burst at Namibia’s premier hospitals in Windhoek, causing services to grind to a halt. ‘Shocking’ does not fully explain the severity of the problem because equally shocking and more horrific things have happened before at hospitals and several other government institutions.
The Windhoek Central Hospital used to be a place where state presidents, prime ministers, top corporate bosses and other elites did not flinch to be treated at [unless it was all a facade]. Not anymore. Now they go first to private hospitals in the country [as in the case of the late Minister of Education, Abraham Iyambo,] and/or afterwards jet out of the country for better care abroad.
Soon we will be hearing that our leaders fly overseas at the faintest sign of an ailment (or, as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe does, for routine medical check-ups like eyes and the prostate gland) despite the country having some of the most renowned specialists.
At the rate the Ministry of Health and Social Services keeps playing down crises, it may very well be that we have truly become ‘other’ African nations that would hide for days or weeks the fact that a top politician [usually the president] has died. For most of this week, the country’s main hospital has hardly been functional because there was no water. Yet the ministry, through the office of the permanent secretary, kept insisting that everything was normal.
What is ‘normal’ about toilets that are not flushing or when water floods the wards? What is ‘normal’ about nurses having to fetch water from a tanker outside the hospital and to carry it up a dozen or more floors? What is ‘normal’ about seven out of eight theatres shutting down and cancelling operations because there is no running water?
If this chilling case of the Windhoek Central Hospital was an isolated one, albeit at the most important if not best health centre in the country, it would have soothed some concerns.
But the reality is that the crises of the hospital is a microcosm of the collapse of state services and infrastructure throughout the country. Namibia has become very good at rushing to buy new and shiny ‘things’ while the fundamental facilities waste away due to lack of maintenance and strong management.
For all the triumph by Richard Kamwi, the Minister of Health and Social Services, at getting us more donor funding for HIV-AIDS, TB and malaria [more than N$1 billion is no small change, but do not rejoice over handouts] information is already surfacing that the HIV-AIDS clinics have been going backwards, as are state pharmacies.
We have become so addicted to Global Fund, Pepfar, Millennium Challenge Account, soft loans and other donor aid, while boasting that Namibia is rich and, ironically, still demanding to be categorised a “least developed” nation.
Evidence abounds of billions [be it in Namibian or USA currency] used to make life sweet and better for the elite.
It is not just in health and education where the collapse in quality is palpable [to appropriate President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s challenge for people to ‘see and touch’ development that he argues his party is bringing to Namibians].
Prime Minister Hage Geingob witnessed our failure to maintain what we have when he watched the final soccer match of The Namibian Newspaper Cup in Otjiwarongo a few months ago. The swathe of a sports field was not only in a state of disuse but the soccer as well as rugby pitches, horse stables and the parameter mash fence were crumbling from an absence of maintenance.
Unless we take deliberate steps to stop the wastage and use the money to fix and build what we need, it will not be long before we can be counted among the dubious club of other African countries whose majority populations have been sliding backwards into abject poverty. No one else will solve our crises for us.

Comments

   Well noted. It is definitely infrastural maintenance plans which are lacking for most of public facilities. "No one else will solve our crises for us." Noo Editor!! Those entrusted with the management (taking care, including maintenance) of our public facilities must solve these "self-inflicted" crises!! We the public must demand that they do their jobs they are paid for. If they don't, we are left with three options:

1) do not pay them (no work no pay)

2) to let them go (becuse they are either not interested in the job or they are not competent), they must voluntarily resign or we force them to resign, and

3) hire (employ) new staff we hope are interested and competent!!! - Werner