Plus Ca Change, Plus C’est La Meme…

//Karas is really not so much a new name but a linguistic correction which could as well have been extended to (/)Khomas. In respect of Die Bucht and Schuckmansburg, the native names of these places have been restored. The immediate reason for these changes arises from the recommendations of the Fourth Delimitation Commission established in terms of Article 104 of the constitution.

The commission tabled its report about a month ago. While the final determination on the composition and number of the regions rests with the President, it is the Delimitation Commission, in terms of Article 105, which decides on the number of councillors per region. The announcement on Thursday did not only affect the (re)naming and the number of regions but created 14 new constituencies.

In terms of the Electoral Act, elections need to take place within the next 85 days in these new constituencies. The currency of the present 10-year-old voters roll will, however, run its course in about another two weeks. In the meantime, both houses of the parliament have already been summoned to debate and attend to this potential legal void.

Representative democracy, such as based on constituency system, is not only about free and unfettered expression of choice but is also about equity. And for this reason, densely populated regions will naturally have a higher number of constituency representatives. This is to ensure that each MP or a councillor represents roughly the same number of constituents.

However, given the nature of our decentralisation, we frankly need to answer the question as to the value regional councils add to governance. That is to say, does the increase in the numbers of councillors make for good governance or improved delivery of service? Or are we adding and/or creating a class which simply lives off the fat of the land.

Truth be told, in the absence of own budgets the regional councils are an extension of the bureaucracy of central government while the struggling local authorities are legally required to transfer part of funds generated locally to these councils. Yet it is the local authorities which are the closest level of government to the people.

And it is this level of government which needs to be strengthened for better service delivery. In order to reach the largest number of citizens, we need to proclaim more and many more local authorities in the areas where Namibians live in large numbers.

The business of the Delimitation Commission, of course, is to advise on the determination of regional and constituency borders which is a combined function of geography and population size. The announcement by the President on Thursday last week, however, also changed names of towns and settlements.

For reasons of consistency it may be helpful to have a participatory, statutory process of name changing of towns and settlements. For, as public administration theory teaches us, policy making where discretion is minimal makes for certainty and better outcome as this reduces whimsical action on the part of policy makers. Such an approach will further remove lingering questions in the public mind as to why certain places were selected for the name changes announced.

Were the continued existence of these place names more offensive and of more colonial heritage than so many place and street names in our country, for example? True, naming of towns and other public spaces always tells a story about the country and its people and ours should equally be an endeavour to tell as complete a history of our country and people as we can.

For the first time there was so much interest shown in the work of a Delimitation Commission and the fruits of its labour were eagerly awaited. There was, at the same time, public agitation and petitions for new regions to incorporate and/or freeze regions within the borders of a tribe. Yet the experience of the ‘urban’ regions demonstrates that the angst about the loss of tribal land and the place of the regions themselves are overrated.

Take the incongruity of /Khomas region, for example, where all but one of the constituencies falls within the Windhoek municipal area, effectively rendering councillors superfluous. In the same fashion, as local authorities are rolled out the first port of call will be these local authorities.

We note, however, that there is a nod to this campaign in the new constituencies announced. Given the size of our country and its sparse population, sound administration and effective governance should be the remit of local authorities – thus following the Swiss example in this case as opposed to that of DRC.