A few contradictory headlines about Namibia’s labour situation made me sit up and cringe.
The Namibian recently reported that the Namibia Labour Force Survey 2008 puts unemployment at 51 per cent. It was also revealed that the Labour Minister has sat on this report since September 2009. Who could blame him? No one would want to reveal such damning evidence of one’s own failure, so close to elections! Especially if your party is in the habit of boasting how many thousands of jobs it would create once it is elected even though they’ve not yet done anything substantial to make good on their lofty promises.Insight Namibia magazine in its latest edition tells a disgusting tale of how Jerry Ekandjo used his political muscle to cow the Otjozondjupa Regional Council into paying a former Chief Regional Officer well over N$200 000 and reappoint her just as her house was about to be repossessed. He wrote a string of letters directing the council to pay up or face expulsion from their plush positions. This, while there was a court case pending in which the former CRO is accused of a misappropriating funds at both the Regional Council and at her previous employer, the Gender Ministry, where she allegedly took N$26 000 of donor funding for herself. She was supposed to attend a workshop but did not go. This fact, however, did not deter her from writing a report for the Minister on the meeting in question!These two cases show exactly where the priorities of our decision-makers lie. While one out of every two Namibians is left helpless, frustrated and hungry next to the roads, the people we employ to make sound decisions on our behalf (at great cost to us) use their office to help dubious individuals close to them acquire tenders and get their hands on public assets and their bums onto seats that they are not fit to occupy.It is clear that our leaders have no sense of the responsibility entrusted to them, or they would have had a detailed plan to deal with unemployment. For a long time unemployment was thought to be around 36 per cent. Even that horrendous statistic never seemed to bother our leaders as I can think of no clear and credible plan implemented, with urgency, to mitigate a further slump. The few half-hearted attempts at job creation were always fraught with political meddling and official bungling.While there aren’t many jobs going around there is no plan to assist the unemployed with a proper safety net with social grants. Up to now the powers-that-be have stubbornly refused to consider the much vaunted Basic Income Grant and their affiliates (NUNW) have so far failed to convince them.The current unemployment rate in the US hovers around 10 per cent and it is seen as a disaster. In contrast, with half the nation jobless we do not even get a dignified response from the man in charge of this calamity. While the Minister was ‘busy with other things’ our people are left with no dignity and no hope and all they are good for is to make a cross come election time. The Minister’s priority is to cling onto his and his party’s position as our rulers, forgetting why he is occupying the position in the first place.Instead of getting people off the streets, Government strategies and lack of urgency in dealing with the problem have caused the army of unemployed to swell even further with their flawed education system. Government failed to build enough properly equipped vocational centres and train young people in technical fields to equip them with skills so they don’t end up in a dead-end street without any hope of getting out of the poverty trap.To compound the situation we import hordes of Asian construction workers and dish out all Government construction work to companies owned by them. The Tender Board only recently decided that all semi-skilled and unskilled workers must be ‘sourced from Namibia’. Does this mean that the current throng of Chinese and Korean bricklayers also qualify because they are already in Namibia and have probably some sort of dubious documentation that would qualify them? But this will not be enforced as there is no political will to ensure our people’s needs are prioritised.Unemployment should be gauged more frequently so Government can plan and devise corrective measures. And if the situation worsens because plans did not work out or were not implemented, heads must roll.Sadly, no one will fall on the sword because there were no plans to alleviate the situation to start with. Ask any minister what his plans are for his ministry and he would say that he is there to carry out the instructions of the party and the president. So, if I don’t make plans I can’t be held responsible if they don’t pan out. Nice job, if you can get it!Of course, employment creation is not only Government’s job but they are responsible for effective policies and a conducive climate for business to thrive in and employ locals. I think that poorly thought-out and deficient planning and short-sightedness won’t help at all.When will we see action that shows us our Government put its people first?
