Just Get the Job Started

For several years now, in its annually published global competitiveness report, the World Economic Forum ranks Namibia as the country with the best quality of road infrastructure in Africa.

This might be true for the country’s national roads, but nowadays, the same cannot be said for maintenance of the roads in the capital city and at Walvis Bay.

Reportedly people now wager a bet on which of the two cities is home to the highest number of PHDs – Windhoek or Walvis Bay?

Here the abbreviation PHD is not used in an academic context but rather to describe the number of motorists who successfully navigate around the ever-rising number of potholes to be found on the highways and byways of these two cities, the pothole dodgers.

Names of government institutions, organisations, public enterprises and corporate firms tend to be a mouthful, to the extent that Namibians have enthusiastically embraced the common use of abbreviations and acronyms.

Ones such as NBC, NHE, NUNW, RFA, NIP, Nipa, NTN, DBN, NCCI, RA, RCC, NMA, HAN, NBL, NTA, FNB, NQA, Nida, NWR, Nust, Namcol, NEPC, MVA, Unam, NSC, NTB, NCHE and KFC are commonly used.

So, PHD can now be added to that long and ever-growing list as an abbreviation for pothole dodger.

It is expensive to fix road damage after heavy rain, so, understandably, cost is a factor.

After all, there are other pressing municipal service needs in Windhoek and Walvis Bay, the fastest growing urban centres in Namibia.

One wonders why it is taking so long for these two cities to start tackling basic road maintenance – even if it is just by filling potholes on major roads and busy intersections.

Is it a lack of leadership on the part of local government politicians or inept management of employed officials?

Leadership and management are complementary, but leaders have followers and managers subordinates who are paid to execute work tasks.

Managers plan, organise, coordinate and do. Leaders inspire and motivate.

Without ignoring the importance of political leadership, the pivotal role of management once again comes to the fore when it comes to connecting efficiency and optimal service delivery in the public sector.

A ‘good’ manager anticipates and then adjusts or applies funding to execute work tasks according to circumstances and by setting priorities for what is deemed best at that time to achieve a desired outcome.

When it comes to managers in the public sector, people in such posts must manage and direct work efforts, anticipate needs and allocate required resources, thereby ensuring services are being delivered and work tasks executed efficiently and timeously.

Leadership and management might differ in the public sector, but what is more important is to get the job done.

At Walvis Bay it is, without a shadow of doubt, to maintain and routinely repair the city’s road infrastructure as failure to do so undermines national efforts to market the port as an important part of a logistics hub for the sub-continent.

For Windhoek, the need to start fixing the roads, albeit by way of a phased approach beginning with the main ones first before the next rainy season starts, must be a priority.

For goodness sake, Walvis Bay and Windhoek, just get the job started.

– Danny Meyer is reachable at danny@smecompete.com

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