Namibia’s government has misdiagnosed the problem by instructing NamPower to stop taking tough measures to recover N$1 billion owed for unpaid electricity.
Not only was the board legally correct to defy a Cabinet order that NamPower stop cutting electricity to defaulters, but it is also the height of irresponsible governance to promote a culture of non-payment.
Namibians should understand that the only reason the country still gets electricity from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia is because NamPower has been paying our bills.
All three countries have at one point or another sacrcificed their own populations and pushed power to Namibia because our dollars did the talking.
The Cabinet must find other solutions to supplying electricity to those who cannot afford it. But telling NamPower not to act against defaulting municipalities and regional electricity distributors will only support the incompetent directors, managers and councillors of those institutions.
If anything, NamPower should be consistent in applying their debt-collection rules, rather than trying to make concessions in a manner that suggests buddy-buddy decision-making.
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