Political Perspective

AT RISK of being boring and repetitive, in these trying economic times in which government and people are experiencing a serious cash crunch, I am going to reiterate the need for state cutbacks in fairly obvious areas.

For political reasons, the administration clearly would not want to cut back on jobs or salaries in this Swapo congress year, and they should not be pruning in essential sectors like health and education and even police, but they can surely eliminate waste and excess in a host of other divisions. Additionally, they should be putting people in the picture as to how bad things really are.

I WOULD suggest that President Hage Geingob, who will be giving his State of the Nation address soon, focus on precisely this topic, making sure that Namibians are properly informed on the real state of affairs in which the country finds itself. He needs to ‘tell it like it is’, to borrow a phrase from The Namibian.

This would help to eliminate confusion, and promote widespread understanding of the extent of our predicament, which is essential to ensure citizen buy-in to tighten our belts and tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

The political hierarchy needs to show that they too are prepared to make sacrifices, and to target the rich and the tax-evaders, lest the burden falls, as it usually tends to do, on the middle and lower classes. This might also be a good time to introduce the wealth tax, which has been talked about for some time.

But there are also other areas where government can cut back with immediate effect. The defence budget would seem to be one of the most obvious. Again, politicians fear social upheaval by cutting the wage bill of what is seen by some as nothing more than a glorified employment agency, but they can certainly cancel orders for military hardware and fanciful equipment.

There are some who accuse me of ‘sweating the small stuff’, by targeting things such as S&Ts and foreign trips, but it all mounts up when it comes to savings. Again, I would repeat my earlier call to scrap all but essential travel, and do away with the present unwieldy and grossly extravagant S&T structure with immediate effect, replacing it with an across-the-board single amount per diem for all levels of government and state-owned enterprises.

Recent media reports have amply illustrated the abuse by our multiple SOE executives in terms of excessive salaries and extortionate board fees. There have been a slew of promises over the past year by public enterprises minister Leon Jooste that these are to be curtailed and rationalised. It is high time that this happens, and the public needs to know this has been done.

Executives at all levels of governance must be held accountable once and for all, and be made to face the wrath of the law where they have failed to exercise restraint with money or resources.

We do not need lavish openings of parliament, another sphere where costs can be kept to the minimum, and we could follow the example of Tanzanian president John Magufuli by scrapping independence celebrations this year, and having clean-up campaigns instead. After all, the cleanliness and protection of our environment is diminishing at a probably greater rate even than our finances.

In motivating for a bigger parliament and changing the Constitution, the current attorney general and the President promised better and more effective governance. Despite public resistance to this move, which was nevertheless pushed through, taxpayers are now burdened with a massive wage bill and the hire of additional office space for ‘honourables’ who are more worried about their own security than service delivery to the people. They have not delivered.

So, this is an opportune time too to review the top-heaviness of our executive and legislative bureaucracy, and the generous benefits they receive.

Tackling our current economic challenges requires a national effort, not least of all from the upper echelons of our society, in government, parastatals and the private sector. The broad masses of suffering Namibians cannot be expected to take the brunt of hard times – and neither will they lend their support – without the elite being seen to be making sacrifices too.

Follow me on Twitter: @GwenLister1

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