The Plans That Take Forever

OUR country is not in a good shape. Recent revelations of an over 50 per cent unemployment rate paint a dark picture and show that action needs to be taken, and quickly, to try and turn things around. Added to the abovementioned grim scenario is the fact that recessionary tendencies are at work in our economy; the cost of living is skyrocketing; personal and national debt is increasing; so is corruption; our education system is foundering and a growing skills deficit is a reality.

All attention should be focused on remedial action that is as immediate as it can possibly be. Or at least this is what we believe should be done under the circumstances.But what, on the contrary, is Government doing to alleviate the situation? One would expect an action forum that could be initiated with all the sectors of our economy – from the labour unions to private business and government and the non-governmental community – to brainstorm and come up with a plan. In fact, we would urge Government to consider something like this.But instead, what is happening points to the lack of urgency with which Government views the current crises in our land.For example, a five-year strategic plan for fishing sector was launched by the Minister of Fisheries, Abraham Iyambo, at the coast yesterday. During the launch he said: ‘It must be a living document; not just a formal gesture to be shelved and to gather dust. The Namibian people must hold us accountable to what we have put into this document. We need to apply what we have planned and remain committed to the cause’. And what bothers the Minister is precisely what concerns this newspaper about these five-year, ten-year plans and visions that Government keeps launching, but which never seem to come to fruition. They simply get replaced by the next one.Yet another five-year plan was announced with great fanfare by the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Joel Kaapanda, also yesterday. We stop short of calling the announcement mumbo-jumbo, but to most Namibians, it would make little sense, and doesn’t tell them that Government is actually dealing on an immediate basis with the tasks and challenges that confront them.Minister Kaapanda said, among other things: ‘Our Strategic Plan is founded on a number of strategic themes which are the result of a comprehensive situational analysis undertaken during a protracted stakeholder consultation process …’ and he went on to list the identified strategic themes, which he said ‘translated into a balanced scorecard under which five perspectives have been developed. These include measures, targets, responsible units, critical success factors, and a budget’. And so his speech continued. It would not be understandable to the broader public and perhaps that is precisely why Government goes for these fancy-sounding, and probably very expensive, five- and ten-year initiatives which, at the end of the day, yield little to nothing.Kaapanda is also saying things that should have been said years ago, such as: ‘Technology and the information society are developing very fast and we will become more technology dependent in future’. He should be well aware that despite expensive solutions for Government with regard computerisation and connectivity, most Ministries are still totally reliant on the fax machine, and still far from having caught up with the development of technology.So several Ministries have gone for these elaborate five- and ten-year plans, and Vision 2030 and Cabinet retreats are yet another. At present they are panaceas for the people who are promised development, yet are not seeing it, and Government hopes that all the flurry and fanfare will make it appear as though they have a grip on things, and that their fancy plans are going to turn things around. Certainly not in the immediate future.Five years ago Cabinet had a retreat in Swakopmund. They went back in 2008 for another one which tackled almost completely different issues. We don’t know what the results of those retreats were and a new Cabinet will be appointed next month which will probably also have a retreat while enjoying the sea breeze.Action is precisely what the Namibian people need to see – right now. They need to know how Government will tackle unemployment, and how the skills deficit will affect such plans. Taking a stance to protect unskilled and semi-skilled jobs for Namibian workers is something tangible, but we have to build on this, and ensure that the requisite levels of skills are available at any level in order to Namibianise on a rational basis.We would like to see fewer promises and fancy plans for the future, and more immediate action.