What We Fought For

IT is high time that President Pohamba holds responsible those ministers who do not perform without reshuffling them left and right.

The President shouldn’t dish out Mercedes Benzes free to ministers who do nothing but squander our hard-earned tax money on projects that don’t bear any fruit.We have been witnessing endless superficial projects and bilateral agreements year in and year out.Throwing taxpayers money away on luxury cars, a new state house, museum, former President’s new headquarters, Heroes Acre, the new jet etc, is not the solution to poverty and unemployment, but self-gratification.We are only two million people, yet our government fails to provide. Namibia is plagued by poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and organised crime, while the country is rich in natural resources such as diamonds, uranium, gold, fish, and minerals. The poor and unemployed have all the right to demand jobs and the luxuries that come with it. There is no question of entitlement. They have been neglected for two decades.We can no longer afford the ever-increasing water and electricity tariffs.Gone are the days we used to grow our own backyard veggies.The salaries of the poor remain stagnant before and after independence, meanwhile the salaries of the elite and the politically well-connected steadily increase yearly.Commercial banks and parastatals (Nam Power, Telecom Namibia, Municipality of Windhoek, Nam Water) have become highly profit-driven entities with no consideration towards Namibians in their pricing strategies.Real empowerment in the form of job creation, free education, government subsidised infrastructure (water, electricity, telecommunications, Internet) is what we need.Mr Paulinus Shilamba of NamPower, please enlighten the nation about the progress of the power purchase agreement of 2007 to the tune of N$ 270 million between Zesa (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority ) and Nampower.We have invested in Zimbabwe’s rundown Hwange power plant, just to be left with insurmountable electricity problems of our own.This and many other short-sighted dealings of NamPower cost the Namibians dearly.Importing electricity and constant price hikes are not the solutions for our shortage of electricity.Shortage of electricity is a serious national issue, and should be dealt with by establishing power plants of our own.Electricity is the lifeblood of any developing country, therefore dependency in this regard should end after twenty years of independence.We should have only one goal, which is that of economic emancipation. After all, it was the forerunner of our hard fought independence struggle.To compromise on that, is like losing sight of one’s destiny.WeishenmeWindhoek

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