Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
The President has announced task forces for the recovery of the economy, health, housing and land.
What the various task forces need to do about these four areas of socio-economic endeavour may, perhaps, sooner rather than later, become clear and expanded and expounded on further on. By Her Excellency herself, perhaps by the task teams themselves. That is if such expounding and clarification may be part of their briefs and mandates. Needless to say, their briefs and mandates need further explication.
Regarding the economy and its propounded recovery, it is a well-known fact that the Namibian economy has, for a greater if not most part of post-independence Namibia, been in some kind of a post-independence hiatus, if not hangover and/or moribund. If not completely caught in a neo-colonial stagnation and/or honeymoon of some sort. That many, especially those who have believed themselves to be politically in charge of the political affairs of the country, still to this day are continuing to believe is attributable to the bad economic climate globally.
Rarely have both our political and economic, and if you like social engineers, ever paused to reflect on what kind of an economic system a free and independent Namibia was compelled to inherit. Because it cannot be denied nor wished away that Namibia inherited a fundamentally and structurally colonial economic system. That was structured and continues to be structurally extractive. Purely geared for the extraction and syphoning of her mineral wealth, and as a requisite and instrumentality, the exploitation of the indigenous people.
It has simply never been designed for the empowerment of the indigenous populations. Instead, it aims to maintain the indigenous people in a state of exploitation and underdevelopment. With them serving no other purpose than serving production for consumerism. Not for the consumption of the indigenous but foremost for the decadence and opulence of foreign elites in the metropoles of the colonising countries. With the indigenous, if lucky, only living off the crumbs from the tables of the greedy capitalist scramblers for Namibian and African resources.
The aforesaid is what drove the people of this country towards their vociferous and unrelenting resistance against imperialism and colonialism, both stages of capitalism. It is an undeniable and unmistakable fact that the state of ill-health many Namibians have been enduring and continue to endure, and which the current administration is destined by the mechanisations of capitalism, and given its own ideological bankruptcy, is destined to aid and abet.
The state of land hunger and landlessness, not to mention homelessness, are all matters which are linked to the state of the economy and capitalist exploitation and neglect, degeneration and retrogression. Conditions in which the indigenous were and have been sentenced, condemned and subjected since the dawn of colonialism and capitalism, and continue to be.
Notwithstanding, capitalism is the economic system that Namibia has embraced, post-independence, without shame. Not only this but also that she has warmly been coying and cowering and has continued and continues to nourish and nurture, if not fertilise. To the extent that anyone endeavouring to tackle whatever social ill Namibia is and has been facing cannot do so without dealing with the colonialist legacy of capitalism. That is why when one hears about any task force that has been established, like the ones announced by the President, one cannot and should not accept them at face value. Without understanding them in their full meaning, be it in intent, purpose and ideological context. This is particularly important considering Namibia’s historical context of colonialism and capitalism.
Is the Task Force on Economic Recovery, which Yours Truly Ideologically considers as the MOTHER of the three, to apply dialectical materialism? As there is no way one can speak of land without the economy or vice versa. As much as one cannot speak about houses without land, and land being the utmost economic factor to build houses on and/or with. Simply, land is the economic factor around which everything virtually evolves and resolves. Thus, it is indeed appropriate for the President to single out, for starters, health, economy, land and housing for her no-business-as-usual crusade.
But still the pertinent question remains: for what? What are these forces to pursue? What would their foremost and utmost preoccupation be, and towards what ultimate end? Does it mean if the economic recovery task force becomes successful in its endeavour, which is basically economic in nature, a healthy nation follows? And/or everyone will have a roof over her/his head and/or have a piece of land? Is economic recovery a sufficient, indeed a necessary factor, as it may be, to ensure a state of equilibrium, and what state? Or equality for that matter, which is and must be the ultimate pursuit. And is such a state attainable under the current system of capitalism? Money, as they say, is the root of all evils. Same, Yours Truly Ideologically, one cannot but wonder if the current state of economic chaos and stagnation is not the natural culmination of capitalism. Be that the case, any exercise by the distinguished experts and technocrats, and what-have-you, could just be another futile exercise. Treating what are essentially inherent and systematic ailments of capitalism. Which, essentially, is tampering and tinkering with it but leaving its fundamentals intact? While we are supposed to be engaging in unusual businesses, are we not only reinventing the wheels of the Vision 2030s, Mass Housings and the Harambees? Are we with the task forces not putting the cart before the horses? In the sense of establishing task forces. Task forces to implement ‘what if’ – in the first place, we do not have in place policies to undo capitalism? Or is undoing capitalism not on the agenda? If not, then what are task forces to untangle and unravel? Or ultimately implement? These are all matters that we need to seriously ponder to help give the initiatives by Her Excellency, first the requisite content – that it is ideologically equipped with the right compass – and eventually steer it in the right direction.
Those politically in charge of a post-independence Namibia have been blamed, as much as it may be clear it is about the recovery thereof, and health, land and housing are and may yet be fully established. At least to all and sundry in the country, other than the President and her women and men, and likewise lately her technocrats and experts.
Undeniably, the eclectic team of experts and technocrats that she has assembled is a formidable one, having no doubt established themselves in one way or another in their chosen fields of expertise, competence and professionalism as may be. BUT ultimately depending on what they are actually meant to do eventually after everything has been said and done.
