{"id":444189,"date":"2011-06-20T08:18:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T08:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/20\/to-bee-or-to-pee\/"},"modified":"2011-06-20T08:18:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T08:18:40","slug":"to-bee-or-to-pee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/20\/to-bee-or-to-pee\/","title":{"rendered":"To Bee Or to Pee?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Smith<\/p>\n

15 June 2011<\/p>\n

\n

column<\/p>\n

Apart from taxes and death the only other certainty in Namibia is that Swapo, solidly in power since Independence, will remain in power for the next ten years and maybe longer.<\/p>\n

This reality is largely justified by legitimacy gained by the birth of independent Namibia; while other players, geopolitical changes and economics played their role, Swapo’s claims are, not unreasonably, consolidated in the minds of most Namibians.<\/p>\n

As such, the competitive political environment, will tend to consolidate within the powers that be, Swapo, and sideline alternative thinking. Indeed as power consolidates, the voices of dissent, however patriotic and well argued are consigned to the political rubbish bin of “national interest”, third forces and unpatriotic. Reason is removed from the equation. Assertion, spin and off-hand dismissal thus reduce the pool of knowledge and thought to the “chosen few”. Political atrophy becomes a danger and internal party forces focus upon jockeying for positions of power and privilege. Priorities shift from delivering to the people to consolidating the security of “tenure”.<\/p>\n

“It is vain, Trot, to recall the past unless it works some influence upon the present”, so says Miss Trotwood in David Copperfield (Dickens). This seems to summarise GRN’s constant need to remind the people of the past as it seems that their legitimacy remains based on the past rather than the present and future! And such reminders serve to confuse, in the people’s minds, that Swapo, while being the party in power, is, in itself not the government. Government is a separate institution guided by a legal framework of a sovereign state, our Constitution and has a duty of care to all Namibians.<\/p>\n

However the good thing about Swapo’s continuity of power is that accountabilities are clear! Standards of governance, resistance to corrupt practice, adherence to human rights codes, Court operations, budgetary control and national standards of ethics, behaviour and performance all link back, through government, to our elected. They in turn are, in the majority, Swapo members. As Namibians every 5 years we elect a President and a political party to rule us for a further 5 years – essentially an elected dictatorship for a defined period.<\/p>\n

In our environment I have no problem as a consensus based process would never make decisions! But I put my trust in such process as we have rights of association, free speech, a free press, the right to peaceful protest all entrenched in our democratic process. Add to this the published Swapo manifesto, statements by notables on zero tolerance for corruption, interference in judicial process, violent crime, especially towards the vulnerable, an open tender process and clearly stated financial goals, all good stuff but .<\/p>\n

However there are disturbing trends, an electoral judgement where a top electoral official is cited in the same sentence as the term “perjury” over voters roll inconsistencies and nothing happens, demands are made for “unconditional acceptance” of a fast track tender process when the current, slower process, is evidently flawed, high profile corruption and incompetence hearings and decisions are endlessly delayed by “administrative” matters and prima facia evidence of Trustee activities show due diligence and collateral requirements are absent but presently nothing happening, even the report is hidden. But it is the tender process that is really sick.<\/p>\n

Sure BEE and affirmative action programmes are fine even if some effectiveness has to be sacrificed in the interests of learning curves but the gross abuse of the tender system in producing a small elite of “Mr 20%s” and circumstantial evidence that large contracts being horribly overpriced to cater for “signing commissions” or similar should have the political alarm bells going. But no, N$200k toilets or multimillion bungs for politically linked parasites on scanner contracts, while probably legal, show a lack of good governance! Many other abuses are coming to light, many diversionary tactics are ducking the zero tolerance criteria.<\/p>\n

What is actually happening is our political leaders are rapidly creating an oligarchal class of “tenderpreneurs” who roam the GRN funded economic scene trawling for cash cow opportunities. We can’t even supply reliable oxygen to our hospitals but do nothing but “make a report”. Thus it is a disturbing thought, or is it a reality, that BEE is being misused to direct funds towards its political acolytes. We say one thing and do exactly the opposite.<\/p>\n

“Black Economic Empowerment” is turning into “Political Economic Enrichment”. We are slowly reaching a critical mass whereby new access of tenderpreneurs to easy money is now getting saturated; a new source is needed. Job creation and unconditional acceptance are routes used by others on our continent! Democratic choice and access to information are further stifles to conceal reality.<\/p>\n

Maybe BEE is turning to PEE! Maybe Miss Trotwood is right? We need a reason for current legitimacy, not ancient history.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\nTo Bee Or to Pee?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Smith 15 June 2011 column Apart from taxes and death the only other certainty in Namibia is that Swapo, solidly in power since Independence, will remain in power for the next ten years and maybe longer. This reality is largely justified by legitimacy gained by the birth of independent Namibia; while other players, geopolitical changes and economics played their role, Swapo’s claims are, not unreasonably, consolidated in the minds of most Namibians. As such, the competitive political environment, will tend to consolidate within the powers that be, Swapo, and sideline alternative thinking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":444190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-444189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"\nTo Bee Or to Pee? - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/20\/to-bee-or-to-pee\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"To Bee Or to Pee? - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Chris Smith 15 June 2011 column Apart from taxes and death the only other certainty in Namibia is that Swapo, solidly in power since Independence, will remain in power for the next ten years and maybe longer. 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