Retire all civil servants at 55

FRITZ H DAUSAB, LPM COMMISSAR FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS WRITES:According to figures given by Minister Schlettwein in the budget review speech, Namibian finances are in a desperate race to the bottom at the soonest convenient time.Examining the status quo between the national budget of N$66 billion and the adjusted upwards tax collections from N$56 billion in March 2019 to N$58.1 billion at the 22nd October 2019, with an adjusted deficit from N$6 billion to N$8.1 billion (Pwc) it is our belief that the slow-paced implementation of the Namibia Revenue Agency needs to be brought online faster.Through continued investments in government offices and political offices in regions, the Swapo led government have for the past 10 years pursued development and creating jobs through public infrastructure investments. Even though public infrastructure over a long period bodes well for Namibia, what is being built (government offices), and to whom the tenders are given (Chinese) is directly correlating to the closing of Namibian companies, furthering unemployment.Over the past seven years most construction tenders went to Chinese companies. These are the companies that does not pay Namibian workers per hour, as per Namibian law. Concessional loans dictates Chinese construction companies to be given tenders, while importing all building material and workers from China.The continuous bailout of State-Owned Enterprises like NBC with N$54 Million in the mid-year budget means that government is as usual unaccountable to taxpayers in Namibia. In his reason for bailing out NBC, Minister Schlettwein stated that the NBC is an important disseminator of important information to the general public. What the good minister chose to omit was that NBC is only a mouthpiece to the ruling Swapo government, and that is why they are being bailed out over and over again.At the Pwc breakfast talk Schlettwein stated that Air Namibia (just like the NDF private company August 26) never in its inception paid any dividends to Namibian government. Government owned companies such as August 26 has its own construction businesses that is building army bases all over Namibia. They were also never audited.The scrapping of the manufacturing incentives and furthermore the scrapping of the export processing zones, is the right move because Namibia does not benefit from skills transfer by these companies and also lose out on all import taxes and VAT. Yet the main reason why this the best move is found in the inability of the Namibian government to use such incentives to bolster the industrialisation drive.STOP THUMB-SUCKINGThe consultant thought-out industrialisation scheme and thumb-suck Vision 2030 was never going to industrialise Namibia. The proof is in the pudding of all our NDP plans, as well as the Growth at Home Strategy and Geingob's Harambee Prosperity Plan. All these plans of Swapo to industrialise Namibia are in vain, as there is no political will to change the status quo. The first reason is that Namibia is a capitalist economy, albeit tempered with socialist features. Secondly our big brother South Africa through the SACU pool bribes the Namibian government to keep the country underdeveloped and dependent on this money. The extra funds to education and arts, although something worthwhile, is not worth the investment currently. For the same reason that our education system does not match the industry job requirements. The disastrous rules by which the scholars are favoured and pampered to pass without sweating to achieve a pass on their own; with the added view that working with hands are beneath people with degrees, makes Namibians only good for tertiary roles, while looking down on mechanics, plumbers and farmers. Furthermore, the free education brought by government omits the crucial role supposed to be played by private companies to come on board and advise government on skills needed.The total debt of N$87,5 billion, which is 45,2% of GDP is really worrisome. This was one of the reasons Namibia was downgraded twice in the past two years. The argument by the ratings agencies was that the government does not have the political will to make the necessary decisions to lower government debt.While Minister Schlettwein informed parliament that there were savings made by government through the freezing of posts as well as wage freezes for past three years, the majority of the transferred money came from the Development Budget. Namibian government just took a N$4 billion loan from the African Development Bank. Why would government increase our huge debt?In realising the haphazard way in which the Namibian economy is ran, LPM is of the opinion that the unnecessary large public wage bill needs to be reduced urgently. This can be achieved by retiring all public servants above 55. Halve of these retirees' posts could be filled by part of 67 000 unemployed graduates.Secondly we must reduce the parliamentary seats, which was increased by Geingob in a political gamble. Thirdly retire the entire A-Team of the President and lastly focus the entire savings of these measures on debt reduction, state-led development and skills development for school dropouts.

Retire all civil servants at 55

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Republikein 2025-05-06

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Retire all civil servants at 55

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