EDITORIAL COMMENT
Namibia, unlike many other African countries, prides itself for having a solid , well crafted and mostly followed governance architecture.
At 35 years old since attaining independence there are certain things that Namibia has done well, leaving many other African countries green with envy.
One such thing is to have state processes and institutions that work.
The laws in Namibia have a clear day and night difference between influence of politics and business in general.
However, despite having these clear laws and guidelines that encourage both politics and business to co-exist, more often than not the press has been awash with cases where political interference has been blamed for the failure of many State Owned Enterprises.
The cases are too many to mention and many SOEs have been made a butt of jokes over clashes between the boards and the political figureheads to the detriment of service delivery.
In most cases this has resulted in many SOEs failing to perform to the best of their abilities.
Such interference has also resulted in these important state owned institutions being perennial underperformers and loss makers.
National Housing Enterprises, TransNamib, National Petroleum Corporation (NAMCOR), to mention but a few have all struggled with such cases in the past.
In the case of TransNamib the company still struggles to sustain a rail way that is vital to achieve the much touted transport and logistics hub.
Well this week has nothing to do with these mentioned entities but they all make good anecdotes of how toxic politics and interference can be a poison chalice for any institution.
Whenever political influence or bickering takes centre stage in any institution, success and corporate governance runs out through the window.
We strongly believe that a lack of political will to support the Namibia Green Hydrogen Programme played a part in the departure of James Mnyupe who set it up.
In the past Mnyupe served as a Presidential Economic Advisor and Green Hydrogen commissioner under former President Hage Geingob.
While his team seems to play down aspects of lost favour from the political figureheads, sources confirm that the institution has been struggling to get budgetary support because the political powers that be are not very keen on green hydrogen as a sustainable industry for the future.
Perhaps they have a solid reason , bearing in mind that even economists are casting aspersions on whether this industry can create the much needed jobs.
What is really essential though is that politics has no place to play in national institutions aside from providing the necessary environment that is needed for these institutions to thrive.
It is important that the new administration of President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah confronts this cancer of political interference in public institutions.
Besides, it’s more beneficial for growth and economic performance to have institutions that thrive with qualified management with ability to achieve set goals.
As a country we need to confront this elephant in the (political interference) if we will inch closer to set developmental targets and deal with social ills including poverty and unemployment.
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