Don’t stay mute on corruption

Dear sir,
It’s official. We Namibians are in a mess and we created it ourselves. According to the  World Bank, “government corruption in Namibia is a bigger problem than any other form of organised crime or fraud” in our country. We should think long and hard about this!
Our newspapers have reported extensively about the emerging and now blossoming corruption in all its various forms during the years since independence. Both presidents tried to fight corruption, but in vain. It seems corruption grows by the day in leaps and bounds.
I say it “seems” to grow because it is very carefully veiled and it is only when a plaque-boil burst that we have the opportunity to look behind the veils. Billions and billions have been lost already and it hurts to imagine what could have been achieved for this young nation if these accumulated billions would have been invested properly and honestly to improve Namibia’s future.
Now we are reading yet again about towns which are without water and electricity and are bankrupt. Will this never stop? How is it possible that towns repeatedly fail? How is it possible that our nation is going the same way as other failed nations; the way of dishonest management, the way of lending more and more money to plug the forever growing holes of unemployment and eroded infrastructure. It is the way that will, eventually, have the same consequences other states are now facing.
Why do all our towns fail? Should we not look at the doings of the line-ministry? Should we not investigate the system that allows this universal failure on all fronts? What is right, what is wrong and what has to change to make the wrongs right? These questions warrant answers!
These local authorities should do some introspection and should find out what the causes are that result in them not being able to pay for electricity and water. Look at each of those figures, analyse them, turn them around and around, change what has to be changed in your ‘system’ so that the figures will change. Then you will have a business that is healthy and pays dividends!
Let us face corruption. Currently, it is Usakos, Leonardville and Gibeon who are seen as the latest burst boils of our national pestilence – corruption. The time has come to join the World Bank and other voices warning against corruption. We, the people of Namibia, may no longer stay mute, inert or, worse, utterly indifferent. We have to stand up and speak up! Namibia is too poor, too small, too underdeveloped to repeat the same mistakes that brought so many other older, previously rich and prosperous nations to the brink of national bankruptcy. Be assured, there is no one who will bail Namibia out; Namibia is not important enough for the world to do so.
Avram J. Silberling
Windhoek