EDITORIAL: Do not surrender, Namcor!
Namcor, our national oil company, has been lost to private interest. It’s like Hillbrow, the inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, which the South African authorities have surrendered to undocumented foreigners and criminal gangs.
It’s astounding how Namcor, the most important public entity in the context of the recent oil and gas discoveries, has become a cesspool of criminal syndicate activities – if persistent media headlines are anything to go by. Drug busts, fuel theft, dubious tender awards, jobs for comrades... the list is endless. And government is there, idly looking on as its baby is thrown out with the bathwater by criminal gangs and mafia-like syndicates.
Government’s inaction itself is suspect. They have sacrificed the company at the altar of private interest, as if political leaders are part of these cabals.
There is no decisive action to rein in the forces leading this surge in malpractice at the company. If things are this bad before local oil production has even started, we cannot begin to imagine the disaster that would unfold once oil is out of the ground.
Namcor needs protection. Its governance architecture needs to be fully functional when the first drop of Namibian oil lands. Ethical executives, a patriotic board and substantive managing director – not rotated comrades whose long-term decision-making is impaired by the ‘honeymoon’ acting contracts handed to them. Namibia needs an agile national oil company to serve as the vehicle to deliver our people to the promised land of milk, honey and oil.
It’s astounding how Namcor, the most important public entity in the context of the recent oil and gas discoveries, has become a cesspool of criminal syndicate activities – if persistent media headlines are anything to go by. Drug busts, fuel theft, dubious tender awards, jobs for comrades... the list is endless. And government is there, idly looking on as its baby is thrown out with the bathwater by criminal gangs and mafia-like syndicates.
Government’s inaction itself is suspect. They have sacrificed the company at the altar of private interest, as if political leaders are part of these cabals.
There is no decisive action to rein in the forces leading this surge in malpractice at the company. If things are this bad before local oil production has even started, we cannot begin to imagine the disaster that would unfold once oil is out of the ground.
Namcor needs protection. Its governance architecture needs to be fully functional when the first drop of Namibian oil lands. Ethical executives, a patriotic board and substantive managing director – not rotated comrades whose long-term decision-making is impaired by the ‘honeymoon’ acting contracts handed to them. Namibia needs an agile national oil company to serve as the vehicle to deliver our people to the promised land of milk, honey and oil.
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Namibian Sun
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