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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Political culture as structural variable of the democratisation process. State as job dispenser: the strange case of the Namibian government's
| Panel |
53. Les effets socio-économiques de la « deuxième décolonisation africaine » au nom du marché libre et global
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| Paper ID | 586 |
| Author(s) |
Fiamingo, Cristiana Ilaria
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Even if progresses have been accomplished, the value of transparency is far from being part of the political culture of Namibia, both intended as a duty of the State and a determinant expectation from the citizens, as projected in the “Vision 2030” programme . This is an undeniable fact, notwithstanding a process started many years ago, through the direct action of many Namibian NGOs (NID, Forum for the Future, et cetera) sustained by foreign support, and factual steps accomplished by the Namibian Government that, since the integration in the Constitution of the Ombudsman Office, developed a strategy through the principles of the Public Service Charter (1997), the Anti-corruption Act (2004), the Anti-corruption Commission (2005), and the Zero tolerance campaign (2006).
Beyond written principles that certify the attempts of the State to harmonize the relation between its political structures and the political culture, the praxis on behalf of the Government and its interaction with the society, is the first foundation of every state-building process in order to implement such a political culture.
As an integral part of the nation-building process – as it was defined – I will describe the anomalous management of the “Peace Project” (1998-2002?) and its consequences. Such a reintegration process of the Namibian ex-combatants into the society, directed in the name of the reconciliation policy, provided registration and absorption of thousands of ex-combatants in the State, despite of the seriously needed and officially adopted programme to reduce the employees of the public sector, since the first National Development Plan of the Independent Namibian State. Beyond the solution of a compelling problem, its anomaly lies in an at least “asymmetrical” attitude towards ex-Plan fighters and ex-SWATF/Koevoet soldiers left in Namibia by the withdrawn South African Army; in a never officially resolved question of the pension of the Namibian soldiers dependent from the South African army during the occupation of the territory; not to say about the continuous registration of the ex-combatants – still reported in 2006, years after the official end of the project which opened those registers – with the implicit promise to assure a job (unemployment rate in Namibia by 2006 was 36,7%), not giving public information of such an extension. These are just a few aspects of this controversial example of a semi-secret and on purpose undetermined way of dealing with the “equal” protection of the rights of the Namibian citizens on behalf of the State. An example in which the interests of the State and of the Government fatally comes to coincide with the ones of the major Party – the SWAPO – while they are poorly contested or ignored in a still hegemonic context.
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