EDITORIAL: Namibia’s corruption fight an uphill battle

Namibian ambassador to China Elia Kaiyamo’s call for Namibia to emulate China’s hard-line stance on corruption sounds good in theory, but impractical in practice when considering the nature of our governance system.

Ours is a system that is easily manipulated by those in power to get away with unlawful acts, yet so quick to pounce on ordinary men and women accused of graft.

The creation of the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2005 came as a breath of fresh air for many Namibians who thought the scourge of corruption would finally be eliminated. But reality soon kicked in, with many critics accusing the anti-graft body of only targeting the proverbial small fish in the pond.

Many of our anti-corruption initiatives end up being used to fill space in political speeches instead of sending the corrupt to fill prison cells. Corruption is one of the major sources of resource leakage in our country. This is why we have the unenviable status of being a resource-rich country with a citizenry that is drowning in abject poverty.

Government has initiated many noble tools to fight corruption; however, many of those entrusted to run the system have ulterior motives to ultimately line their own pockets.