EDITORIAL: Cull the parasitic SOEs

We do not seem to have taken a cue from the lessons accrued from the decisive liquidation of Air Namibia.That historic decision, one of the best ever by the Geingob administration, has left us with a template on how to deal with useless public enterprises going forward.In October, Namibian Sun reported that government, in this difficult time, had to pay N$9 million to bail out one of its chronically failing entities, Agribusdev, which owed a South African company. Today, the same entity is on our front page for even worse ills.The fact that parastatals are making huge losses is no surprise. What is alarming is that they have been allowed to do so for so long and that politicians have continued to pump our money into these bottomless pits.In the case of Air Namibia, it had to take N$8 billion of taxpayer money for politicians to realise that this madness must come to an end. It left the country limping like a wounded buffalo.Armchair critics gave long sermons on how the airline’s liquidation would affect tourism to Namibia – a position that now seems ridiculous because existing private airlines have ably filled that void.Let’s not waste time on entities that perpetually make losses. In fact, unless an entity is social service-oriented, there is no reason to hesitate on pulling the plug.

EDITORIAL: Cull the parasitic SOEs

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

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EDITORIAL: Cull the parasitic SOEs

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

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