EDITORIAL: Plans we have – accountability we don’t

Former finance minister Ipumbu Shiimi has voiced a truth Namibia cannot ignore: our problem is not planning – it is accountability. For years, government has produced strategies, visions and policy frameworks. What has been missing is the discipline to implement, monitor and enforce them. When coordination sits only at ministerial level, action becomes optional. A plan can move – or stall – depending on who feels like driving it. Shiimi’s comparison between agriculture and green hydrogen is instructive. Hydrogen progressed because reporting lines ran directly to State House, ensuring alignment and follow-through.



Agriculture drifted between ministries, with no central authority demanding results. The outcome is visible in the fields, or rather, in what they fail to produce. His point is not technical – it is political. If Namibia wants real progress in education, industrialisation and food security, delivery cannot rely on goodwill. It must be required, measured and enforced. Without accountability, reforms remain documents. Without pressure from the top, ministries drift. Namibia does not lack ideas. It lacks execution. Accountability is the engine of development – and until it becomes non-negotiable, progress will remain a promise instead of a result.