KEETMANSHOOP — Harald Kambrude, Councillor of the Rehoboth Urban Constituency, has called for the dismantling of approximately 95% of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to redirect funds towards national industrialization.

According to the Namibia Press Agency (Nampa), During a stakeholder consultation on public enterprise ownership policies, Kambrude criticized the performance of many SOEs, highlighting their failure to contribute taxes, declare dividends, submit financial reports, and their involvement in significant irregularities. “These enterprises have not yielded benefits for the government or the public, only accruing debt and being subject to excessive political influence,” he asserted.

He pointed out that since 2020, public enterprises have received over N.dollars 3 billion, contrasting with the N.dollars 672 million allocated to the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade. Kambrude proposed a radical approach: “Terminate the SOEs and utilize those resources for industrialization, potentially selling them to Namibian citizens for business use.”

Responding to these remarks, Louise Shixwameni, Deputy Executive Director in the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises, cautioned that such a move could exacerbate inequality. She emphasized that the Namibian economy is currently predominantly owned by a small fraction of the population. “Privatizing SOEs without a robust local private sector could result in reinforcing historical economic imbalances,” she noted.

Namibia’s economy consists of 81 SOEs, collectively employing over 25,000 individuals.