Local economists are scrambling for the throat of Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila for her continuous spending spree, a trend they believe will come back to haunt us – and hurtfully so.
There were several surprises in the budget tabled Wednesday, with massive injections in defence and other portfolios of prominence.
The senior citizens have, for the past successive years, enjoyed a regular N$50 annual increase in their monthly pension, but many almost dropped dead when they heard Saara was less sympathetic towards them this time around.
The majority of the elders in our country have government as their prime source of income. This is either because their own sons and daughters are unemployed, have succumbed to diseases such as Aids or have moved to establish their own families far from their elderly parents.
And looking to the sky, the rain – which waters the elderly fields in rural areas – is in short supply.
With drought still lingering above this nation’s head, the old-age pension continues to be the only hope for many grannies in the villages, most of whom also take care of their grandchildren, some of them orphans.
As though these were not enough misery, the commodity prices have continued to steadily increase. Just this week, the ministry of trade, in a statement read in parliament, said it was alarmed by the increase in prices of basic commodities – including food.
The nation has been left to the mercy of market forces, and the senior citizens are paying the highest price.
It is in this context that government should have moved to protect the elderly – even if it means giving them their traditional N$50 annual increase that has become synonymous with the reign of Kuugongelwa-Amadhila as finance minister.
By increasing allocations to expenditures such as civil servants and keeping old-age pensions unchanged, government has essentially robbed Peter to pay Paul. And Peter in this context is, unfortunately, the elderly.
We are not taking away the essence of what civil servants truly deserve. They are the grease that ensures the smooth running of the government machinery and therefore deserve a fair remuneration.
And while we do not buy into the notion that Namibia has no security threat that warrants high defence allocation as is often argued by the armchair critics, we are alarmed by the astronomic N$6.6 billion figure.
Our defence force has become known for food tender squabbles, than anything security-related.
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