Milestones of Tsotsi Strategists
By The Author [When My Mind is Liberated]
2020 was a year that marked massive failure and uncovered unprecedented corruption at the national level.
Each corruption case was like a scientific discovery, like finding a rotten bone under the dunes and not being able to tell who it belonged to or knowing who buried it, let alone why it was buried there in the first place.
This sounds like a dog having had enough to eat and instead of sharing the remains it rather buries the food deep under wraps, schemes and scientific strategies.
However, most probably unique to Namibia, corruption is not regarded as failure per se, but milestones reached through alternative means. The more corrupt you are the more revered you become, you become a living legend and prestigious titles are even bestowed upon you.
This reminds me of the tsotsi of back then; he could get the prettiest girls in the street and nobody dared ask what the girls saw in him. For starters no tsotsi ever had the looks nor the smoothness needed to woo the “top cherries” but he enjoyed the lusciousness on offer in the lokasie.
While others wrote letters and had to consult romantic novels to search for the right wording for their love letters, the tsotsi used highly effective strategies.
Almost like the tsotsi, who used pure muscles and scare tactics to win over the sweetest of them all, politicians use strategic interventions to steal the resources of the country.
Through their financially draining consultations and constant retreats to “friendly” resorts, they steal government time and divert public funds, just for them to devise more ways to taxpayer’s resources.
As a matter of fact, strategic goals have changed in recent years; they no longer just deplete public resources by directly stealing from the government coffers, but they actually design loopholes through which they can later help themselves.
The effective strategy, long coming as well, is to park huge funds in government agencies, and then collect these funds at a later stage.
One such initiative is the establishment of “a multi-stakeholder forum known as Creative Namibia” by the National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN). “The purpose is to allow arts, culture and heritage to create and articulate a comprehensive vision and mission for CCI (Cultural & Creative Industries) in Namibia.”
It all sounds very impressive on paper but reading between the blurred lines, it’s but another bureaucratic strategy to redirect and park public funds, just for the same government officials to have total control and exploit the funds.
I suppose the NACN could not finish up the funds of previous years, as they are reluctant to fund projects, and now they needed to devise means to secure the means they held back over the years.
Like many other Artists, I’m not part of the strategy and so it sounds as if I am complaining. I mean many of us are branded as “useless” to the Namibia Arts Sector and not worthy of grants from the government development plans.
For 2021, I can only wish the tsotsi strategists and their consultants to flourish in their disempowerment programmes. May they achieve their highest milestones of failure and secure their promotions and a safe future for their children.
