Wobbling Between Beijing and Thatcherism

In A delightful display of administrative schizophrenia, Windhoek manages to combine the heavy-handed state capitalism of Beijing with the discredited market fundamentalism of 1980s Westminster.

On Monday, the state behaves like a central planning committee, bypassing competitive bidding to shower state-owned enterprises with infrastructure contracts for roads and classrooms.

By Tuesday, Cabinet ministers assemble to recite trickle-down catechisms, eager to convert public accommodation into revenue-generation machinery.

Nowhere is this farce more grotesque than in the crusade led by works and transport minister Veikko Nekundi and his freshly minted Public Assets Management Agency of Namibia (Pama).

Driven by an urge to wring profits from public bricks and mortar, Nekundi looks at chaotic state flats, where desperate overcrowding has forced residents to erect makeshift kambashus on balconies, and sees not a tragic failure of public welfare, but an underperforming investment portfolio.