Opinion - Corruption in Namibia – systemic or systematic?
2021-04-30
In his response to questions posed by the opposition in the National Assembly during the State of the Nation Address debate on 15 April 2021 in the National Assembly, President Geingob rejected claims that corruption in Namibia is systemic. The President rather contended that corruption in Namibia is systematic. The President supported his assertion by arguing that Namibian corruption is systematic because ‘you do not need to pay for the system to move’ (indirectly quoted).
Although the President’s argument in regards to the delineation of systemic and systematic may be correct in their simplest connotation, it nonetheless needs to be interrogated further to determine whether corruption in Namibia is systemic or systematic – and to what extent. To achieve a clear distinction between the two concepts of systemic and systematic corruption, an exposition of the two terms is called for.