Implementation Fragility in State-Owned Enterprises: Governance, Capability and Regulatory Transition at Namibia’s National Reinsurer

State-owned enterprises can remain formally strategic while losing the ability to execute. This article conceptualizes that condition as implementation fragility: delayed, partial and vulnerable execution that emerges before organizational failure becomes visible. Using an interpretivist qualitative case study of Namibia National Reinsurance Corporation Limited, the study examines preparedness for the phased withdrawal of per-policy cessions by 28 March 2028. Evidence from 12 semi-structured interviews and six categories of organizational documents is analyzed through agency theory, dynamic capabilities theory and the McKinsey 7S alignment lens. Findings show that regulatory transition exposed pre-existing weaknesses in accountability, technical oversight, actuarial and analytical capability, digital systems, procurement routines, performance contracts and strategic alignment. The article explains dynamic capabilities in a state-owned enterprise as governance-conditioned and advances a sequencing argument: accountability repair should precede capability investment, which should precede major transformation where protected revenue is being withdrawn. Transformation plans become performative when announced before credible decision rights, implementation indicators, budgets, systems and strategic skills are in place. The findings provide boards, regulators and policymakers with an early-warning lens for diagnosing execution risk before regulatory shocks turn latent fragility into financial and strategic failure.