Basic Income Grant Coalition lobbies President

PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba met representatives of the Basic Income Grant (BIG) Coalition at State House yesterday.

The Coalition, made up of a host of different organisations, is lobbying for the introduction of an unconditional N$100 minimum grant to every Namibian not yet eligible for a Government pension. The President yesterday met the head of the delegation, Bishop Zephania Kameeta, BIG coordinator Reverend Philip Strydom, Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) Director Norman Tjombe and academic researcher Reverend Dirk Haarman, in a closed-door session to discuss the implementation of the proposed grant.At the end of the day, Pohamba had “not committed himself to anything”, Kameeta said after emerging from the hour-long meeting, although the President did promise to take the matter up with Cabinet.”That’s all we can ask,” Kameeta said.”We cannot give the President of Namibia a time frame, but for us this was enough.The most positive thing is that he said we must stay in consultation, stay in communication.”We had a very open and frank discussion.He asked very frank questions, so the meeting went beyond our expectations,” Kameeta continued.The idea for BIG started in 2002, Kameeta told the President before the closed-door session began, when Government’s Namibian Tax Consortium (Namtax) stated that it found the best method of addressing poverty and inequality to be a universal income grant.The grant would retrieve the money from those not in need, Kameeta said, through progressive tax adjustments.In this same way, the grant would overcome the threat of people becoming dependent on it.Last year, BIG representatives met the then Speaker of the National Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab, and the Parliamentary Committee on Human Resources, Social and Community Development.According to Reverend Haarman, both entities were supportive of the idea.The President yesterday met the head of the delegation, Bishop Zephania Kameeta, BIG coordinator Reverend Philip Strydom, Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) Director Norman Tjombe and academic researcher Reverend Dirk Haarman, in a closed-door session to discuss the implementation of the proposed grant.At the end of the day, Pohamba had “not committed himself to anything”, Kameeta said after emerging from the hour-long meeting, although the President did promise to take the matter up with Cabinet.”That’s all we can ask,” Kameeta said.”We cannot give the President of Namibia a time frame, but for us this was enough.The most positive thing is that he said we must stay in consultation, stay in communication.”We had a very open and frank discussion.He asked very frank questions, so the meeting went beyond our expectations,” Kameeta continued.The idea for BIG started in 2002, Kameeta told the President before the closed-door session began, when Government’s Namibian Tax Consortium (Namtax) stated that it found the best method of addressing poverty and inequality to be a universal income grant.The grant would retrieve the money from those not in need, Kameeta said, through progressive tax adjustments.In this same way, the grant would overcome the threat of people becoming dependent on it.Last year, BIG representatives met the then Speaker of the National Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab, and the Parliamentary Committee on Human Resources, Social and Community Development.According to Reverend Haarman, both entities were supportive of the idea.