Chiefs and cleaners

The Namibian newspaper of November 13 2009 reported two stories that are symbolic of the distinct class society in Namibia. On the front page, there is the story how Government tapped into a non-existent fund to procure N$2,23 million for a kidney transplant for Chief Angelina Ribebe in the United States of America. The surgery will apparently cost less than N$500 000 in South Arica.

On the inside page is a report of the all too common story of a victim of domestic violence: Her ex-lover doused her and her children with petrol and set them alight, killing one of her children and resulting in 80 per cent of her skin being torched. Irene Uiras is a poor citizen of this country, living, like most people, in appalling conditions in Windhoek’s sprawling informal settlements, with no access to private- or State-funded medical aid. She has a life threatening and excruciatingly painful condition and is in desperate need of reconstructive surgery, which can be done in neighbouring South Africa. She does not have the money for that.Chief Angelina Ribebe is a chief of a relatively large community – indeed a high social status in Namibia, with access to a State-funded medical aid, which can cover up to 95 per cent of the costs of her emergency medical treatment. Why Irene Uiras was not considered for fast-tracked financial assistance for emergency medical treatment earlier or even now, as is the case with Chief Ribebe, is not known. The Government cannot claim that it did not know about her fate: for the last two years she has been living in a State hospital, run by the very Ministry that fast-tracked the Chief’s access to the yet-to-be established medical trust fund. WIDESPREADWe have yet to get the full story on the scholarships granted to the children of relatively affluent parents, all of them senior political and Government officials, at the expense of the many poor aspirant and deserving students. The City of Windhoek evicts poor people from their homes when they are unable to pay for basic services like water, or evicts masses of poor squatters from vacant land, whilst the wealthy are allowed to run up the water bills in excess of N$300 000, without even the threat of the supply of water being cut off, let alone the house being auctioned off to recoup the outstanding costs for services rendered.Thousands of orphans will, at the best of times, have access to one cheap soup meal a day, whilst ministries and parastatals will take up all the available space in the print media with birthday wishes to their own Minister or Managing Director. The birthdays of the cleaners and other ‘lower class’ employees are always forgotten. When a poor community-run organisation requests funding for food for the orphanages that they run, they are always met with the same answer that there are no funds available. The costs for food for one week for the many little orphans at the Catholic AIDS Action in Katutura is about half the costs of a quarter-page, full colour advertisement for a birthday wish for one of our dear Ministers. One businessman donated N$100 000 towards the birthday party of the former President, but the residents of the Katutura Old Age Home have to struggle to get a decent meal a day, and even the most modest birthday parties for them are not on their minds.Of course, we should not be surprised: We are a class society, where the small upper class will have unfettered access to all the resources, and the masses of ‘lower class’ citizens will have access to all the excuses on why even the most basic resources, such as health, water, housing and education cannot be extended to them at some decent level.The contrasting fate of Irene Uiras and Chief Angelina Ribebe is a reminder that we still have a long way to go to make the values in our Constitution part of Government’s daily decisions and actions. One such value is that ‘ … no persons may be discriminated against on the grounds social or economic status …’* Norman Tjombe is a human rights lawyer and the Director of the Legal Assistance Centre.