If No BEE, Then Hungry Become Angry

KINDLY allow me to respond through your newspaper to Mr King’s allegation of racism in his letter to The Namibian of April 13 with regard to the call from the Minister of Mines and Energy to rectify the evils brought about by past malpractices.

It is amazing how certain people prefer to think and because of their selective thinking miss fundamental issues certain decisions are based upon. To help Mr King face reality, I’ll deal with his questions; starting with the second one: Whether white Namibians ever owned major mining companies in Namibia is not the issue.The issue here is that mining companies have been in existence in Namibia over the centuries and were run by white people.Now, by virtue of the fact that the mines were under the control of white people and their government and administrations, the tax that these governments were paid from sales of our mining products were almost exclusively applied in the building of schools and hospitals for whites while equipping them with the best instruments technology could offer.By then marginalised black brethren had to cope and be happy with substandard hospitals and schools.Doesn’t Mr King see anything wrong with the way things were done? He mentioned that the nearest his white folks came to owning mines were the shares they bought via the stock exchange.Does Mr King know that the former white administration catered for loans for whites only to start businesses with? With the money they made through their businesses and by exploiting black people they sure had money, and still have, to buy shares! How could a black Namibian ever own shares if he didn’t have money? Here Mr King, whether he likes it or not, has got to agree with me; that the skewed distribution of wealth has been affecting black Namibians negatively and therefore it is imperative that some form of corrective measures be introduced.Hence the envisioned approach by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.With regard to Mr King’s first question of why only black Namibians should benefit from the Minister’s call, the logic behind this is to redress the imbalances of the past and to bring black Namibians on par with their white counterparts as far as living standards are concerned.It is illogical of Mr King to expect that measures that are being put in place by our Government to empower and uplift the black population should be equally applied to the white population.Is Mr King so insensitive towards the dire living conditions of the black majority that he is blind to the fact that should the black and white races be treated equally with regard to upliftment, the status quo will remain the same; meaning that, imbalances will still exist as whites currently have more and they will simply add to the wealth they have already amassed.Mr King should remember the adage: ‘a hungry man can become an angry man’.Therefore, in order to live in harmony with one another, we should be inclined towards allowing those who have less, because of past oppressive practices, to be assisted to a level where all Namibians will be equal before God and man.K Katjita SwakopmundTo help Mr King face reality, I’ll deal with his questions; starting with the second one: Whether white Namibians ever owned major mining companies in Namibia is not the issue.The issue here is that mining companies have been in existence in Namibia over the centuries and were run by white people.Now, by virtue of the fact that the mines were under the control of white people and their government and administrations, the tax that these governments were paid from sales of our mining products were almost exclusively applied in the building of schools and hospitals for whites while equipping them with the best instruments technology could offer.By then marginalised black brethren had to cope and be happy with substandard hospitals and schools.Doesn’t Mr King see anything wrong with the way things were done? He mentioned that the nearest his white folks came to owning mines were the shares they bought via the stock exchange.Does Mr King know that the former white administration catered for loans for whites only to start businesses with? With the money they made through their businesses and by exploiting black people they sure had money, and still have, to buy shares! How could a black Namibian ever own shares if he didn’t have money? Here Mr King, whether he likes it or not, has got to agree with me; that the skewed distribution of wealth has been affecting black Namibians negatively and therefore it is imperative that some form of corrective measures be introduced.Hence the envisioned approach by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.With regard to Mr King’s first question of why only black Namibians should benefit from the Minister’s call, the logic behind this is to redress the imbalances of the past and to bring black Namibians on par with their white counterparts as far as living standards are concerned.It is illogical of Mr King to expect that measures that are being put in place by our Government to empower and uplift the black population should be equally applied to the white population.Is Mr King so insensitive towards the dire living conditions of the black majority that he is blind to the fact that should the black and white races be treated equally with regard to upliftment, the status quo will remain the same; meaning that, imbalances will still exist as whites currently have more and they will simply add to the wealth they have already amassed.Mr King should remember the adage: ‘a hungry man can become an angry man’.Therefore, in order to live in harmony with one another, we should be inclined towards allowing those who have less, because of past oppressive practices, to be assisted to a level where all Namibians will be equal before God and man.K Katjita Swakopmund