No Taxation Without Representation

The phrase “taxation without representation” originated in America in the 1760s when settlers realised that their issues weren’t properly represented in the English parliament.They protested by boarding the HMS Dartmouth and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston harbour.

The ‘Boston Tea Party’ is famously remembered for the resistance to the Tea Act, a levy imposed on the colonies by the British parliament. The Americans were convinced the Tea Act was unfair “taxation without representation”.

They did not want to be taxed by a government unless they had a voice in that government.

In 2000, the term “taxation without representation” was put on licence plates by the department of motor vehicles of Washington DC, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about that state’s residents paying federal taxes despite the lack of representation in congress.

Various Namibian groups can claim taxation without representation.

Think about minorities such as the LGBTQI community. While this administration could be credited for promoting and appointing many openly gay senior civil servants, we still have a long way to go before gay politicians live their lives in the open. They are still suffocating in the closet.

Namibians can be brutal. How do you advocate for something you believe in or that impacts you directly if you are afraid to be called eshenge in cabinet meetings?

How about women? Forget Swapo’s 50/50 ruse. It’s about getting capable women (and men) into the positions.

According to University of Namibia political science lecturers Job Amupanda and Erika Thomas, Swapo’s female parliamentarians have only tabled five of the 60 motions in the National Assembly from 2015 to 2018. None of those motions were related to gender issues and women’s participation in politics.

Those in actual power do not yet trust women. Only five women ministers out of 27 positions? Remember when Swapo’s female MPs decided not to debate a motion on menstrual health brought by McHenry Venaani as they don’t want women’s things like menstruation discussed in parliament?

There’s the long-suffering Lukato Lukato voters. I swear to God if Lukato is not wheelbarrowed into the next parliament, by hook or by crook, I’m going to write a strongly worded letter to the Electoral Commission of Namibia.

Namibians living in rural areas, dagga users, pro-choicers, taxi drivers and people who drink on Sundays can all claim to not have sufficient representation in any decision-making level.

But what about young people?

Around 62% of the country’s population are between 15 and 34 years old. Over 46% of youth are unemployed today. This figure has grown from 37,8% in 2012 to 43,4% in 2016.

Left out? Non?

Probably because they come out half-baked.

Only around 40% of those who reach Grade 12 actually score high enough marks to be accepted into university. Around half (approximately 20 000) of Grade 10s fail every year. These numbers stay more or less constant. The basic education ministry gets 21% of the national budget (over N$13 billion) to help our children understand the difference between their elbows and their arseholes.

These are the very people politicians tell at every opportunity they should create jobs for themselves. The education system is a one-size-fits-all monstrosity that has been proven over and over to not be worth the money we spend on it.

How do you sideline the biggest part of the population? The party with the biggest representation in parliament wanted to make rules to ban them from occupying and contesting for any meaningful leadership position before their last congress. Many 18-year-olds can rightfully claim they have zero representation. If they had, the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) may not have been so casual in dumping 12 000 students in limbo.

Taxation without representation occurs when a government compels taxpayers to cough up but fails to give them a political voice through elected representation.

And don’t ask me what tax these youngsters pay. Every time they recharge with Aweh, they pay 15% VAT. And have you seen the tax rates for cigarettes and alcohol?

In Namibia, mines and banks get representation without taxation.

We want to compel a cleaner at a bank to voluntarily forego a whole 2% of her meagre salary for the drought relief effort but we ask nothing of the bank that makes around N$1 billion per year in profit. We don’t even obligate the banks to pay their staff above average salaries with good medical aid and a below prime lending rate housing allowance, as they used to.

When the Germans and the South Africans colonised this country, Namibians were being taxed based on the goals and targets of the colonial master. There was no Namibian representation in their parliaments.

Namibians were controlled and worked to enrich their colonial masters, while they lived in squalor without any way of having any of their grievances heard.

Hence frustration that led to the bloody liberation war.

These old toppies expect the vote of young people. Because apathy.

And the so-called youth, like Sakeus Shanghala and Veikko Nekundi, are 41 years old. And those guys never had your interests at heart.

Where is the implementation of quotas for youth in public procurement, Cabinet positions and all jobs?

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