Political Perspective

THE National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) is really acting like a bunch of mixed-up kids over the Basic Income Grant (BIG) issue. For me the BIG is not necessarily the answer to poverty in this country, but what it is doing is showing that those who work with it have some compassion for the poor. And any initiative, on the part of either organisations or individuals, which tries to assist truly disadvantaged people, must be commended, whether it takes the form of a soup kitchen or a shelter or a small stipend to help them with some necessities.

THE question of ‘handouts’ as opposed to what is now termed ‘wealth creation’ is something else entirely. There are people of this country who will never accumulate wealth in their lives, no matter what projects or methods we employ, and the NUNW, as representing the workers, should know this better than anyone.
Since President Hifikepunye Pohamba came out with his anti-BIG statement, saying it encouraged people to do nothing, the debate around this initiative has heated up. Why I don’t agree with the President is because ‘entitlement’ has been precisely what Swapo has promoted, and now that it concerns help for the really poor, we want them to work for it!
On the grounds of just about everyone of colour being termed ‘previously disadvantaged’ Swapo handed out farms and drilled boreholes, often to those who could afford to buy them, as well as fishing and mining concessions, which served to make primarily those with political connections even richer.
Little has really been done by Government since Independence 20 years ago to alleviate the plight of the poor. What they did do though, is single out for attention primarily those who had been in exile, whether as fighters, refugees, orphans, and lately ‘children of the struggle’ who are kids no longer.
It seemed hypocritical therefore, for the President to condemn handouts, when the Government has done exactly that to a large extent!
I absolutely agree that when and where possible, people should have work. Where some have had their chances, and blown them, it should be their own indaba. But for others, there has been no such luxury, and they cannot get employment due to a variety of reasons, including old age, lack of skills or even access to the labour market, and we should be able to compassionately assist where we can.
I note in the most recent Cabinet release that Government is now seriously looking at employment creation. Whether this means it hasn’t had the attention it deserves in the past 20 years, I’m not sure, but I don’t think it’s been a priority in real terms even though it’s been talked about a great deal!
The Employment Creation Task Force, as it is called, has met four times and recommended medium and long-term strategies to alleviate the situation. Meanwhile Cabinet acknowledges in its statement that ’employment creation was identified as one of the Government’s priorities at Independence and the Government came up with several initiatives to address the situation. Unfortunately, persistent high unemployment rates prevailed in the country’, which really means that things haven’t changed.
And now there is a sudden flurry to fast-track employment creation legislation, and it may well be that the BIG issue can be thanked with putting this more seriously on the agenda.
But as we all know, the wheels of Government can grind exceedingly slowly, and so we cannot simply put BIG and other such initiatives aside, which are at least helping people to survive in the short term.
The pros and cons of BIG can, in the meantime be debated.
But what is not impressive is the attitude of the NUNW, especially if their withdrawal from BIG has been motivated by political considerations. Maybe even against his better judgement, Secretary General Evilastus Kaaronda, said that the NUNW had realised what they had to do is address the ‘structure that produces poverty’. Well of course. And one would have hoped that this would have commenced a long time ago, but it hasn’t. And part of the ‘structure’ would be to look at the ‘entitlement’ which has led to an increased gap between rich and poor in Namibia since Independence. If we don’t do that, and look at above all, the fact that corruption has eroded our resources to the extent that it becomes almost unthinkable to assist the poor and/or increase substantially old-age pensions, then we should realise that we have a very real societal problem which cannot only be solved by employment creation initiatives.
The poor, someone once said, will always be with us. What we really need from our people is conscience and the willingness to help those who are not able to help themselves. That we can do with or without employment creation and all the other plans that won’t come to fruition in the near future.