The Intricacies and Pitfalls of Empowerment
It is mind-numbing that after 29 years of political independence, Namibia is still facing grinding poverty, unremitting unemployment and unsustainable levels of inequality. To remedy this, government has embarked on a number of empowerment programmes that aims ameliorate the unending suffering of the poor and downtrodden. Any discussion about empowerment is incomplete without interrogating Namibia’s history and what it left in its wake, or as it were, its aftermath.
It is not by accident that white people currently dominate all facets of economic life, and they know that! This trend is replicated in South Africa, where it all seems to have started. White privilege is not a myth! It is real as we are starring it and experiencing it on a daily basis. In fact, during the period 1910-1948 the Afrikaners had no economic power to oppress and discriminate against Africans on their own, so they collaborated with the British to marginalise Africans through repressive laws such as the Land Act of 1913, the Wage Act 1925, the Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. The Afrikaners at this time were under British rule and were British subjects. However, they were seen as inferior, illiterate and too unsophisticated to be of great service to commerce and industry. How did the National Party and the Apartheid State respond? Afrikaner Economic empowerment programmes known as Afrikaner Nationalism, Broederbond or Volkskapitalisme were implemented. The programmes were, designed by Afrikaner intellectuals, and executed by organisations such as Federale Volksbelegging (Federal People’s Investments), and the National Party to ensure the survival of the volk and their economic Emancipation.
By the 1970s, Afrikaners owned a substantial chunk of the South African economy (and by extension the Namibian economy) with successful companies like Sanlam, Old Mutual, Standard Bank, First National Bank, Bank Windhoek (previously known as Volkskas Beperk) and many others. Acknowledging that not all Afrikaners would become entrepreneurs, job reservations were instituted in the state owned enterprises. This ensured that the Afrikaners earned a higher wages than Blacks irrespective of qualifications, skills and level of productivity. These targeted state interventions played a significant role towards uplifting the poor and uneducated Afrikaners. Today, with a population of less than 3 million people, Namibia has more than 995,000 as reported by the National Statistics Agency. Should we take a cue from the National Party? If yes, will our approach be the same? Government should not attempt to legislate people into prosperity, but rather utilize the existing infrastructure and processes to empower people.
Consider the plight of rural subsistence farmers. Each year, they plough tons of Mahangu (Sorghum) during the rainy season expecting bumper harvests but Mother Nature does not negotiate about the expected rainfall. Sadly, the anticipated crop yields do not materialise and devastates the already suffering poor. What ought to be done? The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, together with the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, should partner up with rural communities and develop a ‘Rural Crop Production Plan’ which will coordinate and streamline planting activities and provide markets by compelling local retail outlets to first secure all of their vegetable locally before sourcing outside our borders.
In addition, this Production Plan will make provision for local farmers to provide fruits and vegetables to the Food Bank on a national scale. This will ultimately result in job creation, revenue for the state in the form of tax and ensure food security. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), South Africa will have to produce 50% more food by 2050 to feed an estimated population of 73 million people. Will they still export to Namibia if they can’t feed their own? Small-scale farmers in general do not get the support they need to make a success of their farming activities.
As I have said previously in an opinion piece in ‘The Namibian of 04-11-16, for the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) to have the desired impact, it will have to be renamed to: ‘Empowerment of the Currently Disadvantaged’ (ECD) and structured in such a way that it filters down to the 121 constituencies, and refocusing NEEEF to ECD with a targeted focus on genuine empowerment. I don’t think our people are lazy to only want a share in white-owned businesses! I believe that they have the business acumen to create their own and create wealth for themselves and their communities. The current debacle between Namibia Breweries and HP97 Investment CC is a classic example. If government is serious about empowering previously disadvantaged Namibians, here is an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment by pumping N$3 billion into Desert Lager to set up factories and export the surplus.
What is the mandate of the Ministry of Trade, Industrialization and SME Development? Have they ever directly intervened to support local business to thrive? Have they ever thought about directly supporting the Woodcarvers from the Kavango Regions and elsewhere by procuring furniture from them? Why not compel all government offices, ministries, and agencies to procure at least 50% of their office chairs and tables from them? Just imagine the economic spin offs from such a decision. Meanwhile, we allow the Chinese to export tons of Rose Wood to China to create jobs in China because our unemployment rate is zero percent. In the final analysis, NEEEF, as a conceptual framework is intact and long overdue and will contribute immensely towards addressing economic disparity in our beloved country if it applied with a moral compass. Namibia is blessed with talented people, lets support them. Black people do not need to get 25% ownership of white owned businesses, they can create their own!
Rui Tyitende is a lecturer at the University of Namibia. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts degree in Political Science at the University of Stellenbosch where he is also a Research Associate at the Center for Chinese Studies.