Unemployment in Namibia

The unemployment in Namibia is real and it should never be taken for granted that the 2008 Labour Force Statistics does not reflect the reality on the ground. It is very embarrassing and only those who has lost touch with their community can dispute the fact that unemployment in Namibia has reach the crisis point like Martin Mwinga, Klaus Schade and Taimi Amunkete. Both your argument that people working in Subsistence farming were not included in the employment figures is pure lies and does not hold any base. The Ministry of Labour has data on that and it can be even disaggregated by Crop farming, Animal farming and Forestry farming. In addition, Mr. Mwinga argues that the economy of the country has been growing well there assuming that people has jobs is pure crap. Namibian economic is largely depended on the mining sector which contribute over 40% to the GDP but yet the mining sector is the lowest when it comes to employment. The Labour Force Survey has good reputations backed up the International Labour Organization. Both the 2004 and 2008 Labour force survey receive technical support from the ILO offices both in Geneva as well as the regional office in South Africa. For your information, the Labour Force survey master samples was determine by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and the sampling weights was applied by CBS. Please try to get your facts straight before rushing to media with your fabricated office based figures!!!!

STOP THE WAR IN LIBYA & PREVENT A CIVIL WAR IN SYRIA - 7 Point Programme of the Vth Communist International

1. Economics: almost all countries of the whole world are in debt to the USA. South America is $750billion in debt and Africa is $300billion in debt, 130% of the New Zealand economy is debt, we have to borrow $300 million a week so we can afford to meet our debt repayments. Britain, France, Germany are in debt to the US, the debt repayments they receive from the poor countries allow them to pay their debts to the US, the debt repayments the US receives from the whole world allows them to pay their debts to China. Countries that survive from debt repayments are called imperialist countries. Most of the world is owned by the imperialists and in debt to the imperialists so the world society we live in is called imperialism, globalization and neo colonialism are other words to describe this ‘phenomenon’. China is experiencing inflation, which means that they are no longer growing, because the world is too poor to buy their products. As China decays, they will not be able to afford to buy from other countries either, when this happens, the whole world economy will crash because of ‘imperialist decay’ and we will experience a permanent great depression.

2. Society: every bank, fast food chain, gas station and Car retailer are the assets of multi-national monopoly empires. As we use these means of production we go into debt to these monopolies. These monopolies are owned by a few extremely rich people who control the money of banks and industry in shares; these people are called the financial capitalists and are equivalent to the illuminate (the elite rulers of the world). They own the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), they give countries loans and receive the debt repayments. The people who manage or semi-own the assets in the neo-colonies are called capitalists and they service imperialist decay.

3. History: in 1968 the capitalist world stopped growing and every western European country started going into debt to America, this was held up by American credit, until nationalized (state owned) industries of the neo colonies had to be sold to America to pay for more credit. They lied when they said nationalization led to decay. Really it was not being in the socialist bloc which was independence from imperialism, with full state control (communism) during the cold war (Russia vs. America) that led to decay. The socialist bloc was growing at a rate of 250% during the great depression. To compare this to capitalism/imperialism on the other hand, the world growth rate in 2008 was 250% fake (credit).  America, with French, British, South African and Chinese assistance (after China left the socialist bloc in the late 70s) created civil wars in all the socialist states, killing 100,000 in Nicaragua, 250,000 in Ethiopia, 900,000 in Mozambique, 1 million in Angola, 2 million in Afghanistan, 2.5 million in Korea and 4 million in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. Several socialist countries were overthrown by imperialist sponsored coups, Chile in 1973, Peru in 1975, Uganda in 1979, Guinea-Bissau in 1980, Grenada in 1983 and Burkina Faso in 1987. Because of all the coups & war some leaders of socialist states gave up on the cause for the liberation of the whole world from imperialism and were bribed to join America against the socialist block, Somalia and Iraq did this in the late 70’s, but as a result their economies decayed because they were trading with America. The economy was owned by the state and the state run by a single party which had initially led them to communism, America had to invade these countries to prevent the party being overthrown by a people’s revolution in which the economy would have slipped into the hands of the citizens (communism/with neither capitalists nor imperialists). Somalia has been in civil war since the US led invasion of 1992 and 1 million people have been killed in Iraq since the invasion of 2003. Socialist Eastern Europe gave up on socialism between 1989 and 1991 and sold the whole economy to the imperialists, the socialist block collapsed completely as Russia did the same in 1993. Mugabe held back communism in Zimbabwe in 1980 which enabled South African imperialism to survive and continue the civil wars in Angola 1974-2002 and Mozambique 77-92. South Africa invaded Angola in 1987 but was beaten by Socialist Cuba and lost Namibia and Botswana as colonies as a result, this weakened capitalism in South Africa and forced them to legalize the African National Congress (ANC) black liberation army in 1990. Russia & the Socialist block collapsed one year before democratic elections were carries out in South Africa in 1994. All those diamonds which could have improved the lives of millions of people in South Africa, Angola and Mozambique, and in the Socialist block from Cuba to Vietnam were kept in the hands of white South African capitalists and their masters the Yankee finance capitalists. 

4. Politics (what does this history mean for the present and the future): the majority of African and South and Central American countries are led by Democratic Socialist Parties. The ANC dominates South African politics and has been taken over by socialists and communists under the Zuma/Malema leadership. Venezuela led by Hugo Chavez is breaking up large farms and giving poor people land as well as nationalizing the economy, it stands as the head of the world revolution, the ANC has the potential to develop into a head of the African revolution with the current leadership, first it has to expose Mugabe as a traitor to the cause of liberation from imperialism.
Corrupt and non-democratic states throughout the world are still ruled by mercenary puppet dictators: kings, sultans or military generals who were installed by America to supress the rise of communism during the cold war, as with Iraq and Somalia, their economies are now collapsing. Egypt and Tunisia have already overthrown their American puppets. The army is now in control of the country and is postponing elections. Riots and protests are still breaking out in these countries and people are still being killed by the protectors of ‘private (American) property’. After this the revolution spread across all of North Africa and the Middle East where most countries are led by pro Yankee dictators, it spread even to Iraq and Afghanistan which were meant to be the model democracies of the middle east courtesy of US ‘peacekeeping’. The revolution has now spread to Burkina Faso which was fed up with colonialism in 1983 but was forced back into neo colonialism between 1987 and 2011. First the army mutinied and then the students and the police joined the revolution.
The western European countries were colonized by the United States after WW2. The neo colonies, Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal had ‘old colonies’ in their possession and America helped them preserve them against the liberation revolution. In the long run trading with America made them spiral down an ever escalating debt-credit cycle. Political parties of these countries whether labour/worker’s parties or capitalist liberal democratic parties, are not on the side of the democratic revolution in Africa and Latin America. Politically speaking they are fake democracies against their own people and in the same boat as the pro American puppet dictatorships. The governments are demanding more taxes and providing less benefits for the workers and poor to pay for the recession, this caused protests in 37 countries in Europe between 2008-2010. America, Britain and France are trying to prevent the rise of Democratic Socialism. the US sponsored a coup in Venezuela in 2002 which overthrew Chavez, but the people came out onto the streets the next day and the army joined the people to rescue their president. The US sponsored a coup in Honduras in 2009 which overthrew the socialist president and a coup which failed to overthrow the socialist president of Ecuador in 2010. France decided that Gbagbo, the socialist president of Ivory Coast, did not win the 2011 elections, and invaded Ivory Coast to help Ouattara (a blatant western puppet who has worked for the IMF/illuminate) to overthrow and capture Gbagbo. Ivory Coast is $2,300,000,000 in debt, the puppet who is now in power hopes to resume the debt repayments so he can receive his bribery, but the invasion of Ivory Coast has opened up the potential for a civil war.  (These are the election results Ouattara 1st round 32%, 2nd 48.5%, 3rd 54.1%. Gbagbo 1st 38%, 2nd 51.5%, 3rd 45%)  Nigeria is one of the few countries in Africa without a socialist party, after the elections this month in which 50% of a population of 150million didn’t vote, there were riots in response to the outcome. 

5. Libyan & Syrian Civil Wars the US started a civil war in Libya by creating Facebook and twitter pages calling for people to protests in Benghazi against the socialist political and economic system (Jamahiriya) which has been in place for 42 years. When the protests started an American mercenary army called the Libyan opposition which has been trained since 1981 for this task, shot on the Libyan people’s army, and then other Yankee mercenaries began assassinating innocents creating havoc and an uprising. The pro American media lied that Gadhafi had fled to Venezuela to escape the wrath of his people, and then lied that he had carried out an air strike on his own people which Russian satellites subsequently proved never happened. While the media was lying, thousands of fake twitter and Facebook accounts were spamming messages that Gaddafi was using non Libyan African mercenaries to kill his own people and pleading for international intervention to stop a massacre, the US justified these fake accounts as useful for provoking discussion. America, Britain and France started bombing Libya a month ago but even so, many towns which were taken over by the rebels and the uprising have fallen to Gaddafi’s supporters who are the vast majority of the population. They love him because he preserved socialism giving Libyan people the highest living standards in Africa and the highest literacy rate in North Africa. Gaddafi is a genuine revolutionary who has fought for the liberation of Palestine for his whole career, he invaded Egypt when they left the socialist block in 1977 and gave their support to Israel (who oppresses the Palestinians), he supported Socialist Uganda in a war with Tanzania who was an agent of China after China had left the Socialist bloc and became an agent of the US, and he supporting Socialist Liberation armies in Chad and Somalia against corrupt pro American dictatorships. Today Gaddafi is spearheading the Africa Unite movement. Pro Gaddafi supporters have started protesting in Benghazi against the rule of the Rebels after months of being there in hiding. Over the months Al-Qaeda gave their support to the rebels cause and the rebels have been torturing and executing Libyan soldiers without trial. Syria is led by the socialist Ba'ath party which led Syria while it was in the socialist bloc and maintains nationalization to this day. Syria experienced protests when the arab revolutions began, then pro government supporters protested in there thousands in ever city. A second wave of anti government protests has just begun and this time more than a hundred have been killed, needless to say the Yankees are at it again with their mercenary assasins and will do everything they can to provoke a civil war in Syria to destablize the world revolution.

6. WW3 America and her clients France & Britain are invading socialist countries because the revolutions in North Africa and Middle East will lead to Africa, Latin America and Asia uniting against the imperialist countries to clear the debt. Zimbabwe will have a revolution against Mugabe, and when this happens, the imperialists will fund both sides, and covertly attack both sides, creating an endless civil war, which will eventually draw in South Africa to stop the bloodshed, at this point, the imperialists will wage war on Democratic Socialism worldwide and install worldwide Fascism to supress the world revolution. WW3 and the great depression will fuse together creating a new world, that gives fascist leaders of the west self-justification to carry on, just like they self-justified killing hundreds of millions in their efforts to destroy the socialist bloc while saying that humans were not made to live in socialism. 7. Tactics for the revolution in neo colonies: 1. unite workers, unemployed and youth into workers committees a town/city commune. 2. Create a national commune and demand the army joins the commune/arm the commune by any means necessary. 3. Replace the government with a national commune. 4. Nationalize the economy (all land, banks, shops, factories) into the hands of the commune. 5. Unite with Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, South Africa, Libya, Syria, Nepal, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia which all have revolutionary workers parties in power, reforming the Soviet Union/Socialist bloc. 6. Demand that the world unites with the socialist bloc to clear debt and that the world revolution advances until the US army is defeated and the US government (illuminate) is overthrown. Please join and help build the Vth Communist International groups on facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_141191175954443 Arab & African Revolutions: Unite with Libya against the evil USA

14.6 billion for Job creation....do we have a proper plan to really create jobs?

14.6 billion for job creation plan. The proposed interventions in the  TIGEEG are not well targeted neither does they have mid-terms indicators. I hope you will not leave it to economic growth model to blindly create jobs. I will keep my eye on this one Mr. Tom Alweendo

Nianell - "Who Painted The Moon" (Live)

SME bank in Namibia, Collateral free: A big relief for SME

The recent move from the Ministry of Trade and Industry to push for the establishment of free collateral SME Bank is highly welcomed despite the Bank of Namibia initially advice against it

This article intends to reflect on the scope and the nature of SMEs in Namibia and its potential in job creation.

SME defined in Namibia

The Namibian Government identified the Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) sector as having the potential for significant employment-creation. Namibia’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) defined SMEs according to employment levels and turnover as indicated in table below.

MTI’s Small Enterprise Definition

Sector	Employment	Turnover (N$)	Capital Employed (N$)
Manufacturing	Fewer than 10 persons	1,000,000	500,000
Service	Fewer than 5 persons	250,000	100,000

Source: LaRRI and NEPRU 2002

This definition of the SME sector has some limitations. Measuring capital investment, as suggested by the above definition, is problematic because of the difficulty of achieving accurate measurement and also because of the impact of inflation. The employee characteristic is simple to verify and remains a valid criteria. A LaRRI/NEPRU study of 2002 found that about 68% of the SME businesses were small and employed less than three persons. Fifty-eight percent of these businesses were realising a turnover of less than N$ 35,000 per annum, whilst only 6% of the businesses had a turnover of over N$ 250,000 (LaRRI 2002:13-14).

A SME baseline study conducted by the MTI in the Erongo and Otjozodjupa regions suggested that the definition be reviewed in light of the findings that the average size of employees in the SMEs was only 2.2 employees (MTI, 1998b: 54). In northern Namibia, 58% of the enterprises had monthly turnovers below N$ 1000, and 84% had turnovers below N$ 5000. The data collected also showed that 78% of businesses were very small and employed less than three persons (MTI, 1998a, quoted in LaRRI 2002: 14-15).

The MTI study suggested that the current definition be reviewed in light of international definitions of the SME sector in order to allow for comparisons. It concluded that the majority of enterprises will remain micro-enterprises, with the exception of a few that might transform themselves into small or ultimately large businesses.

SME potential for job creation

There is no doubt that the SME sector has a large potential for employment creation which is desperately needed in Namibia. The Namibian Government’s ambitious target of transforming the SME sector into the lead sector of the economy may not have been achieved yet but its potential for employment creation seems significantly larger than that of Namibia's large business sector due to the SMEs’ labour-intensive nature and their use of local resources. The SME sector was estimated to grow by about 16,500 jobs per year compared to only 3,000 – 4,000 jobs in the larger business sector (LaRRI and NEPRU 2002). However, these figures are outdated and there is an urgent need for accurate data as well as a continuous assessment and evaluation of the sector. This should include an analysis of the effectiveness of support services available to SMEs.

Provided that the SME sector receives adequate support and protection, its impact on unemployment could be far more significant than that derived from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Namibia. The mining sector, for example, which accounted for the bulk of Namibia’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) over the years, created less than 10 000 jobs. Although employment in the SME sector seems usually to be of a short to medium term duration, there are a number of positive trends such as the friendly and conducive employer – employee relationship that prevails in the sector. However, key labour challenges such as low salaries and lack of benefits as well as gender discrimination need to be addressed urgently to avoid the SME sector becoming a gathering of the working poor.

The dilemma posed by low earnings is exacerbated by the fact that the majority of workers in the sector do not have any other source of secondary income. Improved conditions of employment should be seen as being in the interests of not only SME workers but also SME owners, service providers and government because improved conditions will help to raise living standards, productivity, and demand for local goods.  This should thus be a central element of an SME development strategy.

The generally positive employee-employer relationship could become an incentive for workers to stay in the SME sector if this is coupled with improved conditions of employment and ongoing training. It might be worthwhile exploring the link between more systematic training for SME workers, increased output and better working conditions which in turn would encourage workers to stay. 

Today, Chinese, European and other imports have added pressure on SMEs. As a policy recommendation, government should guard against the creation of an environment in which small operators are pushed out of business by transnational corporations who tend to repatriate their profits. Nurturing small operators is desirable in that they are labour-intensive and thus may create and sustain more jobs than the larger business sectors. Government still has a larger responsibility and role to play in regulating the macro-economic environment. The issues of local value-addition and unfair competition faced by SMEs require particular attention. The policy space must be kept open for developmental interventions by the State, including measures to encourage and protect local processing, establishing linkages between state institutions and SME suppliers as well as SME linkages with larger private firms.

This article form part of the bigger study for the African Labour Research Network (ALRN) on youth unemployment in Africa.

Ohorongo Cement Factory

I am particularly not impressed by the opening of the Ohorongo cement factory. We need true investments into the Manufacturing sector but equally, more investment should be made in the Agricultural sector in order for it to feed well the Manufacturing sector. Ohorongo cement is not Labour Intense but its rather capital driven with more work being done by machines just like the Mining sector which is the largest contributor to our GDP but yet the lowest in provisions of jobs. With such investment we’re not helping the unemployed people at all!!!!!  

The need to invest in manufacturing sector in Namibia

The need to invest in manufacturing sector in Namibia

Namibia is ranked second in the human development index after Botswana in the 2010 UNDP report on human development among SADC.  It should be noted that such a ranking have both positive and negative consequences to the ordinary Namibian citizens. Indeed government is happy that it is being seen as doing well but the ordinary citizen will suffer the dare consequences. Such ranking mean that donor funding will be reduced, in fact most of the funds are already reduce because Namibia is middle income country. Namibia is one of the countries in the world with the highest gap in income between the rich and the poor. The government on the other hand is not ready to step and fund activities such as those of prevention for HIV/AIDS at the civil society level.

Namibia GDP has been growing immensely as its large contributor is the mining sector which is equally the lowest in the provision of employment according to the 2008 labour force survey. Currently, the unemployment rate in Namibia is 51.2% making Namibia second lowest after Zimbabwe in the SADC. The case of the matter is that Namibia has an economy growing and on the other hand unemployment is also growing. Youth, women and people living in rural areas are the hard hit by the massive unemployment in Namibia.

Namibia needs to invest more in the manufacturing sector which should be accompanied by the labour intensive approach. What the government is failing to see is that the Chinese who are given free pass to invest in Namibia are not in the manufacturing sector even if they applied to come and invest in the manufacturing sector. Currently, Chinese are in the retails and they export all their cheap products from China to come and flood our markets. Government need to monitor and implement strict rules in order to control these guys before they take over everything. There are flying rumours that government is doing China a favour because of the assistance we receive from them during the liberation struggle dating back to the 1960s. What the government fail to realise is that the interest of our friend (China) had changed. Something needs to be done as a matter of urgent to control these folks before they over run our country.