Namibia - Domestic policy

Realizing Namibia's vast potential is not an easy task. Decades of apartheid rule have skewed the economy in favor of the tiny white minority. Unemployment in the black majority runs about 40%. Underemployment is also an issue; many black workers do not earn enough to support either themselves or their families. Apartheid policies, particularly in education, have prevented blacks from developing managerial and entrepreneurial skills. These are precisely the skills that are needed to lift Namibians out of poverty. Despite these disparities, the SWAPO government has pursued a policy of reconciliation in a dynamic non-racial society.

The issue of SWAPO detainees and alleged human rights abuses resurfaced with the publication in 1996 of a damning book by Siegfried Groth, a German pastor of the Lutheran Church, titled Namibia: the Wall of Silence. SWAPO defended itself in a book of its own published the same year as a rejoinder, titled Their Blood Waters, Our Freedom. As of early 2003, the SWAPO government had persistently refused to apologize, or to set up a South African-style "truth commission" to hold hearings on the alleged abuses, as church and human rights groups demand. SWAPO argues that this is unnecessary and will only open wounds that Nujoma's policy of "reconciliation" has helped to heal. The opposition DTA agrees with SWAPO on the issue.

Nujoma and his government have been faced with the delicate task of redressing major imbalances in the distribution of wealth while at the same time continuing to foster economic growth. Namibia relies on technical and financial assistance from donor countries in Europe, Scandinavia, and North America, and as of the late 1990s, China. President Nujoma has modified his socialist beliefs and embraced the private sector as a principal force for economic development. Learning from the mistakes of other newly independent countries, Nujoma has called for a mixed economy, with legislative codes for the regulation of foreign investment. As of early 2003, this approach appeared to be working. Namibia has a robust economy, with inflation rates in single digits since 1995.

In a major effort to promote trade and investment, Nujoma launched the Northern Rail Extension Project in 2002. The project includes the construction of a railroad from Tsumeb to Ondangwa and from Oshakati to Oshikango. Future plans would include construction of a connection to Angolian railways. The project will create jobs and, hopefully, serve to bolster the general economy. In 2003, the government was making plans to extend the Trans Caprivi Highway into a system of roads that would lead to Cape Frio, where a new harbour is under construction. The government has also begun projects to create paved roads in rural, agricultural areas, allowing for greater ease in transporting products to market.

The issue of land distribution has been increasing tensions between citizens and government officials alike. The government is being pressured to move more quickly on efforts to redistribute land, which is disproportionately in the hands of white farmers. In March 2001, Nujoma publicly questioned land claims of the white community in a speech that also accused white farmers of "imperialist actions" against black workers and included a general threat of government retaliation. Nujoma cites that 80% of the nation's farmland is in the hands of about 4,000 white commercial farmers. Leaders of the Namibian Public Workers Union have called for the government to simply seize the land from white owners. However, Nujoma has announced that the government will tag N $100 million (about US $12.4 million) for a five-year program of land resettlement. The government plan is to purchase land from willing sellers.

All of Nujoma's initiatives toward economic development and reform are part of an ambitious, long-term program called Vision 2030, designed to raise Namibia to the level of an industrialized state by the year 2030. In an address made at the opening of the 2003 cabinet session, Nujoma listed education, training, and improved health facilities as government priorities for the coming year. He also called for implementation of previous plans for a drop-irrigation project along perennial rivers, which is an effort to support agriculture and move toward securing self-sufficient food supplies in Namibia.

The Namibian government continues to be cited by various governments and human rights agencies, including Amnesty International and the U.S. Department of State, for widespread violations of human rights, which include restrictions on freedom of speech and discrimination against women and other minorities, and lack of enforcement of child labor laws. Amnesty International noted a policy implement by Nujoma in 2001 that called for the arrest and deportation or imprisonment of homosexuals. Nujoma has made several statements in the last few years concerning his goal to eliminate these individuals from Namibian society.

Namibia, along with South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland, is at the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic. In 1999, it was estimated that 19.54% of the adult population was infected with the virus. Namibia is committed to addressing the growing AIDS pandemic and in September 1999 was praised by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the only sub-Sahara African country that had made adequate health provisions for its people.