values should overlook and tolerate such failures.

The recent strike at the University of Namibia (UNAM) and its consequences havehighlighted aspects of an anti-worker bias in the legal provisions regarding strikes.The current provisions effectively encourage workers to become “free riders” and toact as strike-breakers when their colleagues embark on industrial action.

In May 2018, when it was announced that applications for 96 new fishing rights wereopen, many poor black Namibians hastily applied after being encouraged to do so by the Minister of Fisheries, Bernard Esau. He said a ‘new leaf would be turned, meaning that poor Namibians would be given preference in the fishing rights allocations as a way of making sure that they also benefit economically from their natural resources.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed many of the fault lines in our social and economic structures both at the global and the national level. These fault lines became visible in several key areas, one of them being insufficient health care services due to budget cuts for public health care programmes.

The recent 33rd anniversary of our Independence left a bitter taste amongst many Namibians. This was not only because of the food issues at the official event which once again reflected the existing inequalities in our country. Even more disconcerting was the heavy-handed approach of the Namibian police to prevent protest marches against youth unemployment on that day.

During her 2023 state of the region address, //Karas region governor Aletha Fredrick announced that the //Karas region had been selected as a beneficiary of the Harambee cash grant.

This has been wrongly dubbed a modified/conditional basic income grant (CBIG) by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare because of pressure from the BIG movement.

BIG is conceptually a universal/unconditional grant whereby people don’t have to jump through hoops to prove they are deserving poor.
The term should not be confused with conditional/means-tested and targeted grants that benefit a few individuals or households.

At present, the Harambee cash grant only benefits 37 053 individuals (less than 2% of the population), who are previous recipients of the Harambee Food Bank and the marginalised community food assistance programme.

According to the ministry, the decision to extend the grant to the region was taken after an assessment found that the //Karas Region was vulnerable because of poor rainfall during 2022/23.

RINAANI MUSUTUA and HERBERT JAUCHFAR TOO MANY Namibians still live under inhumane and degrading conditions, struggling to meet their basic human needs without having a decent income, proper roofs over their heads, clean water and sanitation.

For the past 15 years, the Basic Income Grant Coalition of Namibia has campaigned for a universal Basic Income Grant (BIG) as a way of addressing poverty and inequality. The proposal for BIG was first made in 2002 by the government-appointed Namibian Tax Consortium (NamTax). It advocated that every Namibian should receive the grant until reaching pension age. The money received by people not in need or not living in poverty could be recuperated through adjustments in the tax system, NamTax argued.