PRESS RELEASE

NSHR is calling upon the Government of Namibia (GoN) to prepare for massive food subsidization or face a revolution by the poor and impoverished in the country.

Food riots and other deadly clashes have already occurred in several western African countries as well as recently in Egypt. On February 5 2008, three Mozambicans died and more than 250 were injured in a riot in the capital of Maputo, following a public protest against the dramatic increases in fares charged by the private minibus operators from and to the capital.

In Namibia, the prices of basic foods, such as bread, corn flour, cooking oil, milk, rice and macaroni have dramatically soared by at least 40 percent. This means, poverty is also bound to rise exponentially!

“We warn government that floods and locust, army worm and bird infestations will catastrophically hit subsistence farmers north of the Red Line, while south of the said Line, the food productivity capacity of the commercial farmers will be severely crippled by the rising fuel prices and severe electricity power shortages. A revolution by the poor is there imminent sooner rather than later”, said NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh.

Namibia is classified as a lower middle-income country with an average per capita income of around US $1 800 per annum. However, the country, which ranks 126 of 177 countries on the Human Development Index, is one of the worst distributors of income and assets among its population in the world.

The latest figures issued by the UN Development Program (UNDP) show that 38 percent of the country’s estimated population of 2 million people lives below the poverty line. In other words, an estimated 760 000 Namibians live below the national poverty line, 18 years after Namibian independence. This state of affairs is caused by income poverty and is driven by high rates of unemployment, insufficient economic growth and high levels of income inequalities and inequities.

Since Namibian independence on March 21 1990 a series of National Development Plans (NDPs) seeking to sustain economic growth; reduce inequality; create employment; eradicate poverty; promote gender equality and equity; reduce regional inequalities and ensure environmental sustainability as well as combat HIV-AIDS have had very little, if any, success.

The current worldwide dramatic food price hikes is bound to result in the poor becoming even poorer and the rich even richer in Namibia. A combination of natural and man-made factors, all of them applicable in Namibia, has led to food increasingly becoming out of reach by hundreds of thousands of Namibian citizens living below the poverty line.

The principal causes of dramatic food price hikes and runaway inflation rates relate to issues of political governance: chiefly excessive and or reckless government spending, corruption, misguided priorities, absence or flight of investment and increasing levels of public debt as well as gross imbalances between supply and demand


The price hikes are also caused by inter alia by freak weather, dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices and lower food reserves. The U.N. World Food Program says it's facing a $500 million shortfall in funding to feed some 90 million needy people this year.

“The current increases in budgetary allocations are in fact intended to address the political threat posed by especially the formation of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP). Hence, the country’s inflation rate is likely to climb even higher from the current level of at least 7.1 percent. This state of affairs is reminiscent of what has been going on Zimbabwe since 2000. The hyperinflation in that country was basically the result of increase in money supply in order to combat the political threat posed to the Robert Mugabe regime by the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) there. The best way of avoid hyperinflation in Namibia is to urgently cut government spending and decrease the money supply”, said ya Nangoloh.

Therefore, the Namibian people will become even poorer such that they would not even be able to send their children to school, let alone afford medical care. The dramatic increases in both communicable and incommunicable diseases, such as cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV-AIDS and so forth are likely to result in even more deaths of the poor and traditionally vulnerable sectors of our society. Children, women, the elderly, members of indigenous minority communities will bear the brunt of the situation.

Moreover, Bank of Namibia Governor Tom Alweendo has also recently warned about “difficult times ahead” and had called for the tightening of belts. South Africa’s Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has issued similar warnings. European Union Development Commissioner Louis Michel has also warned that rising world food costs could lead to a "real economic and humanitarian tsunami in Africa".

Echoing Michel’s sentiments in India last week, African finance ministers warned that the rising costs of food threatened growth, peace and security. An African Union spokesperson had also described the rise in prices as a “major challenge” and called for investment in the farming sector, particularly in Africa.

For further information please call: Dorkas Phillemon or Phil ya Nangoloh at Tel: +264 61 236 183 or +264 61 253 447 (during office hours only) or E-mail: nshr@nshr.org.na or visit National Society for Human Rights :: Tolerance - Liberty - Happiness.