BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
difficult to obtain these, sometimes simply because of very practical
issues such as the long distances to travel and the cost of travel (p. 6).
In the category “Exemption from School Fees”, it was reported that,
“although there is a national policy in place regarding the exemption of
OVC from the payment of school development fund fees it was not ad-
hered to by some school principals” (p. 6). And further: “It was widely
reported that pensioners could no longer cope on their pension as they
also had to cater for the needs of family members and OVC who are not
registered due to the absence of national documents and inaccessibility
of registration services.”
As further proof that the government did not seem to “get it right” an-
other report from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare
appeared in September 2009 with the title “Standards to Improve Service
Delivery for Organisations Working with Orphans and Vulnerable Children
in Namibia” (My emphasis).
Except for Government, of course, many other organisations, as sug-
gested in the above-mentioned title, are involved in the delivery of ser-
vices in Namibia. They include a number of church-based organisations
such as Apostolic Faith Mission AIDS Action, Catholic AIDS Action,
Church Alliance for Orphans, Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Re-
public of Namibia AIDS Programme and Rhenish Church AIDS Pro-
gramme, to mention but a few. One other organisation, which may be
mentioned in this regard, is the so-called BIG (Basic Income Grant)
Coalition, which had its roots in the Church.
BIG recommends to Government that each person in Namibia should
be granted a basic income grand per month. This should be recovered
from the personal and other taxes of Namibians who are eligible to pay
tax. This will place an extra burden on the tax payers of Namibia, but
will, so the Coalition claims, relieve the poverty situation in Namibia
such that many other social problems will be solved.
BIG has created quite a controversy in Namibia. Henning Melber, well-
known commentator and writer on Namibian politics, has called BIG
“so far the most serious effort to come to terms with the horrendous
discrepancies” in the Namibian economy and social structures. On 10
May 2010 the President of the Republic of Namibia, Pres. Hifikepunye
Pohamba, said that the monthly grant will encourage people “to do noth-
ing” (See the report on the Namibian, 12 May 2010). This, in turn, was
heavily criticized by Bishop Zephania Kameeta, Chairperson of the BIG