Cape Town
SECOND CARNEGIE INQUIRY INTO POVERTY
AND DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
The end of apartheid?
scare d:im:msi.ons. of urban
p:>verty in Windhoek
by
DaVid S:ilIon
carnegie COnference Paper N:>. 22
.... ;r-_>:, ,._ ..... ,
13 - 19 April 1984
INTRODUCTION
It"is now precisely a, decade, since the. Portuguese coup of April 1974
heralded the large scale changes in southern Africa which forced South
Africa to abandon its attempts to incorporate Namibia and at least
recognise the principle of independence for its erstwhile 'fifth province'.
Yet diplomatic efforts to achieve an internationally acceptable solution
have so often petered out, and dramatic announcements on the imminence
of independence so often proved false that one is forced to treat current
moves towards military disengagement with caution.
While Namibia's international status has not changed, and the resumption
of direct rule by the Administrator-General at the beginning of 1983 has
prompted some observers to suggest that the same is true of internal
conditions, such a judgment would be less than accurate. With the appointment
of Justice Martinus Steyn as South Africa's first Administrator-General in
windhoek in September 1977, a new, transitional, phase in Namibia's history
began. His initial brief was to prepar~ the country for elections in terms
of procedures agreed with the Western Five Contact Group, by removing
discriminatory laws, freeing political prisoners and liaising with the UN
Representative.
He did rapidly repeal a number of pillars of apartheid, notably the
Immorality and Mixed Marriages Proclamations, the 1922 Native 'Administration
Proclamation as amended, the 1927 Prohibition of Credit to Natives Proc.,
and those sections of the 1956 Natives (Urban Areas) Proc. pertaining to the
burden of proof by blacks of exemption from other provisions, the 72-hour,
influx control and curfew clauses. 'Sale of' land in locations was also
legalized (cf 99-year lease in SA).
Independence failed to materialize as envisaged, however, and following'
the breakdown of negotiations, SA unilaterally held elections to a
Constituent Assembly in December 1978, amid allegations of coercion a~d
2
interference (Ellis 1979; SWAPO 1981). These were boycotted by
SWAPO and the Namibia National Front, and were won by SA's protege
Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (OTA) with a large majority.
At their behest the Administrator-General transformed the Constituent
Assembly into the National Assembly with legislative powers in mid 1979
while in July 1980 a separate executive (the Ministers'council) and
SWA/Namibia government service were created. Additional discriminatory
legislation was repealed, notably with regard to segregation of urban
residential areas, other urban land, and most public amenities.
Discrimination in the public service (including the police, prison service
and military) was forbidden and a single set of salary scales instituted.
Despite these moves, and much rhetoric about change, the OTA was
hamstrung by its own ethnic structure and that of the second-tier
'representative authorities' it helped spawn. More substantive change was
not forthcoming. In much the same way as the Muzorewa administration in
Zimbabwe, it could not produce the necessary 'goods' and ultimately
fell from its tightrope between South African dictates on the one hand
and domestic black credibility on the other, in January 1983(Simon: 1983a).
Research into the effect of the changing dispensation in Windhoek
from 1977-82 showed that, although potentially significant in the long
run, most legislative measures towards normalization have had only limited
incremental or cosmetic impact in the short term. Some blurring of the
racial geography has occurred, people of different skin pigmentation Cdn
marry or cohabit and (at least in theory) share a beer in any hotel, while
private schools are now allowed to admit .pupils of all races. Initial
opposition by right wing whites to these'liberalizations'did on occasion
lead to verbal or violent incidents, but on the whole change has received
at least de facto acceptance (Simon 1983b). The one measure which has had
immediate structural impact on urban areas in general, and Windhoek in
particular, was the abolition of influx control. This will be returned
to later.
Does all .this add up to the end of apartheid and a new,
non-racial society, as the DTA, most Namibian whites and the SA
government would have us believe?Few Namibian blacks would agree: important
social services remain segregated, little in their lives had changed,
while much of 'the system' and many of its administrators survive.
The purpose of this paper is to examine economic conditions in Windhoek
during the period of DTA rule for evidence of change with particular
reference to conditions for apartheid's chief victims, the black and
coloured working class. It will show the overall persistence of a
racial class hierarchy, despite the upward mobility of a small coloured
and black bourgeoisie. Many workers still earn poverty wages in an
essentially unchanged economic system. Although this paper's focus
is largely economic, poverty is not solely a matter of income levels.
In the Third World, in particular, poverty is a structural condition,
and may be defined as unequal access to the bases for accumulating social
power. These bases include produ~tive assets, financial resources,
social and political organizations, social networks and appropriate
knowledge, information and skills (Friedmann 1979:' 101). The main
evidence will therefore be linked to criteria governing differential·access
to some of these, namely pousing, health services and education so as to
emphasise the structural nature and pervasiveness of .urban poverty ."
LEGISLATION, ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND ORIENTATION:
The legal changes.already referred to have mainly indirect import
to the present topic, although the effect of easier access to urban areas
for jobseekers .from the ran~: of r'ural' un- and underemployed has. been
considerable (see "oelow) " ' .. ,' Among specifically economic legislation since
1977, three measures warrant. mention. Firstly, contractual and
.. __ procedural mat:t.=rs"qoverning .. apprenticeship were .. al tered by .the ..
Apprenticeship. Amendment Proclamation of '1979. Its effect is, however,
still uncertain.. Secondly, the Registration and Incorporation of Companies
4
in South West Africa Proclamation (No. AG.234) of 1978 required all
firms operating in Namibia to be locally registered or incorporated,
as an important step towards increasing domestic control, uncoupling the
economy from SA and rendering corporate tax payable locally. Thirdly,
the Income Tax Amendment Act, No.1 of 1981, extended liability for
personal tax from whites, coloureds, Basters and Namas to the whole
population. Although hailed in the press as yet another blow against
discrimination, the additional revenue was tiny (SWA/Namibia 1980:50),
while the simultaneous switch from a progressive to a uniform tax rate
was actually regressive, with low income earners relatively and absolutely
worse off.
Namibia's economy is highly integrated with, and dependent on, that
of SA, which is the source of most imports and destination of major
exports. Given Namibia's size, aridit~ low population threshold,
proximity to SA and the effects of SA government policy, little secondary
activity occurs locally. Windhoek is the country's economic centre,
with wholesale, retail, distribution and service activities serving the
local and often national market. Such manufacturing as does exist is
concentrated in food processing, light engineering, motor repair and
modification, printing and publishing, and some building materials.
These are generally highly perishable or bulky products which do not
require very high market thresholds. Employment opportunities are thus
limited and relatively inelastic outside of the construction sector,
although the small economy as a whole is very vulnerable to cyclical
fluctuations. These all have implications for labour and its
organizational ability (see below). A sample survey of Windhoek firms
revealed virtually no change in their geographic pattern of trade or
failed to reveal any distinct structural, as opposed to purely cyclical,
i
.1
!
operational structures from 1977 to 1981, while general economic indicators
5
change (Simon 1983b). A high degree of continuity with the pre-1977
period can thus be inferred. It is against this background that
conditions in the wOrkplace must be seen.
WAGE AND EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS: THE EXTENT OF LABOUR POVERTY
The 1975 Windhoek Municipal Census provides the most recent data
on white .and coloured employment structures (Table 1). These reveal
an even distribution of white men in occupational categories 2-7 and
predominance over white women in all but the non-manual categories 6 and 7.
similar numbers of coloured men and women were employed, overwhelmingly in
semi- and unskilled categories. Professional and administrative jobs
(categories 2 and 5) were monopolized by whites, the overwhelming majority
being men. No comparable data for blacks are available, but 95% were
unskilled and concentrated in domestic service (20.5%), construction (17.2%)
and retail and wholesale trades (15.6%) (Municipality of windhoek 1976:76).
Table 6 illustrates the major job categories and corresponding wages.
In the ensuing analysis of recent trends, the public and private sectors are
treated separately by virtue of differing data bases and their likely
reactions to change.
(a) Private Sector
As part of the study of contemporary change, information on'220 employees
in 35 firms was obtained during interviews with senior management in the
first· half of 1981 " Since all firms refused direct access to their
records and permission to interview staff, the data supplied cannot be
said to represent a strictly random sample or a.uniform sample fraction, but
are adequate for purposes of indicating the relevant structural relationships.
Nearly two-thirds of the sample were employed in wholesale, retail,
accommodation and catering, with another 25% in manufacturing, and the rest
split between tra,!sport/."';:>lTlI1!unJ,cations and financial! business services.
They thus represent a reasonable 'cross-section of the city's emplo·yment structure
POPULATION GROUP EMPLOYMENT
TOTAL ! AND SEX OCct)PAT...ION 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
White Males 1 3 71 1 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 81
2 22 145 348 36 243 48 98 9 23 61 1 035
3 276 313 259 101 67 287 499 48 76 24 1 950
4 363 155 156 95 22 144 224 26 49 26 1 260
5 29 87 74 23 150 539 224 44 21 24 1 215
6 152 198 121 73 172 193 90 11 12 22 1 044
7 353 326 179 89 207 521 127 27 13 21 1 863
TOTAL 1 198 1 295 138 422 861 732 1 262 166 194 178 8 446
Whi te Females 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 0 46 275 3 45 8 3 1 0 49 430
3 1 42 126 5 46 21 10 2 3 71 333
4 9 18 198 1 14 39 6 1 1 37 324
5 2 0 3 0 15 79 12 1 2 1 121
6 35 120 114 28 290 295 97 11 12 41 1 043
7 112 230 244 46 445 929 181 32 18 60 2 303
TOTAL 166 462 961 83 855 371 309 48 36 265 4 556 ~
Coloured and Baster 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Males 2 0 19 16 1 4 4 0 0 0 9 53 ~
3 1 4 0 0 1 11 77 4 2 4 104
4 20 27 37 36 6 209 964 9 24 49 1 381
5 0 2 2 0 2 2 2 1 0 1 12
6 0 3 1 0 2 7 3 1 0 2 19
7 4 8 7 3 9 94 53 3 2 12 i95
~
~
TOTAL 25 64 63 40 24 327 1 099 18 28 77 , 765
Coloured and Baster 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2
Females 2 0 26 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 51
3 0 4 56 1 1 2 3 0 0 1 68
4 2 7 35 2 3 108 60 2 2 674 895
0
~
g
~
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
E 0 0 2 1 3 26 4 0 0 2 38
7 1 6 23 0 28 408 59 0 1 44 570
TOTAL 3 43 140 4 35 544 126 2 3 724 1 624
~) These figures do not include non-residents, dependant children, housewifes, scholars, retired and unemployed persons.
~)~ Occupational Categories
1. Member of the armed forces.
2. Professional worker, e.g. architect, engineer, teacher, jurist, etc ..
3. Skilled manual worker, i.e .. a person with a recognised diploma/certificate in the tehcnical/mechanical field, e.g.
craftsman, mechanic, electrician, engraver, glass and pottery worker, bricklayer, farmer, nurse, draughtsman.
4. Semi and unskilled manual worker e.g. farm labourer, apprentice, production and. construction workers, labourer with no
recognised qualification.
0
0
~
1-3
H
0
~
t:J
H rn
~
i
H
0
l2:
S. Administrator.
6. Non manual qualified staff possessing recognised diplomas, degrees or certificates e.g. typists, C.I.S. clerk, commercial
traveller.
7. Non manual unqualified staff e.g_ receptionists, clerks, commercial travellers, shop assistants.
Employment Categories
1. Railways
2. Government and semi-gover:!,,,:·.ent (excluding reilways)
3. SaW.Aa Administration
4. Municipal
5. Financial, professional and medical
6. Retail and wholesale
7.. Industrial
8. Transport (excluding railways)
9. Miner or farmer
o. Services e.g. domestic, entertainment, religious
~: MuniCipality of Windhoek (1976): Windhoek Municipal Census, May 1975. V.2. Results, p.74
---------_._.-
~
6
Table 2 shows the racial occupational structures to be significantly
"
different, with whites again dominating the skilled professional and
administrative categories, coloureds overwhelmingly, and blacks exclusively
concentrated in semi- and unskilled positions. The individual company
profile - incidentally of a 'progressive' subsidiary of an image-conscious
multinational - (Table 3) reveals the same discontinuities. There has
thus been little change in racial emp"loyment structures in recent years,
alt~ough a ce;tain proportion of the coloured group have experienced upward
economic and social mobility as a result of the enduring skilled labour
shortage. This is illustrated by the degree of overlap between white
and coloured in Tables 2 and 3. A similar process has occurred in SA
itself "
The racial distribution of wages in the sample is shown in Table 4,
. (~nd for the individual company"in Table 3). These correspond to the
occupational structure and educational levels, and the correlation of
wage with race was high (R=O. 7050). Given the large proportion of whites
in the sample, the fact that the overall distribution is skewed towards
the lower end of the spectrum, emphasizes the low wages of most coloureds
and especially blacks. The median lies in the R50l-600 class.
Many sources (Horrell 1967; ILO 1977; Winter 1977; O'Callaghan 1977;
SALB 1978; Cronje and Cronje 1979, Moorsom 1979) suggest that puverty
wages are the norm. Analysis of coloured and black incomes in the sample
revealed that 43% of the 67 blacks earned less than the April 1981
Household Subsistence Level (HSL) of R233.76, and 69% less than the
Household Effective Level (HEL) of R350.64. Nineteen per cent of the
"'- . .
59 coloureds fell below the R272.l2 HSL for coloureds; and 37% below the
.. :".
HEL of R408.l8. 18.3% of 'the entire sample thus earned less than the
Virtually all the blacks were male
TABLE 2
OCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF SAMPLE BY RACE
Category i'/hi te Coloured Black Total
No % No % No % Ne %
Manager, owner, ad- 29 31.5 3 5.0 0 0.0 32 14.5
ministrator
Professional qua- 4 4.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 4 1.8
lified
Technical, skilled 17 18.5 3 5.0 0 0.0 20 9.1
qualified
Clerical, secreta- 7 7.6 2 3.3 0 0.0 9 4.1
rial qualified
Semi- and unskilled 4 4.3 24 40.0 62 91.2 90 40.9
manual (unqualif)
Semi- and unskilled 31 33.7 28 46.7 6 8.8 65 29.5
non-manual(Unqual)
TOTAL 92 41.8 60 27.3 68 30.9 220 99.9
i
I
·1
e,
TABLE 3
EMPLOYMENT PROFILE BY""RACE IN A WINDHOEK FIRM
Whites Coloureds ;31 acks
Job Tot No. Ave Ave Ave Tot No Ave Ave Ave Tot No Ave Ave Ave
Group No. WomE;ln Age Srvce Wage(R") No. Women Age Srvce Wage(R) No. Women Age Srvce Wage(R)
1 1 0 35 11 2195 - - - - - - - - -
2 2 0 41 17 1900 - - - - - - - - -
3 1 0 46 22 1611 - - - - - - - - -
4 3 0 46 20 1486 1 0 24 0 1300 - - - -
5A 3 0 37 9 1326 - - - - - - - - -
5 3 1 43 14 1140 - - - - - - - - -6A 2 0 43 18 1315 1 0 34 0 908 - - - -6 7 0 33 5 980 1 0 24 0 819 - - - -
7 5 3 34 1 709 - - - - - 2 0 30 3
8 6 4 37 1 761 2 0 33 1 634 - - - -
9 6 4 28 3 629 1 0 23 0 450 3 0 32 5
10 1 1 20 1 413 2 0 24 1 586 - - - -
11 - - - - - - - - - - 3 0 30 4
12 - - - - - - - - - - 5 0 43 4
13 - - - - - 1 0 22 3 279 7 0 33 4
14 - - - - - - - - - - 4 1 33 5
TOTAL 40 13 37 12 1171 9 0 26 1 711 24 1 34 4
NB: Age & Service periods both in yearS.
--- Job Groups ranked by decision-making responsibility and initiative in terms of the Paterson
job evaluation"" sys"tem.
-
-------
656 -
515
-
324
325
269
267
392
Source: data supplied by a firm. Job groups rank decis ion-making respons ibility and ini tiati ve in
terms of the Paterson job evaluation system.
TABLE 4
1981 MONTHLY WAGE LEVELS OF THE SAMPLE BY RACE
(IN S.A. RAlID)
Wage Group White Coloured Black
No % No % No %
0-100 0 0 0 0 4 6
101-200 0 0 5 8 17 26
201-300 0 0 9 15 21 32
301-400 3 3 8 14 9 12
401-500 5 5 9 15 9 14
501-600 6 7 7 12 5 8
601-700 5 5 3 5 0 0
701-800 3 3 10 17 0 0
801-900 11 12 4 7 2 3
901-1000 9 10 2 3 0 0
1001-1250 22 24 0 0 0 0
1251-1500 8 9 1 2 0 0
1501-1750 6 7 1 2 0 0
1751-2000 6 7 0 0 0 0
over 2000 7 8 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 91 100 59 100 67 100
Total
No %
4 2
22 10
30 14
20 9
23 11
18 8
8 4
13 6
17 8
11 5
22 10
9 4
7 3
6 3
7 3
217 100
NB: Sample size 220; wages of three individuals ware missing.
r ..
..
7
manual workers, while ,the coloureds' were in both manual and non~manual
categories. Despite its ,sho~'tcomings and conservative nature, the HSL
has been used because it includes Windhoek, and is still the most
widely cited indicator - an important consideration, for comparative ,
purposes (Table 5). The Windhoek HSL is "higher than anywhere in SA,
r~flecting Namibia's import reliance and high unit transport costs
from SA.' The 16.3% and 14.2\\ increases in the HSL 1980-81 for blacks
and coloureds respectively can be compared with the 13.7\\ increase in the
all-item Consumer Price Index from March 1980 - March 1981, and a massive
34.9% rise in the food-only Index (Simon 1983b: 343) to indicate how
severely the working class was affected. ,t Virtually all employers claimed
to raise wages in line with inflation, though no concrete evide?ce was
provided. The widespread payment of poverty wages and a'rguments presented
~ . , .
in the following p~ragraphs make this assertion doubtful," however.
,
Many employers attempted to justify paying their black labourers
,
very low wages on two broad grounds. Firstly, it was incumbent on
employers to pay the R15 housing levy or hostel (compound) fees and usually
part or all of the transport costs of their worker~ which g~eatly
increased the real cost of earnings to them and value to employees.
secondly,'unskilled workers were claimed to be 'stupid', 'lazy', or had
'terribly low productivity'. For example, the worst single case of
, .' I .. ~
exploitation, in which women bottle-sorters at a soft-drinks plant were
paid R 58-60 p.m., was justified in terms of low productivity or enthusiasm,
and particularly the fact that the women were all married, hence not the
chief or sole breadwinner, and thus did 'not need so much money.
Examination of the black income data shows that 25 (86%) of the 29
earning less than the HSL were also below the Primary HSL of R210.69 (which
excludes rent' and transport). Moreover, many large employers do not
provide adequate transport for, 'their black woikers, carry'ing them standing,
TABLE 6
ESTIMATED EMPLOYMENT AND AVERAGE 1980 STARTING
WAGES FOR BLACKS REGISTERED IN KATUTURA
Occupation No. ot ""orkere Ave. 1I0nthly l1agea( 1980) (R) 1
1975 1980
Total lIale Female Total Local l1igront
Construotion workers 3 664 3660 - 3 660 U·00-96.75 48.38 General labourera 3 463 764 251 1 015 .00-107.50 96.75
eleanore 3 017 1 775 320 2 095 107.50-129.00 86.00-107.50
Domestic oOrYants 2 125 1 400 600 2 000 .35.00(wolllen) 60.00( .. en)
Factory work ere 1 486 1 360 160 1 540 103.20 ·44.50
Wesftengere/deltvery 698 71J - 713 129.00-150.50 107.50-129·00
Truck drivers 678 630 630 150.50-172.00 129.00-150.50
Waeh and ironlng 583 - 642 642 Nurse. 365 20 420 440 106.67-310.00
Clerk. ani c "" hiers 200 230 120 350 250.00-280.00 250.00-280.00
Truck labourera 118 140 - 140 55.00 45.00 Oarage labourers 102 114 - 114 172.00-19,.50 129.00-150.50 Teachers and translator 91 115 25 140
~:~O~8~:~~ ~enc1&n ta 84 85 13 98 172.00-215.00 129.00-172.00 71 65 - 85 Conatableoa .unlclpal 84 28 - 28 200.00 Constableal polIce 63 64 - 64
Constables, ra1lway 13 25 3 28
\\Yalte'" 59 60 40 100 60.00 60.00
Il1ne workera 42 - - -Shop workore 35 30 10 40
Prilon wardere 33 12 3 15
Speculators & hawkers 27 31 - 31 IUniats,.. or re11g10n 23 35 - 35
Ouarde 22 30 - 30
Announcers a: reportore 21 40 15 55
Cooke 21 25 13 36
Tu1 drivera 14 17 - 17
Court 1nterpretera 7 9 - 9 Laborator7 Ass1atants 5 10 20 30
BarberIS 3 5 30 35
CompanioM 3 - - -Shoe .. aIc ...... 2 - - -Saleo agente 2 40 10 50
Oarage ownere 1 2 - 2 Cloth .. okera/tallora - 0 5 5
Une .. ployed 619 1 472 2 922 4 394
TOTAL 17 229 5 622 18 668
I
Where avaIlable. Hourly wagee have been converted to monthly equivalentc on the baa!e of An average
45-hr week, although some unskIlled workere may work up to 60 hre. Weekly "" gee were converted by "
toctor or 4.3.
2
Employed on c1ty commonage.
(I) lIunlcipal1ty ot Wlndhoek (1978). Windhoek - Central to South Weot Atrico/No"ibl0. pp.17-18" ':
(2) IIcNllJIIara 1(. (1960), Report ot Vlorklng Co .... Htee on a Strote(IY tor Alternative Low-Inco .. e
Housing Cor K.atutura. Vl1ndhoek:McHamara 4: Associates (mImeo).
.I Theee are only est1mates baaed on a sample.
Very Cew woges are above the Avr1l 1950 HSL oC R201, thua corroboratIng the employment survey dot
I '.
9
wholesale and retail trade (McGrath 1978: 156), which is the most
important element in this sample. l While the ratio of racial average
wages may in fact have declined since 1970, as in South Africa, it is
likely that the absolute wage gap will have risen since the mid-1970s
(cf. Nattrass 1977: 408-409). There is also no necessary direct
relationship between a reduction in mean racial wage ratios, or an
improvement in aggregate racial shares of income, and the distribution
of income. Moreover, as shown in Table I, two thirds of. the blacks
in this sample earned considerably less than R300 p.m., so that the
average figure was distorted by a few high wages. The lowest whit£
wage recorded was R17 higher than the average black wage, which itself
lay between the HSL and HEL.2
Wage rates in l'I:!ndhoek varied by sector, as shown in Table 7.
Although the intersectoral differences for the whole sample were not
statistically significant, those for individual race groups were.
Note also that, whereas the highest average white and coloured wages
were in transport and communications, the highest average black wage
was in manufacturing.
(1) A major problem in comparing wage ratios is the variety of bases
on which these measures are calculated. For example, Cronje and
Cronje (1979: 43) mention an overall white:black ratio of 25:1 in
Namibia in 1976. Such national figures are heavily skewed by low
agricultural wages and unemployment ". Comparison would require a
similar sectoral balance. Some ratios are. computed on a gross racial
share of income basis, 'others per capita and· others .. per recipient
(e.g. Nattrass 1977: McGrath 1977, 1978). Keenan (1981b) reveals the
misleading nature df many official statistics and claims based on them.
(2) Colby, Dibdan and Waxmonsky (1977: 245) reported a similar finding
in East London, although when adjusted for missing values, their
estimated maen lay between the. Primary HSL and the HSL proper. Leistner
(1964) failed to relate black, wages in Pretoria to the cost of living.
Race
White
Coloc.red
Black
TABLE 7
MEAN WAGE (AND STANDARD DEVIATION) BY RACE AND SECTOR
Manufacturing Retail/Wholesale 'r rans port/Com:nunic Business service
1 062 (40.3) 1 140 (530) 1 606 (1 102) 1 603 (1 389)
range: 375-1 033 range: 315- 3 000 range: 450-3 842 range: 578-4 417
496 (243) 538 (307) 726 (218) 625 (530)
range: 125-900 range: 125-1 667 range: 475-870 range: 250-1 000
344 (199) 278 (145) 304 (131) 268 (150)
range: 58-900 range: 80-831 range: 200-520 range: 167-440
------- ----- ---~~
~
EMPLOYMENT: MUNICIPALITY OF WINDHOEK
Category1 White Coloured Black Total
& Baster
I 0 - 1 007 - 1 007
II 191 50
\\
235 , 476
III 329 4 3 336
IV 13 0 0 13
TOTAL 533 - 1 499 - 1 832
1r semi- and unskilled
II possessing secondary schooling and training certificate
III qualified professionals
IV top mangerial (Dept. heads & deputies & Town Clerk.)
"
10
Women formed a 23% minority in the sample, and earned significantly
less overall. Among blacks the difference was insignificant, except
for those below the HEL. Among whites and coloured~, however, the
differences, both overall and by income category, were significant
(although there were no males below the HSL for comparison). In many
cases the traditional sexual division of labour was operative, making
direct comparison difficult, but where this was possible, women invariably
earned less. Similar problems exist throughout the Third· wor Id (e.g.
May 1979 on Zimbabwe). The proportion of economically active women in
Windhoek is lower than that of men among both whit~s and coloureds (no
separate figures by sex are available for blacks). Whereas the figure
for white women rose from 23.8% in 1960 to 28.4% in 1975, the figure
for coloured women fell from 49.1% to 33.1% over the same period
(Municipality of Windhoek 1976: 73). The last mentioned percentage may
not, however, be accurate. Many black and coloured women are engaged
in domestic service rather than the formal sector, and are even wOrse
off. There is thus widespread wage discrimination, both by race and
by sex.
Among blacks, wages also varied significantly with age and length
of service in the firm, although not with the length of service in the
present job. Average service periods in all the groups were over three
years, although in many individual instances periods of 2-6 months were
recorded. The correlation between. time in the firm and time in the
present job was high for the entire sample (0.8004), but higher for
blacks, especially those below the HSL (1.00) and HEL (0.9695), than
for coloureds (0.710 and 0.7724 respectively). This suqgests that semi-
and unskilled blacks, in particular, tend .tohold only one job per
-~-.---.------=----------
11
employer, and thus have virtually no intra-firm upward mobility. Wages
are not highly correlated with service periods for these groups,
suggesting that their wages do not rise proportionately over time.
This classic proletarian predicament can only be explained with
reference to the wider structural dimensions of poverty, and in particular
to education. Wages within the sample as a whole, and for the coloured
subset separately, varied significantly with the level of schooling
attained. This was not true among blacks in the sample primarily, it
would seem, because their levels of both formal schooling and remuneration
were so low. The mean educational achievement for the entire sample was
Std. 7, with Std. 9 for whites, Std. 7-8 for coloureds and Std. 3 for
blacks respectively. Those earning less than the HSL, between the HSL
and HEL, and above the HEL were separated by a least a year "s schooling
in each case. The question of access to educational and other social
services will be returned to in the final section.
In line with changing circumstances, racial discrimination is
supposedly being removed from the workplace. The Private Sector Foundation
launched a Code of Employment Practice during 1981, and politicians made
periodic appeals for change and condemnations of 'outmoded practices'.
Some firms have made sincere and successful attempts in this direction,
especially subsidiaries of foreign and large South African corporations
conscious of their image abroad. However, they are still in a minority.
Only one employer interviewed admitted that his firm had done little
so far; the rest denied the existence of racial discrimination on their
premises. The data presented here, and regular race-specific vacancies
advertised in the local press (even by firms in the sample)
wise.
show other-
12
(b) Public Sector
Despite its importance as a source of employment in Windhoek, the paucity
of data obtained on the public sector restricts analysis to· little more
than description. In 1975 the Municipality, Railways and Government/
Administration employed 10,824 out of the 33,650-strong workforce.
53\\ of pub11c employees were white, 3.5\\ coloured and 43.5% black.
Government reorganization makes comparison with contemporary data
difficult: race is no longer recorded since the unification of govern-
ment (i.e. civil service) employment conditions and salary scales in
1980, while, because of frequent staff movement, data are not
recorded by locality. Rough estimates provided by personnel officers
during interviews suggest over 9,000 government posts (excluding police,
prisons, military) in Windhoek in October 1980, white the South African
Transport Services (S.A.T.S.), South West African Broadcasting Corporation
(S.W.A.B.C.) and Municipality accounted for an additional 1200. This
would represent an overall sectoral increase of well over 50\\ since 1975.
There are over 600 different salary scales in the Civil Service
and no average wage data could be obtained. At the end of 19BO un- and
semi-skilled labourers' wages in the public sector ranged from RB7.50
to roughly R300 p.m., a high proportion thus earning well below the
April 1981 HSL figure (R87.50 is a mere 37.4\\ of the HSL). Some unskilled
black employees of the Administration for Whites earned R78 p.m. but
take-home pay was only R12.30-R19.03 after deduction of hostel.and
transport fees and medical/pension contributions (Windhoek Observer
11/4/81). By contr~st, personnel with Matric plus further training
earned R283-R779 p.m., qualified professionals R535-Rl, 732, and top
managerial staff Rl,781-R2, 525 p.m., the last-mentioned representing
the highest civil service salary.
13
Other public bodies such as the S.I'I.A. System of S.A.T.S., the
S.W.A.B.C. and t1unicipality of I-lindhoek also claim to have abolished
racial discrimination, although the first-mentioned is still run as
an integral part of its South African parent and the Windhoek press
regular 1 y carries claims of racism by its staff. The tlunicipali ty
phased in a single set of work conditions and salary scales from 1978,
which appeared to have proceeded relatively smoothly, barring some
problems in introducing the compulsory pension scheme for unskilled
workers. It is common for low-paid workers, often having no secure
job tenure, to show reluctance in accepting such deductions from
subsistence wages, especially as the purported benefits are uncertain
and in the distant future. The municipal employment structure is
shown in Table 8. Although slow upward filtering of coloureds and
blacks had begun by late 1980, whites still occupied most professional
and all managerial jobs. The seven Grade III staff who were not white
were on the lowest of the 15 applicable salary scales. However, the
single uniform employment structure and improved conditions are believed
responsible for reducing annual semi- and unskilled staff turnover from
an average of 74.5% between 1974 and 1977 to 30% in 1980.
While there does therefore appear to have been some change in the
public sector, full evaluation would require more complete data, and most
of the structural observations made with respect to the private sector
apply equally here. Discrimination may officially have been removed,
but reality for the lowly worker is little different. It is probably
unrealistic to expect skill and training levels to improve significantly
in so short a period, but unless rapid progress is made towards social
equality and paying all employees a living wage, class divisions will come
increasingly to the fore. However, it seems unlikely that any major
changes in the present situation will occur before independence.
14
Many more white civil servants will probably return to South Africa
at that juncture, indeed, the Lusaka-based United Nations Institute
for Namibia is basing its civil service training programme on the
assumption of having to take over virtually the entire' bureaucracy at
once (UNIN 1978). This, of course, will have little effect at the
bottom of the employment hierarchy,where change is most urgently needed.
There is also a growing army of unemployed in Windhoek as elsewhere,
unable even to gain a footing at ,the bottom of the ladder. Before
turning to them, however, a brief note on changes within the very
limited labour organizations is 'appropriate.
TRADE UNIONS: UNFULFILLED WORKING CLASS POTENTIAL
If a well developed 'trade union movement is indicative of improved
labour conditions by virtue of enhanced bargaining power, it is clear
why worker exploitation in Namibia persists. Trade unions are still
in their infancy, for several interrelated reasons. The first is the
difficulty of organizing a largely proletarianized workforce in widely
separated urban areas. This has been compounded by active employer
and official resistance, especially from the mines, which are highly
organized through the Chamber of Mines of SWA/Namibia. The build up-
and reaction to the 1971/72 Contract Workers Strike illustrates the
point (e.g. Kane-Berman 1972, Cronje and Cronje 1979, Moorsom 1977,
1979, SALB 1978). The third obstacle reflects the territory's economic
structure, in that skilled (essentially white) workers are in short
supply and have fairly strong bargaining positions, while. increasing.,
unemployment of un~ and sem~skilled workers has rendered their position
proyressively weaker.
15
The main labour legislation, the Wage and Industrial Conciliation
Ordinance, No. 35 of 1952, specifically exempted farm and domestic
workers, two of the largest groups of employees, from its provisions,
and excluded blacks from the definition of 'employee'·, thereby
denying them any legal protection. Unions were opened to all races
by the Wage and Industrial Conciliation Amendment Proclamation, No. AG
45 of 1978, which also prohibited affiliation of unions with political
parties and receipt or giving of financial assistance between them.
Bonded contract labour and many of the other apartheid laws which
indirectly affected black workers, have also been removed. The lack
of closed shop agreements has impeded union formation, as non-members
benefit from union gains without having to pay membership. There has
been marginal improvement, and a willingness among a minority of
employers in Windhoek to discuss employment conditions with union
representatives, although this generally pertains to specific grievances
of individual workers rather than broad negotiations on terms of
employment.
In 1981 there were 6 unions registered in terms of the Wage and
Conciliation legislation, which entitles them to stop-order rights
and Industrial Council membership along the lines of equivalent South
Afr ican laws. Two operate entirely outside Windhoek, while two
others are insignificant and inactive, so that only two need be
considered here. The Municipal Staff Association is effective,
regularly achieving significant gains for its members. White membership
has always been compulsory by closed shop agreement with municipalities,
and while now voluntary for existing black employees, it is compulsory
16
for new ones. The Association had 1,800 members in mid-1981, 750 of
them black, 1,000 members - half white and half black - were in
Windhoek itself.
The Association of Government Service Officials, registered in
1964, had suffered a decline in membership from its peak of 1,300 to
800 by mid-1981. This included 180 blacks. 300 of the total
(including 130 blacks) were in Windhoek. The Association changed its
name during the government reorganization; it has lost members through
departures for South Africa among conservative employees, and
'defections' to the newly-formed rival Government Service Personnel
Association, which was projecting a more progressive and non-racial
-image and was based within the Central Government rather than the
Administration for Whites. The latter Association, though not yet
registered and formed only in March 1980, claimed 700 paid-up members
of all races, 80% of them in Windhoek, by mid-198l.
Two other unregistered unions need mention. The Nambian Trade Union
Council (NTUC) was established under the auspices of SWAPO-D in 1981.
Membership appears very limited, although it claims some successes in
redressing grievances in individual cases, and makes regular attacks
on the existing labour dispensation (Windhoek Advertiser .10/12/81;
5/1/82; SWAPO~D 1981:3-4). The National Union of Nambian Workers
(NUNW) was formed in the mid-1970s as the Nambian Workers Union (NAWU).
It is affiliated to SWAPO, and as such has faced constant harassment
and even imprisonment of its leaders. Although forced to operate more
or less underground, it may well have the largest membership of any'
union in Namibia (no data are available). It has focused chiefly
11
on the mines - where many Ovambo migrant labourers, many being SWAPO
members, are concentrated. More recently a Domestic Workers'
Association was formed in Windhoek to improve the lot of the most
exploited sector of the urban workforce (Windhoek Advertiser 3/3/82;
Windhoek Observer 20/3/82).
The Chamber of Mines of SWA/Namibia compiled a far-reaching set
of proposals for a new non-racial labour dispensation in the
territory, which included compulsory recognition of trade unions under
certain conditions, and enabling, rather than prescriptive, legislation
on employee and employer associations (Chamber of Hines 1980).
Although enlightened, and a distinct improvement on existing arrangements,
they appeared to favour class- and location-specific rather than national
unions, and were not supported by existing unions (Windhoek Advertiser
12/3/81, 20/3/81; Republikein 12/3/81). All the registered unions,
while now open to all races, are conservative and still represent
essentially the interests of semi- and skilled workers, who are
predominantly white. The officials remain, virtually without
exception, white, and some black members complain privately of being
patronized. The role of unregistered unions, while potentially
significant, has also not been great thus far. Since the 1971/72
strike there has been little concerted flexing of labour's muscle,
which cannot be said to have contributed to any noteworthy improvement in the
poverty wages or bad employment conditions analyzed above. The entire
union movement is still very small and fragile: the workers'
organizational revolution which has been underway in South Africa of
late has not yet permeated to Namibia, where the vast majority of
workers remain unrepresented and exploited. Major contributory factors
18
are the labour force's small size in any locality, and the ease with
which, in a situation of high unemployment. employers can fire and
replace unskilled "troublemakers'.
POVERTY BEYOND THE FORMAL ECONOMY: UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE 'INFORMAL' RESPONSE
The structural nature of Third World unemployment and its particular
historical form in 'Africa of the labour reserves', to use Samir Amin's
phrase, are well known and will not be repeated here. Namibia fitted the
model well, with contract labour from the northern reserves rigidly
enforced. Urban unemployment and underemployment were thus reduced.
but displaced to the reserves, where rapid population increase further
undermined peasant agriculture (Moorsom 1977, 1978, Gottschalk 1978,
Simon 1982). With abolition of formal influx control in 1977 and
escalation of the querrilla war, more work-seekers and migrants'
relatives flocked to the cities, thereby making the extent of the
problem more visible and politically relevant. This development had
considerable impact in many spheres: many conservative, white politicians
conjured up images of a swamping black tide, while overcrowding in
Katutura ~ already a problem because of a deliberate lack of new housing
construction between 1968 and 1975 - grew steadily worse. ~n the short
term the hostel and single quarters bore the brunt of this new'migration,
sparking off violence between DTA and SWAPO supporters. Squatting and
stock theft occurred in semi-urban areas. For present purposes the most
important effect was to aggravate existing unemployment and reduce the
scope for unskilled workers to improve their wages or working conditions
by the willingness of newcomers to accept eXisting terms of employment.
However, it must be said that there is no evidence of wages having been
19
depressed as a result, or of any large scale replacement of workers
by newcomers. These arguments, together with usurping of established
residentJ housing and facilities, were initially used by officials in
attempting to instil fear into the Katutura Advisory Board and urging
retention of some form of control.
By 1980 the Ministers' Council, alarmed at the growing unemployment
problem, appointed a special committee to investigate possible solutions.
It made a long list of short, medium and long term recommendations, most
of which, especially for the longer term, were merely general statements
(Ministers" Council 1980; Windhoek Advertiser 3/10/80). Some of the short
term ones, notably export of labour to the mines of the NW Cape, and
promotion of 'appropriate' flexible standards were potentially retrogressive
or likely in effect to maintain the status quo. Although most of the
proposals were accepted by the Minister~ Council, little evidence of
their implementation emerged.
Unemployment has deteriorated steadily, receiving increasingly frequent
press coverage (e.g. windhoek Advertiser 24/3/81; 24/4/81; 30/10/81,
6/1/82; 5/5/82; Republikein 21/5/81; Windhoek Observer 9/1/82). One
report suggested a national unemployment rate of 18.1% in mid-1981,
i.e. 75,000 out of the 415,000-strong labour force (cf. 10% in 1977/8),
but 27.7% if underemployment is included (Windhoek Advertiser 7/8/81:1).
Although no data on the structure of unemployment are available, it is
a problem exclusive to un- and semi-skilled labour. There has also been
police action against unemployed. 'vagrants' in Windhoek suspected of having
been responsible for rising crime (Windhoek Advertiser 11/3/82;
19/3/82; Windhoek Observer 20/3/82). Between 70 and 100 men congregate
daily at the Municipal Labour Bureau near Katutura, while others search
for jobs in the city. During working hours, many hundred unemployed men
20
and women of all ages are evident· in Katutura, often patronizing
illegal shebeens. The attendant social problems are profound yet
there is little hope of improvement in the foreseeable future.
One response to this situation has been a proliferation of
'informal' sector activities by blacks and some coloureds. Although
such undertakings have a long history in southern Africa (Van Onselen
1982; Rogerson 1983) rigid control and suppression by the authorities
was the norm. With the lifting of some colonial-type apartheid
laws in the late 1970s, the consequent rapid urban growth in Windhoek
and the effects of recession, more of the 'casual poor" and working
class have been forced to use marginal (and often still illegal)
income earning opportunities, despite periodic harassment.
I have dealt in detail with the nature of these activities
elsewhere (Simon 1984); a few brief comments will thus suffice.
Interviews with 'informal' operators supported the circumstantial
evidence on poverty,wages and unemployment,presented above as motivations
for their activities. 72% had been thus active for ·under five years,
the majority of these for less than one year, although 16% claimed
over 20 year~ experience. Few divulged specific information on income,
but 84% claimed it to be very irregular, and only rarely did an
interviewee consider him/herself better off financially than in formal
employment. Over half those interviewed were women, and .many of them
aimed to supplement household income or have an independent source of
income, rather than at full time employment. These are thus 'subsistence'
rather than 'productive' profit-orientated activities (Dewar'and Watson
1981). Only 35% of the women, as opposed to 82% of the ·men, were active
full-time. Virtually all operated alone or in pairs,with an occasional trio.
21
Although there were felt to be some advantages in being one's
own boss, conditions and hours were hard, income irregular and profit
margins generally low. 72% thought their activities insecure as a
result of official harassment and/or competition. Their educational
levels were low, but comparable to those of blacks overall. Almost
half desired formal employment while most of the remainder felt their
present activity to be all that their education and experience permitted,
or provided the necessary income supplement.
It is almost impossible to gauge accurately the proportion of
people eking out an 'informal ,. living; besides this will change rapidly
with economic conditions and urban growth. In Katutura the figure was
unlikely to have been much above 10-15% in 1981, and still lower in
Khomasdal. The rising scale of informal activity is undoubtedly a
syndrome of contemporary poverty. It has been argued that such activity
is functional to the State by reducing the imperative for social welfare
provision (Rogerson and Beavon 1982: 263). In Windhoek, at least, the
authoritie~ attitude suggests little such awareness. The State's role
as primary provider of education/health and related services is dealt with
in the following section, where the wider determinants of inequality and
poverty form the main focus.
STRUCTURAL P.oVERTY, THE PROBLEM .oF RELATIVE ACCESS
I have demonstrated the persistence and perhaps even aggravation of urban
poverty in Windhoek since the removal of apartheid began. In terms
of the structural defi~ition of poverty adopted earlier it remains to
relate - albeit perforce extremely briefly - skill levels and hence
income earing potential to the wider social formation. The terms of
access to the bases for accumulating social power (health, knowledge and
22
,C
skills through education, social and 'political organizations, productive
assets and income) have long been institutionalized on racial lines.
The State's role is crucial not only by virtue of being the major
economic agent in Namibia, where over half of all formal employment
and most capital investment is in the public sector, but in regulating
the political economy of domination. It has seen fit in recent years
j
to lift some racial restrictions, which may well have been seen as
hampering the vulnerable yet basically capitalist economy. These moves
have certainly benefited a "small coloured and black middle class
and led to claims that freedom of opportunity now exists. Equally
significant, however, is the fact that education and health, in particular,
remain effectively segregated.
In 1979 Windhoek's Mayor, an opponent of residential desegregation
claimed that
'There are nice houses in Khomasdal and Katutura,
and modest, even poor little houses in Windhoek.
Poverty has nothing to do with where you live'.
(address to SWA Municipal Association, 28 Nov. 1979)
Ironically, the handful of' 'nice houses' in'Katutura serve merely
to highlight the generally poor conditions: ill-maintained match box
municipal housing, many with outside latrines and lacking electricity;
,
mainly untarred and unkept roads; inadequate refuse collection with
numerous open piles of garbage providing a b~eeding ground for insects
and rodents; poor, Public facilities; overcrowding; alcoholism, and
unemployed peopl!l sitting aimlessly around. To residents of'Khomasdal
and especially Katutura, poverty has everything to do with wher~ you
live. And' where you live,is still a function of apartheid geography for
,99\\ of Windhoek,'s ,population.
t __ ,
23
(a) Housing On the whole, the authorities' low income housing
policies have not yet found solutions appopriate to the rate and
scale of growth in Windhoek and elsewhere or the shelter needs
of the urban poor. Despite awareness of the problems and
changing needs since 1977 (i.e. family rather than single migrant
accommodation) the burden of the past remains strong. No new
role for the hostel compound has been found, although portions of
the single quarters have now been converted into family units.
A one-off core housing experiment bypassed the poorest of the
poor, and in any case was abandoned in favour of accelerated
construction of existing township house types, although for sale
rather than rental as before. The price tag, at R10,600 already
in 1981, put these beyond the reach of the most needy residents,
even assuming that their names reached the top of growing
waiting lists. By far the most significant change was the DTA
government's decision in 1981 to sell all existing municipal
houses in Katutura to their sitting tenants on a freehold basis.
Prices were set on a sliding scale according to age of house and
length of occupancy, ranging from full construction costs for
post-1975 structures to payment for the plot only at the oldest
extreme. As I have set out in detail elsewhere,the initial response
was slow for political as well as economic reasons, but the potential
future ramifications of an urban black property owning class are
far-reaching (Simon 1983b, forthcoming). South Africa itself has
now taken a similar course of action, although only on a 99-year
leasehold basis (Mabin and Parnell 1983). In Windhoek the option
of moving to a better area exists only for a few wealthy blacks.
24
A certain proportion of the working class are now benefiting from
house ownership or extensions of their houses in Katutura, but for the
poor the situation is deteriorating as low-cost rental housing is sold
off. Incremental core or site-and-service schemes are still officially
frowned on, while overcrowding grows steadily worse. For many, the'
need to squat illegally, despite the insecurity and inconvenience,
is finding expression in growing spontaneous peri-urban settlements.
(b) Health service provision, along with education, has proved a focus of white
resistance to change and remains racially segregated. In terms of
western criteria of modern, well equipped hospitals, Windhoek_is well
served, too well perhaps. The problem is, however, that health
services are inappropriate to the needs of the poor, both in rural and
urban areas. They are overcapitalized, relying on modern technology
and curative medicine rather than on a simple~ more dispersed and
accessible policy focusing significantly on preventative services.
Thus although there is a modern GOO-bed hospital serving Katutura and
Khomasdal,and a clinic centrally located in each acts as screening
centre for minor complaints, the chief diseases are gastro-enteritis
and pneumonia among infants, measles among children and TB among
adults. 'These are both preventable and curable given the right
conditions, yet people die from them almost daily in the shadows of
medical mausoleums. They reflect the socio-economic and environmental
conditions in which the urban poor live. While a high percentage
of cases are eventually reported, tr~atment often commences too
late, or parents neglect or fail to understand instructions on
infant care. Waiting times at the hospital are characteristically
long, involving absence from work, with consequent loss of precious
income, for those who are employed. But the biggest problem is that
25
patients discharged from hospital after 'successful' treatment
return to the same physical and poverty-ridden environment in which
lay the source of their illness in the first place. Alcoholism
is also rapidly reaching chronic proportions in response to
conditions (Simon 1983c).
(c) Education:
Despite the eventual opening of private schools to all races, state
education remains effectively segregated because of the ethnic
structure of the second tier authorities. The central Department of
National Education has an overseeing role for all races and has
made some progress in improving physical conditions,teacher quality
and scholastic performance in Katutura. Nevertheless,the poor have
no option where to send their children, and Katutura schools remain
overcrowded with high pupil:staff ratios and predominantly
underqualified teachers. School attendance is still not universal
in reality. 'Bantu Education'may have ended in name, but the
underlying structures remain, and the education available cannot be
compared with that for whites. Conditions in some coloured schools
may actually be deteriorating (Simon 1983b).
There has thus been no change in the structure of access to the means
of social advancement in the period under review. Existing inequalities
and the socio-economic status quo are certain to persist for the
foreseeable future. The poor will remain poor because they are poor.
26
CONCLUSION
Notwithstanding the politico-legal changes in Namibia since 1977,
analysis of modern sector employment data has shown the persistence
of major structural discontinuities on every socio-economic variable
considered. They are strongly interrelated, and can be broadly
summarized as the coincidence of race and class, although there has
been progressive blurring at the edges. OTA policy aimed to hasten
this process, stressing economic achievement (class) over race: but,
race remains the crucial independent variable, as that still largely
determines the quality and level of education an individual receives,
and thus the ability to obtain a higher return on his labour in an
environment of scarce skills. There certainly appears to have been
little improvement in working conditions for unskilled labour in the last
few years, although real wages may have risen. ' This, in' 'turn,
is probably due to the effects of the 1971-72 contract workers' strike
and increased international attention, rather than purely endogenous
factors (see Kane-Berman 1972: Gordon 1977: SALB 1978: Cronje and Cronje
1979:42-44, 77~89; Moorsom 1979). Rising black urban unemployment,
'particularly since the repeal of influx control laws,' has restricted
working class organizational ability and pressure for improv~d pay
or working conditions.
Throughout the economy wage increases for skilled labour have
been very high indeed, whereas for the unskilled and some semi-skilled
the increases have varied, in some cases above the rise in the cost of
living, but often below. The 4:1 ratio of white to black wages reflects'
a few high black salaries rather than average earnings. A significant
proportion of serni- and unskilled black and coloured workers earn poverty
27
wages, and many Katutura and Khomasdal residents have become
poorer in real terms in recent years - as evidenced also by housing
conditions, disease patterns, rising alcoholism, unemployment and the
growth of 'informal' activities. The dichotomy is perhaps most
vividly illustrated by the gulf between the 'lower middle class'
and poor in Khomasdal (see Municipality of Windhoek 1981). Elsewhere
in Namibia, the situation is likely to be worse. Keenan (1981a)
clearly demonstrates a similar process in Soweto, Johannesburg, where the
economic boom of 1978-80 adversely affected the inhabitants. The
'trickle-down' effect of economic growth, so beloved of the business world
and government, is a myth.
The poor will form an increasing proportion of the urban population
as migration accelerates, which it is certain to do after independence.
Pressure on existing resources, and political demands for structural
change will rise accordingly. Many of the features discussed are not
uniquely related to apartheid, being more generally features of colonial
political economies, of which apartheid is an extreme and distinct
form. Evidence from elsewhere in the Third World suggests that the
lot of the urban poor seldom improves, while structural inequality and
poverty usually persist. On the other hand, some of the changes occurring
in Namibia and in the 'independent' bantustans (Parnell 1984), notably
the achievement of upward socio-economic mobility by a growing coloured
and black middle class, and a change in the basis of low income housing
allocation have also now taken place in South Africa without the repeal
of apartheid. This forces us to ask how crucial the legislative changes
and disputed international position of Namibia have been to the process. Or
does subimperial capitalism in southern Africa have its own dynamic which
transcends political boundaries, policies and priorities? Only time and
further research will tell.
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i .
I
~
These papers constitute the preliminary findings of the
Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Develop-
ment in Southern Africa, and were prepared for presen-
tation at a Conference at the University of Cape Town
from 13-19 April, 1984.
The Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Develop-
ment in Southern Africa was launched in April 1982,
and is scheduled to run until June 1985.
Quo'ting (in context) from these preliminary papers with
due acknowledgement is of course allowed, but for
permission to reprint any material, or for further infor-
mation about the Inquiry, please write to:
SALDRU
School of Economics
Robert Leslie Building
. University of Cape Town
Rondebosch 7700
Edlna-Gnffiths