By Magreth Nunuhe
WINDHOEK – Uhuru Dempers, one of the long-time advocates of the Basic Income Grant (BIG), is hopeful the social grant could be reintroduced when the new administration assumes office on March 21.
BIG was held on a pilot basis at Otjivero in Omitara from January 2008 to December 2009 with the recipients initially getting a monthly grant of N$100.
“I hope that it will be one of the options to be considered,” said Dempers.
He feels BIG may not be the perfect option, but modifications can be done to meet the needs of the people.
When BIG introduced the project in Otjivero each resident received a monthly grant of N$100 for two years. The Coalition Secretariat, which consisted of faith-based organisations, youth and civil society organisations and workers’ unions, continued to fund the community after 2011 by giving recepients a reduced grant of N$80, but without a specific donor, the coalition struggled to solicit money, while government did not buy into the idea.
With this week’s announcement that Dr Zephania Kameeta – who was also one of the proponents of BIG – will go back to parliament, there is speculation he could be given the portfolio to alleviate poverty.
Even Prime Minister, Dr Hage Geingob, who is the President-elect supported BIG.
Dempers also noted the World Bank sponsored a pilot project in Rwanda to the tune of N$70 million for social grants in that country, while many other countries in southern Africa started pilot projects to alleviate the plight of the poor.
He said the biggest criticism of BIG was that it was introduced as a universal grant, which meant everyone was to benefit from it, but he said that modifications could be done so that only those with income below the tax threshold could benefit.
Dempers said the reason they initially wanted the grant to be universal was to avoid the stigma that if you are poor you get the grant and that it was also difficult to prove whether all those in the informal sector needed this social grant.
He also dismissed the argument that BIG would create dependency or promote laziness, saying people with disability or retired still work hard despite getting a monthly grant.
Some have also suggested if those who are well off could contribute a N$100 per month to the project, then it would not be necessary to ask for government bail out or donors, but he said to rely on the goodwill of Good Samaritans would be a challenge.
“It has been proven that a very small number of wealthy people care about the poor. It would be better to introduce higher taxes to the well off in order to subsidise the poor,” he maintained.
Furthermore, he reckoned BIG should not have to be the only option to assist as other ways, such as adopting children, sponsoring certain projects at schools and helping individual families, could also help in alleviating the overwhelming majority of people living below the lowest tax bracket.
Dempers stated many foreign donors have pulled out of Namibia or funding has become too specific, given the fact the country was categorised as an upper middle-income country.
“They look at the wealth, but the irony is that it is only concentrated among a few people, while the majority are below the poverty line,” he pointed out.
Brazil was the first country in the world to introduce a basic income grant for close to 200 million people in 2004, which has helped reduce poverty and income inequality in that country.
Rwanda recently joined the same model to bring down inequality.