How does Jamaica, a small island 70 times smaller than Namibia and without major minerals, manage to get things right?
This was a recurring question in my mind as Professor Gordon Shirley, the CEO of the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), gave an overview of PAJ to my delegation during my recent visit to Jamaica.
From his presentation, it is the concessionary deal to operate the Kingston Container Terminal that caught my attention.
Let us return to this later.
That our post-colonial state has been very weak in negotiating economic deals and is always outwitted by foreign functionaries is an understatement.
In deal negotiations, we are what King Kambonde kaMpingana was to William Jordan when he sold Ondongaland in 1885, covering present-day areas of Tsumeb, Otavi and Grootfontein.
On this land, Jordan went to establish the so-called Republic of Upingtonia, whose capital was Grootfontein and its head of state George Diederik Prinsloo.
Warrior Nehale lyaMpingana, King Kambonde’s younger brother, later came to recover this land, killing William Jordan in 1886. King Kambonde kaMpingana sold this land for 25 firearms, one salted horse and a cask of brandy.
Over the past 32 years of flag independence, the post-colonial state has demonstrated a cheap and weak character in deal negotiations like King Kambonde kaMpingana.
Considering how valuable horses were in the 1800s, King Kambonde may appear better at deal-making, compared to our plastic politicians in independent Namibia.
Consider the multiple farms sold to a Russian billionaire Rashid Sardarov now being consolidated to create the Republic of Rashidtonia in the Dordabis area.
What have Namibians gained from this deal?
Unlike Sardarov, Jordan was not a billionaire. Had conditions been put to Sardarov as part of this deal, he may have agreed to build a primary school, a secondary school and a vocational training centre.
He may have agreed to build 100 low-cost houses.
Involved in this deal, minister Utoni Nujoma and President Hage Geingob are generally weak in patriotic deal negotiations.
They often negotiate inward into their pockets.
If you disagree, remember how Geingob, as a Swapo MP, was paid between N$2 and N$3 million for securing a uranium licence for Canadian company UraMin.
Only his bank account benefited from this deal. Utoni Nujoma is cut from the same cloth.
Recall how the residents of Liselo, supported the Zambezi land board, and opposed their land being used to produce drugs by the Chinese.
Nujoma went ahead to arrange for the Chinese to convince the Geingob Cabinet for the whole day that planting tobacco is better than planting maize. The examples are many.
Consider the Husab Mine deal.
In a deal that took place outside Namibia, the Chinese acquired the ownership of the Australian company with the licence in this mining area.
The Chinese offered government a 10% share of its resources.
It was not for free, as it is said government obtained a loan from the same Chinese to buy 10% of its resources.
From then, we will spend 20 years repaying this 10% loan – that is if the Chinese do not pack up and go in the 15th year like the Asians did in the Ramatex case.
Our plastic politicians are bad at deal negotiations. They may be worse than King Kambonde kaMpingana.
Think of the Namdeb deal, where government and De Beers have a 50/50 ownership delivered by our salivating politicians.
The Namdeb deal can be better understood when compared to Botswana.
De Beers also has a 50/50 deal with the Botswana government, creating Debswana.
They did not end up there.
They went to acquire shares in De Beers itself. This means that wherever De Beers has shares, the Botswana government also has. De Beers agreed to this because they know that unlike ours, the Botswana government does not salivate in deal negotiations.
Know that the Botswana government, thus, owns parts of Namdeb. We are indeed midgets in deal negotiations. Let us return to Jamaica to learn how deals are made.
On 7 April 2015, the PAJ and the French company CMA CGM Group signed a 30 years concession agreement for the Kingston Container Terminal (KCT).
Firstly, Jamaicans negotiated to receive a N$ 1.3 upfront payment billion.
Secondly, the Jamaicans negotiated to receive a fixed amount of N$265 million each year for the 30 years concession period as a lease of the KCT facility.
Thirdly, they negotiated to receive a variable fee of 8% of the gross revenues payable per month.
Fourth, the deal saw the concessionaire acquire the equipment that Jamaicans will reacquire when the concession is terminated.
Fifth, the concessionaire undertook to finance, expand, operate and maintain the facility.
These five multimillion areas of benefit do not include taxes and employment creation that would have been the sole focus of our salivating politicians. This is how deals are made. In 2016, our government flew in American economist Joseph Stiglitz to achieve international approval through celebrity intellectual surrogates.
Unfortunately, Stiglitz was not fully purchased like a loaf of bread available for unmitigated use by the purchaser.
Unlike a loaf of bread, Stiglitz has opinions.
Having seen how horrible we are at deal negotiations, he advised those who invited him to renegotiate deals for the country to derive maximum benefits from its resources.
Listen to him telling his host, “You must squeeze (foreign investors) as much as you can”. Through its Kingston Container Terminal deal, a small island of Jamaica teaches us how deals are made.
Let us learn and change!
*Job Shipululo Amupanda is the former Mayor of Windhoek and the Activist in Chief of the Affirmative Repositioning. He holds a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Namibia.