By Catherine Sasman WINDHOEK Sofia van Wyk (51) pushes a trolley around a parking lot in an up-market area in Windhoek. It carries all her worldly belongings – for the most part, trinkets and a dirty teddy bear balancing on top. White, homeless and jobless, she stops friendly-looking shoppers begging for a dollar or two. She lost her support system hen her elderly father passed away. Unable to afford the rent of her parental home in Okahandja, her siblings decided to sell it, leaving her stranded. She has never married and has no children. “Where will I find a husband?” she giggles, holding her hand in front of her mouth. In desperation, she then moved to Windhoek in the hope of moving in with another family in the city. But they refused to put her up, and now she roams the streets by day, and huddles under a bridge by night. “Can you give me five dollars?” she asks in desperation. On the other side of the city is a more entrepreneurial Gert Strauss (44). Also alienated from his family for marrying a “dark Indian woman,” he now finds himself on the other side of the track. The weather-beaten Stauss mends cracked windscreens – at N$40 apiece – along Independence Avenue. He takes a taxi into town from Khomasdal where he now stays with the girlfriend after being shunned by his family. “I am a qualified diesel and petrol mechanic,” he says. “I also have experience working as an electrician and welder. But I cannot find a job. I’ve moved from Walvis Bay and Swakopmund to Oshikango and Grootfontein in search of work. So I decided to work for myself. With my N6 qualification, they say I am over-qualified,” says Strauss. But he would rather not work for the government, “not because I have anything against the government, but I don’t think they will take me”. He has three children from his marriage who are all living and working in South Africa. And they are all qualified, he says: one as an engineer, another as a lawyer and the other an accountant. “I am proud of what I’m doing. But the children of today would never do the kind of thing I am prepared to do for money. They are too spoilt. I grew up under Apartheid. Then things were tough. That is what taught me how to survive,” shrugs Strauss. White Poverty a Growing Phenomenon? Human rights activist and executive director of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), Phil ya Nangoloh, believes there is a growing army of poor whites in Namibia. “It is a growing problem,” he comments. “From 1997 we have witnessed an increase in these cases. Then there were two cases a year, and now we see around seven each year. People approach us because they do not have places to stay, or they have no food. Many come to us because they don’t have work. They complain that they are excluded from the public service in particular. It looks like they are ashamed to be white and poor.” Most cases, says ya Nangoloh are in Walvis Bay, Tsumeb, Grootfontein and Otavi. And most poor whites are among the Afrikaners. Pastor Richard Becker of the Dutch Reformed Church in Windhoek West says a small percentage of his congregation is poor. “It is mostly because they cannot find work. Sometimes their small businesses fail and they struggle to recover. In many cases, it is because of alcohol misuse, or because the husband and wife can’t see eye to eye, or one or other spouse dies. And then affirmative action takes its toll.” Adds the chief social worker of the church in Windhoek, Jacques de Wit: “Although there is no scientific evidence, I have the suspicion that poverty among whites is becoming more commonplace. I imagine it is because it is more difficult to find work.” And work has become more difficult for particularly white males, suggests an unemployed white woman, who prefers anonymity. “Afrikaners are on the wrong side of the government,” she says. “But unemployment is a general problem in the country. It does not only affect whites. However, it is more difficult for whites to find work, because we are seen as the oppressors. But why should I be held accountable for what my ancestors have done? I don’t have a problem with affirmative action, but I would hope that those that do get employment are at least qualified for the jobs they get. We are told we are too white to get a job.” Toy van Zyl is a white woman in her fifties. She works at a white-owned shebeen in Cimbebasia. She has three children. One has completed his Grade 12 but fails to find work. “I have another son who will finish school by the end of the year. What will I do with them? We call my eldest son the kombuismeid (kitchen maid) because he now washes and cleans the house. He cannot find a job,” she says. “All I want is that people should be treated equally. People should not get a job simply because they are Oshiwambo.” An Unnamed Problem No research has been done in the post-Independence context to establish the magnitude of the problem. Acting director of Nepru, Karl Schade, thinks it is because it is simply too politically sensitive. “It is also difficult to deduce what the actual picture is because the national surveys do not make provision for racial classifications,” he adds. The surveys, says academic AndrÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚© du Pisani, give a national picture, but masks other differentials. “Currently, whites are significantly wealthier than the rest of the population, but the data masks other socio-economic realities. One would need cluster samples to expose what is really happening on the ground,” Du Pisani maintains. “In small towns and villages, one often finds poor whites: some have left their farms, or have sold the farms. Others are unemployed and end up in these small towns. Many have reached retirement age and are struggling. They are moving on the margins.” The poor white problem, suggests Du Pisani, is invisible because many consider it of no consequence to national politics. “Whites have lost political power, and some old white economic elites have stayed very vibrant and hence there is a focus on them. But the lower middle and working classes – and even the under class – are not visible.” Monitor Action Group (MAG) president, Kosie Pretorius, also laments the absence of irrefutable evidence. “I do not think the problem is as big as it is in South Africa (where one out of ten whites is considered poor), but there is for example no indication of how many whites are unemployed. There is no indication of the reality on the ground.” Newspaperman, Hannes Smith, does not think whites are becoming poorer. “I must confess that in all my wanderings I cannot say that I’ve seen a lowering of standards of living among the whites. White people are having a very good life in this country. I talk to many people from all walks of life. And there are disadvantaged people among all hues.” Says a young white male: “I don’t think whites are becoming poorer. We are merely becoming more independent.” Most of those interviewed preferred to go on record but without their pictures, perhaps because of a fear of sorts.