Wages and remittances

Many farm households in Kavango and Caprivi rely on wages and salaries as their main sources of cash income, followed by businesses, pensions and remittances (Table 2). Household members earn wage incomes as government employees in schools and clinics or at unskilled jobs like cleaning and cooking. Tourism provides most of the few formal private-sector opportunities and NGOs another few jobs. Casual labour such as clearing or ploughing land, building and repairing houses, herding cattle and assisting in shops or selling handicrafts to tourists is also common. Cash payment generally amounts to NAD 5 to 10 per day, but can be as little as NAD 10 per week. Payment may also be in-kind – a bag of maize or a barrel of tombo, locally brewed beer.

Seasonal migration to other rural regions, urban centres or neighbouring countries (the RSA or Angola) is a common strategy for diversifying household incomes. The remittances of casual labour in the charcoal industry are a case in point in a study by Dieckmann & Muduva (2011) with about 200 interviewees: 55 per cent of the charcoal workers came from Kavango (see Chapters 3.2.4 and 4). Cash remittances are the main source of income for a minority of Kavangans and additional income for many more (NPC, 2006).

In Namibia, elderly and disabled people and war veterans receive regular non-contributory social pensions that are distributed by a private company for reasons including security, the recipients’ lack of bank accounts and corruption. These pensions constitute a key source of income since they were extended to black citizens in 1973 (they were established for whites in 1949). They are the main source of income for 18 per cent of the poorest Namibians, 22 per cent of female-headed households and 25 per cent of all households (NPC, 2006). Mendelsohn (2006) calculates that a typical farming household in the northern communal areas earns less than half through farming than what the annual social pension pays.

3.2.4 Farmworkers

In commercial bioenergy value chains, job creation is hypothesized as a key approach for reducing poverty. Depending on the feedstock and how its production is organized, it could create jobs for farmworkers or for woodworkers. Farmworkers do not have the same working conditions as woodworkers, but since more information is available about them, we use them to illustrate rural Namibians’ motivations to work in the bioenergy sector and their conditions of employment.

About 35,000 wage labourers continue to be hired to work full-time on commercial livestock farms (De Klerk, 2004). Most of the farmworkers come from the Kavango and Owambo regions. Farmworkers on white-owned farms often live on the farm and may farm a small plot of land or keep livestock (Karamata, 2006). Male workers are mainly engaged for farmwork while women are employed for household activities (Werner, 2002). Their average age is between 20 and 29 years. The average farmworker earns about NAD 350 per month, with earnings on white-owned farms slightly higher than on black-owned farms.

The Namibian government supports the establishment of labour-intensive industries while the long-term goal is to transform the country into a knowledge-based economy with a highly skilled labour force (see above).

The Namibian Labour Act No. 11 of 2007 (GRN 2007) regulates the rights and duties of employers and employees and grants employees enhanced protection and rights. The rights concern: social security regulations; the prohibition of labour hire companies⁸; on-farm food shops (no more than one-third of wages can be given as credit); accommodation (provision of adequate accommodation on agricultural land, including for dependents);

minimum remuneration; work hours; leave; termination of employment; and health and safety. Stakeholder negotiations are complicated by Namibia’s recent apartheid experience, making the treatment of employees and workers an especially sensitive issue. In addition, the remoteness of the rural areas and generally harsh living conditions, particularly for woodworkers, and the conditions for unskilled labour and informal employment in the agricultural sector compared to urban and mining sector conditions pose social, regulatory and enforcement challenges (Int. Expert; Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare [MLSW], 2007).

Although there is a minimum wage for Namibian farmworkers, in 2005 only slightly more than half of all farm owners had implemented the regulation (Karamata, 2006). In March 2009, a new minimum wage of NAD 2.87 per hour was negotiated in the farm sector, of which at most 35 per cent could be in-kind food payments, with an additional allowance of at least NAD 300 per month if no food is provided.

According to Karamata (2006), less than 40 per cent of all farmworkers are registered with social security. The lack of transport also makes access to food markets and public or private health facilities difficult. Farmworkers have little voice: over 60 per cent of workers know next to nothing about the existence and the purpose of labour unions. The Namibian Farm Workers’

Union (NFWU) is their official representative.

8 Some provisions of the Labour Act (namely Section 128, concerning the prohibition of labour hire companies) were being legally challenged. The Supreme Court’s decision was pending at the time of our research, but later decided that complete prohibition of labour hire was unconstitutional in Namibia. In 2012, a new labour act accepted labour hire but tried to give strong non-discrimination rights to employees (SAFLII, 2013).