Utilising our land
Most of the writing for this book was done while I was sitting on the Guest Farm, Okomitundu, just outside Otjimbingwe in the Erongo region that is owned by my good friend, Dr. Detlef Frormann.
The farm is situated on 18,000 hectares, of which 10,000 hectares is fenced in as a Nature Reserve. The animals on the farm include Black Wildebeest, Blesbok, Blue Wildebeest, Duiker, Eland, Giraffe, Hartebeest, Impala, Klipspringer, Kudu, Mountain Zebra, Oryx, Ostrich, Springbok, Steenbok, Warthog, and Waterbuck. The farm has 20 rooms, two heated swimming pools and an aircraft landing strip.
The farm used to be a cattle farm but has been converted into a guest farm with hunting facilities.
Having grown up in cities, I never appreciated the hard work and life that farming entails. Not only are the farmers dependent on nature for rain, they also have to ensure their workers and their workers families eat, and just when they think everything is okay, they have to go out in the middle of the night because there are poachers on the farm.
The Namibian farmer must diversify his activities and include every possible income stream to survive. They need to have cattle and small livestock, and add tourist attractions to fully utilise their property. This needs to also include a balanced eco-system where hunting is part of the conservation plan.
“To save Africa’s wildlife, we must do three things:
- Understand the real implications of the past history of the continent’s wildlife conservation policies;
- Correctly evaluate the current state of wildlife affairs; and
- Project ourselves into the future in order to put into action a politically supported plan that takes into account all the realities of Africa.” [i]
Morning exercise shared with the animals
It was my last day on the farm and I needed to get back to Windhoek to start the year. I got up early, watched the sun come up and started on a leisurely jog up a small hill behind the farmhouse. The trail goes through the nature reserve and it is about three kilometres to the summit. I have made the early morning jog with my friend Detlef for the past four years and have always come back from the excursion with some really good ideas. In fact, writing this book was also one of our ideas while out jogging.
This was my last morning and I was alone. My head was already full of things that I would have to do and I was not paying much attention to the route. I suddenly rounded the farm dam and saw a group of about 20 wildebeest. I stood still while they ran about 20 metres and looked back at me. They reminded me of sales assistants in a clothing store on a Saturday morning watching my daughters and I enter. They instinctively know my daughters and I are window shopping, not yet ready to buy. In the same way the wildebeest knew I was here to look not to catch and eat. The path was headed parallel with where they were standing, and when I started jogging again, they then started leisurely past me in the other direction.
I was still marvelling at this encounter when I looked up to see an Oryx directly ahead in my path. He spent a few seconds looking at me before disappearing behind a bush. When I came to the place the Oryx was, there was small clearing and he had only reversed some 20 metres into the bush. It looked very much as if we had come to a crossing at the same time and he was giving me the “right of way”.
As I jogged further, a peace came over me knowing that while the animal and their families were being looked after, mine would be too.
When I came to the crown of the hill a possible solution hit me for the poaching problem, selling game meat could be a new small business with outlets throughout the country.
Legitimate selling of Game meat
The farmers association in an area can come together and set-up a marketing scheme for some of their game meat. At present many guest farms and others shoot the old male animals (for example Kudu, Oryx, etc.) and this meat is available to the workers and to other locals. This is in comparison to the poacher which takes any animal (female, young, old, pregnant, etc.) they can find.
It can be arranged that a local, mature woman identified in the community can be assisted with a fridge or freezer and some of the game meat can be sold through her home enterprise. The price the meat is sold for averages N$ 12,00 on the farms and the meat sold by the poacher is also close to this price. Therefore this home industry will be competing directly with the poached meat BUT ensuring the consumer has fresh, hygienic and legal meat products.
With assistance, this business can grow and add processed meat products. Within three to five years the business could even supply to the surrounding farms. (For example labour intensive or specialised products such as salami’s, sausages, etc.)
In this way the customer of the poacher is diverted to buy from a legal route and the economic incentive taking away for this activity.
In addition, we need to strengthen our laws for poaching. It is ridiculous we give such low sentences for poaching while cattle theft can lead to 15 years imprisonment. The activities of the poacher are much more negative in that not only are they depriving the farmer, they are also scaring the tourist from returning to Namibia.
Agriculture
I grew up in a city. Most of my life has been spent in cities around the world. My knowledge of agriculture would probably not even fill a page. Thus, I leave this topic to the experts.
However, I must point out a rather critical factor in our own food production, namely the lack of interest of most of our urban communities in planting gardens. Even while living in a large urban area such as Johannesburg, I noticed that many of my friends and family created home gardens. These ranged from window-sill growing of herbs and other small plants to larger areas for growing carrots, tomatoes, mielies/corn and potatoes. I still love the smell of “kruisement”, (a peppermint type plant grown outside our kitchen window) and enjoy adding it to my tea.
My question thus is, “Why do more Namibians not plant vegetable and herb gardens?”
I recently was explained how to grow a bag of potatoes. (I have not tried it yet, but have been assured it works.) You need to take a potato (with small shoots growing from the eye), place it inside an empty car tyre and cover it with ground. It is important you keep this ground moist. After a period of time, you will see green shoots start to appear. Once they are 10 centimetres add another tyre on top of the first one, and add ground till the brim. Once again, remember to keep it moist. This should be repeated till you have reached a height of four or five tyres.
Now kick over the tyres and sort through the ground. You should have enough potatoes to fill a bag.[ii]
Tourism
The biggest obstacle for the full development of our tourism industry is that the majority of Namibians do not participate in this economic sector. Most tour operators, hotels, guest lodges, etc. are owned and operated by foreigners – or run by the very small group of white German-speaking “lodge couples”.
To tackle the issue we need to introduce our own country to our people. I encourage the television stations to broadcast more documentaries on the areas of interest within the country. How many Namibians know that there is a winemaker along the Omaruru River? I had to find this out from a group of friends visiting from Germany.
It is a shame that so many of us in Namibia have very little knowledge of our natural surroundings. In previous years we had regular “veld schools” which introduced children to the basic survival skills. This must be expanded in our schools, and must also include those who cannot afford the trip. There are very few places in Namibia where there is not a tourist lodge or farm within a hundred kilometres of the school. The tourism business should invite the community to their properties to enable better understanding by the community of the benefits to the region.
The following table indicates just how the “tourist dollar” enters the local economy.
Tourists pay for:
Secondary expenditures
Suppliers (ultimate beneficiaries)
accommodation
construction supplies and work
construction company, artisans
interior furnishings
furniture shops, craftsman
repairs
artisans
Catering
fresh groceries
agriculture, fishing, local shops
processed foods
bakers, butchers, wholesalers
Transportation
vehicles
auto dealers
fuel
filling stations
riding animals
local agriculture
Activities / programmes
special tours
skilled (local) forces
cultural events
local population
courses, workshops
skilled (local) forces
sports equipment
dealer or rental of sports articles
Lodge Couples
I mentioned in the previous section the mostly German-speaking white lodge couples that live and manage many of our hunting farms. This pool of available Namibian staff is becoming less and less. There are fewer couples that have both lodge management skills as well as professional hunting licences.
I propose the Professional Hunting Associations as well as the Hospitality training sector must do more to ensure an understanding of this as a career option for young people.
This would mean training not only in tourism, hunting and guest management, but would also have to include at least two or three additional foreign languages being mastered.
Internet and Tourism
I challenge the telecommunications companies together with tourism companies to place web cameras around the country providing live feeds into an Internet site.
Secondly, I propose an Internet competition via YouTube for the most original video from Namibia. For example: the story of the rooster that looks after a rhinoceros, or a video of a town accompanied by local music. (I made a video of Rehoboth a few years back with music provided by the Reho Combo Band – the cost was less than N$ 350.00 – plus of course the equipment lent from a friend.)[iii]
Mining
In September 1998, I had a meeting with Diamond Fields International who has a mining concession off the coast of Lüderitz. From this meeting certain information led me to follow up a lead, namely that one of the islands in the bay area does not have an Exclusive Prospecting Licence on it.
In researching this, I found out that Flamingo Island is considered by Namdeb to part of their licence area, even though their licence stipulates “from the low water mark landwards”. Their argument has been that this is an islet as it can be reached over land during the low tide. However, the German maps of this period (1910) clearly indicate this is an island. The Germans actually filled in the land between the mainland and Flamingo Island to use as a railhead to vessels.
The size of the island is less than the maximum area allowed under a Non-Exclusive Prospecting Licence and I therefore visited the area to peg my claim. I was not able to reach the island as I would have to cross the restricted diamond area. I visited the police and asked for this clearance but it was refused me till they could get clarity from the Ministry of Mines and Energy. The police officer, Warrant Officer Anderson, travelled to Windhoek on 20 November and promised to get back to me as soon as possible.
On the morning of 20 November I prepared a facsimile and faxed it to the Mining Commissioner, Minister and Permanent Secretary. The Mining Commissioner was in meetings the whole day and I was told he would call me back.
I followed up with the Ministry upon my return to Windhoek and was informed the Ministry considered part of the Namdeb licence. I was not able to get my lawyers to represent me as they would have a conflict as Namdeb was also their client (Quite a few Namibian companies have made sure all lawyers in Namibia receive at least one matter from them so that one has to go to a foreign lawyer if you wish to be represented in a court.)
Interestingly enough, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism wrote to me to inform me they would only be able to provide their input on the matter once I had completed an Economic Impact Assessment.
Till today I have no answer on my claim to Flamingo Island.
All Namibians can become miners. The Ministry has a Non-Exclusive Prospecting Licence (NEPL) that costs N$ 50.00 per year. That’s right, for fifty bucks you have the right to stake a claim for mining purposes. If you find something interesting that you think has potential, you can take it to the Geological Survey (near Eros Airport) and they will analyse your sample. Once you have identified your mineral, the Ministry will further assist you in getting financing to enable you to mine.
In addition, if you wish to have better information on your farm, or area you live in, most of the areas in Namibia have been surveyed and you can get a load of information from the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
I have however a problem with the large mining concessions being granted in Namibia. The companies are allowed to mine, but very little value addition is taking place in the country. We need to make our mining royalties much higher and reduce them if value addition is done in the country.
Uranium Mining
It is great for Namibia that there are quite a few uranium deposits. The scary thing is: What is this doing to our environment? For example, what will happen to the Rössing pit once mining is completed? Will we be able to fill it up with sea water and make a lake? But on a more serious note, we have to think in the long-term what this will do to our country.
All mining contracts (not only uranium), be passed through Parliament. This will make the process much more transparent, and allow for more public input and hopefully ensure long-term planning.
Nuclear Plant for Namibia
Some years back I had a discussion with a engineer about the possibility of a nuclear plant in Namibia. My first reaction was the fear of what if something should go wrong. He assured me that the modern day nuclear reactors are quite safe. (this was before the Tsunami in Japan!)
So, why not build a nuclear plant in Namibia? We can give out the building and operating of the plant to companies acceptable to the United Nations. This way we will have enough electricity to create a desalination plant, to meet our coastal water demands, as well as sell to our Southern African neighbours.
The question of course is, what about the military use of the waste?
Underground Nuclear Reactors
Professor Dr. Jerzy Micha, Dr. Luwdik M Bednarz, and Dr. Detlef Frormann approached Dr. Edward Teller and asked some specific questions related to the implementation of a new type of nuclear reactor.
What do you see as the future prospect for nuclear power, for electricity and heat generation in the United States and Europe? What kind of reactors, fission or fusion.
We propose a new type of nuclear fission reactor optimised for the generation of heat-on-demand. A reactor must automatically deliver more thermal power when electricity is demanded from the associated central station – and must not overheat when power demand is reduced. For security and environmental reasons we propose the reactor will be placed underground. Fusion reactors could be more expensive and still not feasible.
Please describe the idea of underground reactors
These reactors are fundamentally different in design, implementation and operation from conventional light-water-cooled and –moderated reactors (LwRs) currently in widespread use. They feature a low-average-enrichment initial fuel loading that lasts the entire 30-year, full-power design life of the power-plant, and which is intended never to be removed from the reactor.
* Edward Teller’s proposal for the Third Millennium - 2003
Fisheries
The topic of small mining, reminds me of fishing in Namibia. Everyone knows about fishing at the coast, but not many people realise that for a few dollars per year they can get a licence to fish at our inland dams as well. In fact as a fisherman, I do not have to pay entrance to the resorts that also use the dam area.
Like most Namibians, I grew up knowing only one way of preparing fish. The fish was dipped in egg and flour and then fried. This was normally eaten with potato chips, or just bread if there was nothing else.
When I moved to Paris, France it was a culinary shock. The variety was endless, and the taste superb. I still regularly prepare fish at home and often get asked my “secret” for making fish dishes. Even my father, who believes “fish and chicken are vegetables”, has not complained when eating one of my fishy meals.
The secret is very much like when we prepare game meat. You need to know the type of fish, and which spices and condiments.
One of the projects I worked on while at UNIDO was getting business linkages to the fishing industry in France. I spent a lot of time visiting various fishing laboratories and processing plants. I even got a guided tour of the new fish canning factory in Walvis Bay (1995), provided by the equipment manufacturers from France. (During this visit to Namibia, I also learnt a lot about the various wines you choose during a meal.)
Two years working with the fishing industry certainly taught me a lot. The highlight must have been the eventual licensing of swordfish in Namibian waters.
The fishing industry is facing serious challenges, from the exchange rate to fuel prices. However, praise must be given to this Ministry for managing this resource. Their handling of the Namibianisation process is also something that should be emulated in other sectors of the economy.
It is important her to praise the Ministry for the creation of the Namibia Fish Consumption Trust. This organisation has through its own fishing quota, created a number of fish shops, as well as restaurants and take-aways providing various fish dishes.
The horse mackerel industry should also do more to develop onshore facilities. I believe the quota is being under-utilised and this could be used in creating jobs in drying facilities or other finished food products, for example UN food aid programmes.
My hope is that more Namibians see the value of eating fish. Perhaps this will solve one of our health problems, namely gout.
[i] Ron Thomson, The pieces of the Africa Wildlife Puzzle – African Sporting Gazette (Volume 11· Issue 1)
[ii] http://www.kiddiegardens.com/growing_potatoes_in_tires.html#howto
[iii] http://youtu.be/NBOAbO_d-hw