Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
That the security workers are working under unbearable conditions is absolutely an understatement. Because in modern-day free and independent Namibia, which is enormously wanting in social and economic justice, security guards are among the wretched of the workers, if not the wretched themselves.
Subjugated to the uncaring and indifferent disregard and don’t care attitude of the unions, having been unrepresented by any unions for sometime, as well as the government, that has been grossly negligent and derelict in its duties in terms of the necessary legislation to guarantee, protect, enhance and promote their rights. Indeed it has seemed like security workers do not have any rights at all, other than just on paper. As if their unbearable plight has not been playing itself out daily in the open and in public for all and sundry to see and do something about it. But without voice and ventilation.
Among the biggest culprits in terms of the exploitation of the security officers and subjugation, if not complete ignoring of their rights, have been and continue to be none other than some big corporations, especially in the retail industry. You name them all. Most of them are branches of their South African parent companies. Coming from the days of apartheid colonialism in South Africa and Namibia, till this day when their exploitation has and is continuing unabated. You name them all; they all are guilty of the gross exploitation of security officers. Highlighted by the blatant and flagrant disregard of their rights and freedoms. Reducing their remuneration to mere starvation wages, for lack of a better term to describe what security officers are daily subjected to. This is not as if these retail chains are not, every second and minute of the day, raking in thousands, if not millions, of Namibian dollars. On the contrary, only affording the security corps starvation wages.
The highest-paid chief executive in South Africa was that of Shoprite, who in the 2024 financial year pocketed 83.3m. Yet, in Namibia, the minimum rate per hour of a security guard has only begun this year to be pegged at N$13.50. Which comes to 23,436 per month. Which for that matter may be a strong maybe. Indeed, according to the Secretary General of the Namibia Security Workers Union (Naswu), Mikka Joseph, working conditions for the guards remain inhumane. Needless to say, that also pertains to their remuneration. Joseph affirms that the threshold of N$13.50 has yet to be realised, with many security companies refusing to comply.
The N$13.50 may be upped in 2016 to N$16.00 and N$18.00 in 2017. In lieu of the ever-increasing cost of living that Namibia has been constantly experiencing, which is particularly heavy on the ordinary people, least of all the security operatives, given their unenviable wages, starvation wages as they have been described by the unions, it remains to be seen how helpful the increase will be. Not to mention the continued non-compliance by the security companies.
But do the security guards, given the pressing economic times, have any choice? Not much! Beggars that they have been and are being reduced to, especially in the face of the seeming toothless unions representing them. Indeed one cannot be oblivious to the harsh economic climate in which the companies in the security sector, just like any other companies, have been operating. Equally, also not forgetting that most of the time, if not all, eventually none other than the ordinary person, workers, whose conditions are and have been all along pressing due to low, if altogether negligible and petty, wages. And inhumane working conditions have been and shall continue to carry the shocks of the unfriendly and debilitating negative economic climate.
The last minimum wage for security guards was N$10, set in 2017. This was a good eight (8) years ago. With an inflation rate that has been increasing monthly by 0.4%. The annual percent change in inflation then was 2.1%. Today it stands at 3.60. Is it any wonder if the companies have never considered any adjustment in the wages of the security operators mindful of inflation? Meaning the security guards, poorly paid as they are and impoverished, have been carrying the burden of bad economic times. Even with regard to the reset of the minimum wage of the guards this year to N$13.50 and subsequently to N$16.00 next year and N$18.00 in 2027, one cannot but wonder if the increase in the prices of especially the daily basic necessities has been and shall be factored in?
Amidst all these, it is clear that one of the problematics, or should one say the weak link, if not the weakest, in the implementation has been the lack of enforcement and/or implementation of the Security Enterprises and Security Officers Act (SESORB) of 1998 by none other than the government. That has not been able to gazette the regulations pertaining to this act. Twenty-seven (27) years since its enactment.
Yet the new President has been decreeing law reforms for delivery. While laws and/or policies are, in some cases, existent, the problem is a matter of implementation rather than their non-existence and/or inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Or bad policies, if you wish for it to matter. But simply one cannot ignore the rot, if not the sluggishness of the system due to lazy and/or reluctant, indifferent and uncaring implementers. Coupled with the watchdogs, particularly the unions in this regard that seem awfully to have been missing in action.
But what is and has been at play is the whole disposition of all the stakeholders towards the security guards, who are an integral part of Namibian workers. But to whom both the unions themselves and indeed the government, more than anything else, have only been paying lip service as far as the rights of the security guards in particular in this regard, and that of the workers in general, are concerned.
Because it is not and has not been within their ideological DNAs, for in the first instance they can never claim to having any ideological DNA. With both the unions themselves and the government co-opted and swallowed by capitalism, to which they have become vigilant keepers.
It thus remains to be seen what effects and consequences the Namibia Security Labour Forum (NSLF) shall have in the latest push to improve the security guards’ continuing and persistent plight. If it is not just another bluff to lull the guards themselves and their coopted unions in yet another lull.
