About three-years ago, Namibia, a southern African country of just over 2 million people, trended because of red meat. Sparsely populated and one-not-so popular country, the former German colony became the first African country to export meat to the United States of America (USA). That was in 2020. The year is 2023, and Namibia, which is internationally known for its booming beef industry, is experiencing a dissension among its cattle owners.
The main cause of this fight is the so-called red line. Technically known as the veterinary cordon fence, the redline is a point that does not allow red meat to pass from the northern parts of the country to the southern part.
It was erected in 1896 during the German colonisation of the south west African country. When Apartheid South Africa colonised Namibia, they used the redline to control north-south movement of indigenous people and their livestock.
One of the main reasons why the Namibian government is stuck with the redline is because they have no control over the movement of livestock between the Angola-Namibia border. The government of Namibia does not think the Angolan government controls its livestock against animal diseases such as the cattle foot and mouth disease.
So as it currently stands, international beef markets in Namibia can only be accessed by farmers south of the country. These southern farms are mainly occupied by white Namibians as compared to the northern parts where there are Black farmers. According to the state-owned meat processing and meat-marketing agency entity, Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco) 2020 annual report, only about thirty percent of the 2.7 million cattle in Namibia is found south of the redline. This means that the majority of the country’s cattle are in northern Namibia where the Black owned farms complain of struggles to sell their meat.
According to the same Meatco report, only farmers in Namibia’s southern redline region have the best access to the lucrative international meat market. While most Northerners are subsistence farmers who live in poverty with little to no markets for their livestock.
COURT CASE
In addition to the USA, Namibia has been exporting meat to countries in the European Union such as the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa, amongst others. Northerners, who are mainly subsistence farmers with about 1.7million cattle, about 700 000 goats and 430 000 sheep, are demanding to be part of the export market.
Dr. Job Amupanda, a political activist from Namibia’s north and a former mayor of the nation’s capital, Windhoek, sued the Namibian government last year over the redline.
Dr. Amupanda is requesting, through his attorneys, that Namibians be permitted to transport meat for consumption from their homes in the north, primarily to the nation’s economic centres. Due to developing industries like mining and fishing, many people from the north have relocated south of the redline, including to the capital city Windhoek and other southern settlements.
This year could be very significant for the nation in terms of the outdated redline as a result of the court case, especially as opposition politicians and other left-wing influences in Namibia are increasingly calling for the removal of the discriminatory line.
Amupanda had in November 2022, vowed not to withdraw his court case where he asked for the redline to be declared unconstitutional.
His current ongoing lawsuit against the Namibian government further demands the court to direct the government to remove the fence. Additionally, he requests that the court issue a directive instructing agriculture ministry personnel not to seize red meat being brought across the redline from northern Namibia for personal and individual consumption.
Amupanda said: “I would fight for it (the redline’s removal) even if I have to sell everything. My family cannot endure the same suffering.”
The case is ongoing in the Namibian High Court.
BLACK AND WHITE
Namibia’s agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein said the removal of the redline will need Namibia to build a physical border fence between Angola and Namibia.
Schlettwein, a white Namibian of German descent, had previously said the 15 million Namibia dollars (about 886 000 US dollars) allocated in the Namibian national budget was insufficient to start construction.
Schlettwein said as it currently stands, all the veterinary reasons to retain the redline are correct.
White German Namibians are well known for owning most farms south of the redline. In 1904, black Namibians killed over 100 Germans in Namibia to resist further encroachment of their land by the white settlers. In retaliation, tens of thousands of black Namibians whose land was taken by the Germans were killed in what is termed as a genocide against black Namibians by Germany. More than 100 years after those crimes were committed by the German colonial power, Germany had in 2021 recognised the genocide and agreed to pay Namibia up to 1.1 billion Euros (1.3 billion? US dollars).
To date, German Namibians own the farms inherited from their forefathers south of the redline where the genocide happened most of these farms are in the cattle farming business.
POROUS BORDERS
While the agriculture ministry admits to no control at the Angola-Namibia border in the north of the country and uses this reason to retain the redline, the home affairs ministry of Namibia refuses to take responsibility. It is commonly known that Angola does not have a good record of controlling animal diseases.
The northern border of Namibia with Angola is dubbed porous and the movement of both people and livestock is openly observed daily with little to no control at both official and non-official points. The Public Relations Officer in the Namibian home affairs and immigration ministry, Sacky Kadhikwa told Pin Africa that it is not the responsibility of the home affairs ministry to secure borders as far as livestock is concerned. He claims the movement of people is under control. But the view of the area closest to the border of the two countries shows the opposite.
THE HORSE’S MOUTH
Fimanekeni Mutilifa is a subsistence farmer in northern Namibia. The 63-year-old pensioner told Pin Africa that over the years, he had lost a lot of his livestock due to drought. According to him, almost every family in his village has livestock so he struggles to sell his livestock. During years when the rain in the north is good, grazing flourishes and he says his livestock and that of his colleagues in the north, multiplies. “But when drought comes, all we have ever worked for, all those years, goes to waste. Our animals die like flies,” he says.
The Namibian government had in the previous years including 2019 declared national emergencies due to extreme drought. In 2019, plains of nothingness, brittle branches, scattered bones and scorching sun were the only major words that could describe the sight in the north after that part of the country experienced its worst drought in 90 years. For over a decade, the north had experienced extreme drought in most of the years, with only a handful of those years seeing good rains.
According to Mutilifa, his close friend and neighbour had committed suicide in 2019 due to the losses of his cattle during the drought season.
“His cattle were his best friends. He lived for them. He worked so hard and over the years he would lose some to drought. But that year, he lost almost everything,” he says, adding that on the day of his friend’s death, his strongest cattle had just succumbed to the drought.
Like many other farmers in the north of Namibia, Mutilifa goes to Angola for grazing. He leaves early sometimes, or his cattle herders cross the border in the morning and come back in the afternoon. That happens all year and it is even more common during the drought years. Angola is well known among Namibian northern livestock owners as having better grazing opportunities. He agrees there is no paperwork needed or any control when they cross the border for the day ‘s grazing. He, like many farmers in northern Namibia, has a cattle herder who is an Angolan national. Many northerners hire these uneducated Angolan livestock herders with no documentation.
They are known as cheap labour that he can afford to pay with just a small portion of the monthly old age state subsidy he receives from the Namibian government. Many of these Angolan employees are underage, uneducated and know the best grazing spots in Angola since they cross to their side of the border to graze the cattle owned by their Namibian employers. Namibia is one of the few African countries that give monthly grants to its elderly. In comparison to Namibia, Angola does not offer these grants and has a higher rate of illiteracy and accompanying poverty.