Our Big Brother – South Africa
South Africa used to be our colonial master. The ant-apartheid struggle in South Africa was also our struggle. Many of us have family on both sides of the Orange River. We import most of our consumer goods from South Africa. Our money, the Namibian Dollar is directly equal to the Rand. All, but one, of our banks is South African owned. These are facts we must accept, there are the good, the bad and the difficult things in this relationship. The Good Namibia is a member of the oldest custom union in the world, namely the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU). The members are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa. Being part of a customs union means that all goods brought into the Union will face the same amount of customs duty. More importantly, all goods produced by any member will not face duty when sold in one of the other member countries. In effect this means a company can choose to produce in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Gaberone, or Oshakati and have the same ac...