Mbuende, Kaire 1953—

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Kaire Mbuende 1953—

Statesman, diplomat

Yearned for Justice as Youth

African Liberation Revolutionary

Scholar-in-Exile Until Independence

Became Deputy Minister of Agriculture

Fostered Investment in Southern Africa

Selected writings

Sources

As executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) since January, 1994, Dr. Kaire Mbuende managed the regional transitions from war to peace, from hostility to cooperation and investment, among nations in Southern Africa. Not so long ago Dr. Mbuende played a far different role: until 1989, he helped organize the revolution for independence in Namibia, a South West African country previously a colony of South Africa and the last colony in Africa. In that struggle Dr. Mbuende had been imprisoned, tortured, and interrogated by the former South African authorities in Namibia. Now that Namibia is politically free and South Africa has overcome apartheid, the former South African system of segregation and disen-franchisement of people of color, Dr. Mbuende has played a leading role in building reconciliation and developing new trade across the region. “My dream is to see a Southern Africa free of conflicts devoting its human and natural resources in pursuit of economic development, social progress, and cultural advancement,” Dr. Mbuende wrote in an interview with Contemporary Black Biography.

Yearned for Justice as Youth

Kaire Munionganda Mbuende was born on November 28, 1953, in the city of Windhoek, Namibia, to Lydia and Gabriel Mbuende, a devoted and nationally known primary school teacher. Mbuende was influenced by the leadership qualities of his grandfather at a young age. “My grandfather’s political involvement and his teaching based on a deep religious conviction created a yearning for justice in me at an early age,” Dr. Mbuende recalled in a faxed interview with CBB. Mbuende’s grandfather, Gotthard Mbuende, was a member of the Herero Chief Council under the leadership of Chief Hosea Kutako.

Mbuende did not involve himself in politics until he was 18. He participated in a student strike at Augusteun High School in 1970 and subsequently joined the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO), the organization leading the struggle for independence. With other prominent Namibians such as Ndali Kamati, Martin Kapewasha, Jerry Ekandjo, and Festus Naholo, Mbuende founded the SWAPO Youth League in 1971. Mbuende began to help lead democratic protests and civil disobedience against the ruling South African apartheid regime in Namibia.

African Liberation Revolutionary

Throughout the 1970s Mbuende lived the struggle for freedom in Namibia. From 1972 to 1974 he served on the Executive Committee of SWAPO in Namibia and was vice-chairman of the Windhoek Branch, deputizing the late Benjamin Namalambo. During thattime Mbuende

At a Glance….

Born Kaire Munionganda Mbuende, November 28, 1953, in Windhoek, Namibia; son of Lydia and Gabriel Mbuende, schoolteacher; married Claudia Karangere Mbuende; three children. Education: Lutheran College, Makumira, Tanzania, B.D., 1978; University of Lund, Sweden, B.A. (with honors), 1980; University of Lund, Sweden, Ph.D., 1986.

Member of SWAPO Executive Committee, Namibia, 1972-74; SWAPO External Headquarters, Lusaka, Zambia, Information officer, 1974–75; University of Aarhus, Denmark, assistant lecturer, 1981; University of Lund, Sweden, assistant lecturer, 1984-86, lecturer, 1986-87; Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm, Sweden, reader, 1987-89; government of Namibia, member of Constituent Assembly, 1990, member of Parliament, 1990-93, deputy minister of agriculture, water, and rural development, 1990-93; Southern African Development Community (SADC), Botswana, executive secretary, 1994-.

Member: Central Committee, SWAPO, 1991-,

Addresses: Office —Southern African Development Community, Private Bag 0095, Gaborone, Botswana.

addressed political rallies and organized and participated in civil disobedience. The South African govemment in Namibia imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured Mbuende for his political activities.

In July of 1974 Mbuende left Namibia to join the armed revolution against South African apartheid rule in Namibia. After rising to the position of platoon commander in the training program of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the military wing of SWAPO, Mbuende was appointed to service as an Information Officer with the SWAPO External Headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. In that post Mbuende produced broadcasts on the political, social, economic, and military situation in Namibia. Soon after Mbuende returned to his studies-first in Tanzania and then in Sweden. While a student Mbuende participated in the campaign to mobilize political, material, and financial support in the Nordic countries for the struggle for independence in Namibia.

Scholar-in-Exile Until Independence

Earning a B.D. degree in 1978 from Lutheran College in Makumira, Arusha, Tanzania, and a B.A. in economic history and sociology in 1980 from the University of Lund, Sweden, Mbuende embarked on a career as a social scientist in unofficial exile until free elections were held in Namibia in 1989. Mbuende published numerous articles on sociological theory and development studies and worked as a lecturer, then reader, in universities in Denmark and Sweden until 1989. In 1986 Mbuende attained his Ph.D. in economic sociology from the University of Lund, Sweden. After Mbuende returned to his native country, working after the electoral victory as a minister in the new government, he continued publishing original commentary, then on the practice of economic integration in Southern Africa. When the United Nations-supervised elections provided the opportunity for a new government and political independence, however, Mbuende’s focus shifted from the academy back to the struggle for state power.

Mbuende returned to Namibia for the UN-supervised elections in 1989. He rose swiftly with his party, SWAPO. Appointed first the Head of SWAPO Election Directorate in the Gobabis Region (now Omaheke Region), after SWAPO won the historic election Mbuende became a Member of the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly was charged with the task of writing and adopting the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia in 1989. In 1990, when the Constituent Assembly was transformed into the National Assembly, Mbuende became a Member of Parliament.

Became Deputy Minister of Agriculture

Also in 1990 Dr. Mbuende began serving his first appointment, as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Rural Development for the newly-independent Namibia. This post lasted until 1993, just before Mbuende began his tenure as executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in Botswana. As deputy minister of agriculture, Mbuende faced three challenges. First, he had to change the culture of the civil service from the days of colonialism. Now, priority was to go to “the development of small-scale Africa farmers who constitute the majority of the people of Namibia,” he wrote in an interview with CBB. Second, Mbuende was charged with boosting crop production that had previously been neglected under colonial rule to render Namibia then “a dumping ground for South African products,” Mbuende wrote in the CBB interview. Finally, Mbuende had to restructure agricultural production to meet local needs rather than only those of South Africa and international markets.

Mbuende’s achievements were numerous. First, he averted a major catastrophe by managing Namibia’s food resources effectively during a major drought. Mbuende oversaw the drought relief programme in Namibia. Starvation resulted in the Horn of Africa during the drought, but in Namibia not a single life was lost. Mbuende successfully met the routine challenges presented him in his post as well. He made the small-scale African farmer the focus of government programs. He helped move technology into rural areas by establishing Rural Development Centres. He launched a campaign that resulted in a 50 percent increase in maize production and a 75 percent increase in millet production during the 1990-91 growing season. Finally, Mbuende started the slow process of land redistribution with the introduction of affirmative action loans by the Agricultural Bank of Namibia for African farmers in their efforts to acquire commercial farms.

Namibia has also faced the challenge of meeting the rights of minority ethnic peoples. While deputy minister of agriculture, Dr. Mbuende contributed to a general improvement in the human rights situation of these minority peoples, particularly for the San in Namibia. Unlike the policy before independence, communal land rights were respected in practice, if not in explicit legislation. President Sam Nujoma set a precedent in Nyae Nyae, formerly Eastern Bushmanland. Nujoma said during a visit to the area that anyone wishing to settle in a communal land must receive the permission of the traditional leaders in the area, in addition to the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation. When settlers from the nearby Hereroland attempted to water their cattle from community boreholes without permission in late 1991, the Nyae Nyae Farmer’s Cooperative escorted the settlers peacefully back to the Herero border with the promised, although not necessary, backing of the local police and the Regional Commissioner. All this occurred during Mbuende’s tenure as Deputy Minister. Mbuende had written in a pre-Independence SWAPO position paper that the San societies were particularly disadvantaged by the violence they were subjected to under apartheid. Now the San’s communal land rights were being upheld in practice.

Fostered Investment in Southern Africa

In January of 1994, Mbuende assumed the top position, executive secretary, of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a leading institution for regional development in Southern Africa. Mbuende brought visionary goals to this historic organization. “My long term goal for SADC is to ensure the political, economic, social, and cultural integration of the countries of Southern Africa,” Mbuende wrote in an interview with CBB. Politically, integration meant a common commitment to democracy, transparency and open government, accountability, and respect for human rights. In addition, member states would work through SADC to achieve peaceful and diplomatic conflict resolution.

Mbuende hopes that the peaceful political climate will form, in turn, the proper environment for renewed investment in the region. “The promotion of private domestic and foreign investment is high on the agenda, “Mbuende wrote in an interview with CBB. Mbuende envisions that investment targeted toward the manufacturing and service sectors will transform the region from primary to industry-based economies. His goal is that such investment will take place within a larger economic infrastructure of unity across the region. Eventually, Mbuende hopes that unity will be realized in a Southern African Free Trade Area, to be achieved within the next five years and in turn lead to the establishment of a Customs Union and then a Common Market.

SADC is the successor to SADCC, the Southern African Development Coordination Conference, an organization of regional integration for the states that bordered South Africa while South African was still under apartheid rule. The difference between the organizations, after South Africa was freed, was marked. Mbuende explained to Margaret Novicki of Africa Report just how the two organizations differed: “Basically what we are talking about in terms of integration is not really market integration-that we are selling or trading more--but political cooperation, cooperation in the field of the military, security, cultural exchange, and information, as well as development cooperation, in infrastructure development and investment. So it is much more comprehensive.”

SADC itself was formed by a treaty following two meetings to discuss the role of SADCC in a post-apartheid Southern Africa. SADCC was formed to assist the frontline states in their effort to support the struggle to liberate Namibia and free South Africa. Bordering South Africa to the North and Namibia to the East, these states were economically dependent on South Africa’s ports for imports and exports. In order to gain some modicum of economic independence, these states joined together to find alternate ports for their imports and exports. That economic freedom afforded the frontline states more leverage in pressuring South Africa to abandon apartheid. When South Africa was securely on the road to freedom, a new purpose had to be discovered for the economic and political union. The states met in Maputo in 1992, where they decided that there had been too much advantage gained by their mutual cooperation to abandon the organization. Member states decided to deepen their level of cooperation now that South Africa was being freed. In Windhoek, Namibia, in 1992, the member states adopted the treaty founding the Development Community (SADC) out of the Development Coordination Conference (SADCC).

In an interview with CBB Mbuende highlighted four areas of achievement since taking the helm of the new SADC in January of 1994. First Mbuende pointed to the implementation of the conflict resolution mechanism between member states. Mbuende cited in particular the use of diplomacy in resolving the conflicts in Lesotho, in the impending crisis in the run up to the elections in Mozambique, and in support of the peace process in Angola. Next Mbuende identified the democratization of South Africa and its subsequent membership in SADC in August of 1994 as a majorvictory. “Itwas an honour and privilege to have facilitated the entry of South Africa in SADC,” Mbuende wrote.

Third, SADC achieved a high level of cooperation between the public sector and the private sector in developing Southern Africa. The Southern African Economic Summit, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in May 1995, and jointly organized by SADC and the World Economic Forum testified to that increased cooperation. Mbuende predicted that Summit would become an annual event. Finally, Mbuende cited international relations as an area of achievement. “A qualitatively new relationship was entered into between SADC and European Union through what came to be known as the ’Berlin Initiative’ following the convening of a Joint Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of SADC and the European Union in Berlin in September 1994,” Mbuende wrote in an interview with CBB. In addition, SADC pursued close relations and an active dialogue with Japan and the United States.