Proposals put forward by the Administrator General on the demarcation of government functions for "second tier" (tribal) authorities in Namibia were tabled in the National Assembly on 30 November 1979. The proposals give a clear indication that Pretoria retains and intends to continue implementing its policy of "separate development" in Namibia while moving quickly towards a form of ostensible self-government for the territory. Under the constitutional proposals South Africa would retain control over crucial areas of Namibian political structures.
This was confirmed during a sitting of the Administrator General's Council on 27 November 1979 which approved in principle that further steps be taken for the institution of representative authorities for the Nama, Coloured, Herero and Tswana population groups. A Directorate of Constitutional Development was established in December 1979 to prepare the proposals and work on their implementation. In the new budget for the financial year beginning in April 1980, almost one third of the appropriated amount of R520m. is allocated towards constitutional development.
In terms of the proposals, second tier ethnic authorities will have legislative and executive powers in specific areas. These include land tenure, agriculture, and agricultural credits, education up to the level of training primary school teachers, health service and social welfare and pensions. The ethnic authorities will not be able to pass legislation conflicting with laws of the National Assembly on matters outside their jurisdiction. They will have no control, for instance, over the registration of medical doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives and pharmacists. Hospitals and clinics will have to comply with standards laid down by law in the National Assembly. The proposals state that the five main functions given to second tier authorities will be entrenched by proclamation and the National Assembly prevented from passing legislation impinging on these functions in relation to any specified population group.
The proposals make no provision for the status of the third-tier local authorities. Municipal elections were scheduled for 12 March 1980 but have been postponed. The Administrator General announced that a committee had been appointed to investigate a future dispensation for local government which was gathering representations from various bodies.
During the National Assembly debate on the proposals, the leader of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, Mr Dirk Mudge, said that no population group would be forced in any way to establish such authorities. Ethnic groups which did not institute representative authorities would transfer their second tier functions to the central government which would provide such services as education, hospitals and social welfare.
The proposals made it clear that the second tier areas of authority were demographical not geographical, he said. Authorities in self-governing regions would be abolished as representative authorities are established for population groups and not for geographical ones. It is not at all clear what this means in practice but the implications are that the second tier authorities are simply a reconstituted version of the "homeland governments" established under the Odendal Commission's proposals and later brought together in the Turnhalle tribal proposals. At present, the areas designated by South Africa as "homelands" in Namibia have been given various forms of "tribal authorities".
The Administrator General envisaged that elections for the white legislative assembly and homeland authorities would take place in the second half of 1980. They would be held simultaneously. All the "population groups" would go to the polling booths to vote for their respective representatives, even if they were already represented. Four population groups who did not have representative authorities at present would be electing their own authorities for the first time.
The proposed legislation on representative authorities stipulates that a person is entitled to vote for a legislative authority only if he - is a member of the particular population group, - is 18 years of age or older, - is in possession of an identity document, - has been resident in Namibia for a minimum of one year. The last provision means that in effect, thousands of Defence Force officers and national servicemen from South Africa will be able to cast their vote in the elections for the white Legislative Assembly.
The Administrator General stated that now that the division of functions between the first and second tier had been completed, the time had arrived to give executive powers to an executive body of the National Assembly. Such a body would not exercise all powers excluded from the jurisdiction of the second tier authorities. Certain functions, including foreign affairs, the defence force, police and national security would remain under the control of the South African government up to independence.
In a more detailed account of the structures envisaged, the Administrator General said that executive powers would be vested in a ministers council which would not be merely advisory. The Administrator General would remain the formal head of the executive body but would act on instructions of the ministers council. He would retain a veto right, but would not be able to make decisions on his own. The Administrator General maintained that these developments did not clash with the negotiations for an international settlement in Namibia. A constituent assembly, elected in a UN-supervised election, would, in any event have all its options open. It would be able to draw up a completely new constitution.
"But until such a time as international developments reach a point where an election is held, we will continue with internal political developments in an orderly manner", he said. There was no question of UDI, but self-government could be taken to its maximum without demanding independence.
