Africas
The Namibian – South African Halal Trade Scenario
By The Halal Journal
Sep 1, 2006, 15:38

A particular Halal certifying organisation from South Africa is certifying Namibian Halal manufacturers by issuing “threats” that their products will not enter South Africa if they do not use their South African Halal certification.

This claim was disclosed by Ahmed Mohammed of the Namibia Halaal Trust (NHT) to The Halal Journal recently. Without naming which South African certification body, Ahmed said that it had so far influenced two Namibian companies which had significant controls within the Namibian market.

“To me, this is wrong. Let the South African organisations control South Africa, Namibian organisations control Namibia, JAKIM control Malaysia and so on. Because Namibia Halaal Trust operates under the system that every cent we make will go back into the community. If the money goes to another organisation outside of Namibia, it will not benefit the local or regional Muslim community, only this organisation alone,” Ahmed said.

With a Muslim population of about 3,000 people, expatriates makes up the majority of the Muslims in Namibia while local indigenous people total about 400. One of Namibia’s main sources of revenue is cattle rearing and their biggest markets are South Africa, Europe and other African nations.

This domineering attitude of South Africa towards Namibia isn’t something new but in fact lies deeply embedded in their historical roots since South Africa occupied this former German colony during World War I and administered it as a mandate until after World War II when it annexed the territory.

In 1966, the Marxist South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group launched a war of independence for the area that was soon named Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region. Namibia won its independence in 1990 and has been governed by SWAPO since.

“There are two organisations that we have good relationship with; that is the National Independent Halal Trust (NIHT) and the Islamic Council of South Africa (ICSA). We have a memorandum of understanding with NIHT where we give the right to come in and assist, advise, inspect and rectify, but not certify. We also make use of their ulamas for issues we cannot solve, such as mechanical slaughtering of chickens,” Ahmed explained.

“With ICSA, although it is a very informal agreement, we do have very similar ideologies and philosophies. They are from Cape Town, South Africa and they just concentrate within that area, not even going beyond the boundaries of the province. And we agreed that this should be the case,” he added.

Agreeing with him was Moulana Abdool Wahab Wookay, chief executive officer of National Independent Halaal Trust, one of South Africa’s four main Halal certification bodies. “We believe the Muslims in any country should be looking after the Halal situation in their own country. They are the ones who are running the mosques there, running the Islamic aspects of education and so forth. Nobody else should be doing that, so therefore, they need to run the Halal situation in their own country.”


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