Namibia: Domestic Workers Excluded From Housing and Land Ownership

1. Introduction

In July 2025, a high‑level workshop held in Windhoek highlighted a deeply entrenched disparity: domestic workers in Namibia remain largely excluded from access to housing and land ownership. Despite decades of labour reforms and land policy frameworks, this group—predominantly low‑wage, female workers—continues to be sidelined in both institutional and practical terms.

For more: https://africacapitalwatch.com/

2. Socio-Economic Status of Domestic Workers in Namibia

Domestic workers in Namibia form one of the most underpaid, vulnerable, and socially invisible sectors of the labor force. A significant majority of these workers are Black women, predominantly between the ages of 21 and 40, many of whom are single mothers or heads of households. These women are often the sole breadwinners in multi-generational households, supporting children, elderly parents, and sometimes unemployed relatives. Their position at the intersection of gender, race, and economic class exposes them to multidimensional poverty and systemic exclusion.

For most domestic workers, employment is characterized by long hours, low pay, and very limited labor rights enforcement. According to the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWFED) and the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI), a typical workday may begin before sunrise and extend well into the evening, often without legally mandated breaks or proper meals. Many workers do not receive formal contracts, and their responsibilities frequently go far beyond household cleaning, including cooking, childcare, gardening, elderly care, and even running errands. This exploitation is often normalized under the guise of “helping the family” or being “part of the household.”

The lack of formal employment arrangements results in very few domestic workers being registered for social protections. Benefits such as health insurance, maternity leave, pension contributions, or unemployment coverage are rarely provided. When they fall ill or grow too old to work, most are left with no safety net. Their dependence on informal cash wages makes them highly susceptible to income volatility and exploitation.

Housing is another critical issue. About 20% of Namibia’s domestic workers live in accommodation provided by their employers, typically in the form of backrooms or outhouses on the employer’s property. While this arrangement might appear beneficial at first glance, the reality is often grim. These live-in workers are more vulnerable to labor abuses such as unpaid overtime, denial of privacy, verbal or even physical abuse, and complete dependency on the employer for food and safety. Their presence in the household is frequently used to justify extended working hours and total availability, stripping them of personal time or autonomy.

Worse still, their living conditions are frequently substandard. Many domestic workers report living in small, windowless rooms without heating, proper plumbing, or access to private sanitation. This situation makes them not only vulnerable to health risks but also reinforces their marginalization by depriving them of dignity and agency. According to Sister Namibia and research compiled by LRS.org.za, some domestic workers described being locked in during working hours, restricted from seeing their families, or denied the ability to bring their own children to live with them.

Even those who do not live on the employer’s property face severe economic challenges. Commuting to work often involves long travel on unsafe or expensive transportation networks. Their salaries are barely sufficient to cover basic needs such as rent, food, school fees, or medical expenses. Many pay upwards of N$4,000 per month in rent while earning little more than the legal minimum wage. Given their consistent payment history, many advocate that they would be capable of servicing housing loans if given access to financial institutions or government housing subsidies. Unfortunately, most banks do not view them as creditworthy due to the informal nature of their employment.

This situation reflects a broader urban crisis in Namibia, where land ownership and access to housing are highly unequal. Domestic workers, despite contributing to the economy and the well-being of middle- and upper-income families, remain excluded from the systems that provide stability and opportunity to others.

3. Legal and Labor Protections

In response to growing concerns over the vulnerability of domestic workers, Namibia introduced sector-specific regulations under the 2007 Labour Act. This legislation was a landmark attempt to recognize domestic work as formal employment, thereby entitling workers to basic labor rights. Under the act, domestic workers are entitled to minimum wages, overtime pay, transport allowances, provision of uniforms, written contracts in a language they understand, annual leave, sick leave, and protection against unfair dismissal.

In 2017, the Namibian government took a significant step by issuing a Wage Order specifically for domestic workers—the first of its kind in the country. This Wage Order set a legal baseline for remuneration, ensuring that employers could no longer pay workers arbitrarily low amounts. In 2018, the minimum wage was adjusted again to N$1,564.39 per month or N$9.03 per hour, providing a degree of financial predictability for those in the sector. These reforms were celebrated by labor unions and organizations such as the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) as an overdue recognition of domestic workers’ contributions to the national economy.

However, despite the progress on paper, implementation and enforcement remain significant challenges. Many employers either ignore the legal provisions or are unaware of them entirely. The informal and decentralized nature of domestic work means that labor inspectors seldom intervene, and workers themselves often fear retaliation or job loss if they attempt to assert their rights. The fear of dismissal, coupled with the lack of alternative employment opportunities, keeps many workers silent even in the face of mistreatment.

Further complicating enforcement is the fact that most workers are employed in private homes, making it difficult for inspectors to monitor compliance without explicit complaints or reports. Unfortunately, the power imbalance between employer and employee deters most domestic workers from seeking legal recourse. The cost of legal services, lack of education about their rights, and the stigmatization of low-wage work further compound the problem.

Some local NGOs, such as the Domestic Workers Union of Namibia and the Gender Research & Advocacy Project at the LAC, have been working to raise awareness among domestic workers about their rights and to provide basic legal assistance. However, their capacity remains limited due to funding constraints and the scale of the problem. There have been calls for the government to expand funding to such organizations, increase labor inspection capacity, and run nationwide awareness campaigns about the labor rights of domestic workers.

Namibia has also ratified several international conventions that address labor rights and domestic work. These include ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers and Convention 190 on eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work. While these instruments represent important commitments, their domestic implementation remains slow and inconsistent.

In theory, domestic workers in Namibia are protected by a growing body of laws and regulations. In practice, many remain in precarious and exploitative conditions. Legal protections, while necessary, are insufficient unless they are backed by a strong political will to enforce compliance, educate workers and employers, and create an enabling environment for domestic workers to live with dignity and access opportunity.

External Sources and Further Reading:

• Legal Assistance Centre – Domestic Workers’ Rights
• Sister Namibia – The Impact of the Pandemic on Domestic Workers
• IDWFED – Domestic Workers in Namibia
• Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI)
• The Namibian – Domestic Workers Still Being Exploited

4. The housing and land exclusion

At the 17 July 2025 workshop, domestic workers voiced their frustration at being systematically excluded from housing access:

• They are often ineligible for affordable loans or government housing initiatives, such as those offered by the National Housing Enterprise, due to their low and informal incomes.
• Many pay steep monthly rents—N$ 4,500 or more—that could instead serve as mortgage installments, yet they get no access to bank loans or publicly subsidized housing options.
• Applications for land allocations, like those submitted years ago (in some cases as far back as 2008), remain unprocessed or perpetually delayedlac.org.na+4SAGE Journals+4Wikipedia+4Reddit+5The Namibian+5lac.org.na+5.
  Domestic sector union representatives noted that if these workers were given equal opportunity, their consistent rent payments could demonstrate capacity to service home loans.

5. Land fragmentation and inequality in Namibia

Namibia’s land distribution remains extremely unequal: white Namibian farmers own the vast majority of commercial farmland, estimated at around 70%, despite constituting under 2% of the populationThe NamibianRAS+2Reddit+2Wikipedia+2. Meanwhile, about 30% of Namibian households lack named rights to the land on which they dwell—a challenge most acute in urban areas, where only 56.7% of households have legal land rights, compared to about 80% in some rural regionsallAfrica.com.

The country’s communal land systems and town‑planning frameworks often exclude landless, low‑income informal workers—including domestic workers—because access to formal loans, title deeds, or even approved residential parcels is out of reachlrs.org.za+15RAS+15The Namibian+15.

6. Women, customary law, and intersectional disadvantage

Customary and civil laws continue to reinforce gendered limitations on women’s access to land ownership. In many rural communities, women—even those heading households—cannot register land in their own names, face discriminatory inheritance rules, and are often offered inferior plots relative to men. The intersection of race, class, and gender creates profound structural exclusionFAOHome+1ResearchGate+1.

7. Attempts at tenure reform: FLTS and community upgrading

Namibia pioneered the Flexible Land Tenure System (FLTS) in 2012 to offer upgradeable, low‑cost tenure security for residents in informal settlements. It enables starter or land‑hold titles under a parallel system to freehold ownership, aiming to bring informal households into tenure systems graduallyWikipedia+1MDPI+1. In Gobabis, for example, the Freedom Square community co‑designed an upgrading process that resulted in tenure certificates and land deeds being issued in 2021—a model that shows promise, especially for women and informal workers excluded from formal mortgage channelsMDPI.

8. Domestic workers and land reform debates

Land reform in Namibia historically prioritized redistributive resettlement of Black Namibians from surplus White-owned commercial farms. But progress has been slow—only limited land has been redistributed, and elite capture has been documented in many resettlement initiativesWikipedia. Domestic workers—who tend to work in urban and peri‑urban areas and are often excluded from traditional resettlement models—rarely benefit from land redistribution.

9. What domestic workers are demanding

Domestic workers and their unions are clear in their ask:

• Formal inclusion in government housing schemes, with income thresholds adapted to their real earning levels
• Access to home loans from banks and state institutions on similar terms as low-wage public sector workers
• Streamlined access to municipal land allocations and informal settlement upward titling via FLTS or similar instruments

10. Conclusion and outlook

Namibia has made legislative progress in recent decades, especially regarding minimum labour standards and tenure reform models. Yet domestic workers—key contributors to urban and peri‑urban households—remain largely excluded from both property ownership and secure tenure systems. Gendered, racial, and economic inequalities intersect to reinforce this exclusion.

To achieve meaningful inclusion, domestic workers’ access to land and housing must be integrated into broader land reform frameworks: FLTS should be expanded and better tailored, unions and NGOs must continue advocacy, and government housing programmes must adapt eligibility criteria to include informal‑sector workers. Without such change, domestic workers in Namibia will continue paying an economic and social penalty.

Further Reading

• Domestic workers excluded from housing and land ownership (The Namibian, 17 July 2025)Wikipedia+2The Namibian+2The Namibian+2
• Why Are The Rights Of Domestic Workers So Often Ignored? (The Namibian, 2010)Reddit+15The Namibian+15lac.org.na+15
• Rights of domestic workers—Legal Assistance Centre summary (LaRRI/LAC, labour studies)Wikipedia+2lac.org.na+2lac.org.na+2
• Mapping Discrimination and Domestic Workers in Africa (Labour Research Service)lrs.org.za
• Flexible Land Tenure System (Namibia) overview (Wikipedia)idwfed.org+2Wikipedia+2RAS+2
• Participatory upgrading in Gobabis: tenure security via FLTS (MDPI study)MDPI+1Wikipedia+1
• Namibia’s land reform and inequality context (Wikipedia, land reform)Wikipedia+1Reddit+1
• Namibia

The post by:
https://allafrica.com