Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in South Africa, under which the rights and movements of the majority black indigenous population were curtailed. Apartheid was abolished in South Africa in 1994, but sadly, apartheid lives on in SVG.
Mustique operates like an apartheid state. The white super-rich live a life of luxury, but very harsh rules and conditions are imposed on indigenous Vincentians living in Mustique and those nationals who find work on the island.
The Mustique Act No 48 of 2002 is racist. The Act grants the white, super-rich foreigners of Mustique tax and customs duty exemptions. This chokes off hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue in tax and customs duty from the SVG economy and treasury. This is totally unacceptable and bad for our economy. Meanwhile, indigenous Vincentians have to pay tax.
The argument that Mustique is good for employment is false. It is conservatively estimated that for every $1 in employment that is created, about $33 of revenue is lost, because the super-rich of Mustique get tax and customs duty exemptions. Let us not forget that some of the properties rented out on Mustique are priced at over EC$135,000 per week.
The granting of tax and customs duty exemptions to the super-rich, white migrants in Mustique and not to the black poor and powerless indigenous population is a naked act of racism. The racist Mustique Act No 48 of 2002 should be abolished without further delay.
Apartheid is a plague in SVG and it must be abolished now. All over SVG we can see the damaging consequences of apartheid. There is a high teenage pregnancy rate; poor children are going hungry; families struggle to survive and many households cannot afford water and electricity; there is a high crime rate with many young people ending up in jail; and the children of the poor are getting left behind in education, as shown in the exam results every year.
This apartheid protects the interests the white super-rich of Mustique and also in Canouan by giving them tax and customs duty exemptions. Meanwhile, poor Vincentians face high water and electricity prices, and suffer under VAT and other unfair taxes.
The rich can sip champagne and laze by the pool all day, while the poor suffer generational poverty and hardship. Mustique, Canouan, and Taiwan who enjoys similar concession under a different type of arrangement, must pay the SVG Treasury all the tax and customs charges they have avoided.
These racist laws and policies that discriminate in favour of the super-rich whites (fewer than 2% of SVG’s population is white), over and above the interests of those of African origin and Indian, Carib and mixed race citizens, are vile, disgusting and inhuman. They are there for one purpose only: to keep the rich, rich and to keep the poor, poor!
Leader of SVG Green Party, Warrant Officer Ivan Bertie O’Neal BSc (Hons), MSc, MBA, says a Green government would abolish this racist tax policy. We would abolish the Mustique Company Act no 48 of 2002 and the Canouan Act, as these laws and policies perpetuate apartheid. All Vincentians deserve prosperity, regardless of the colour of their skin!
The human rights of the black, poor and powerless indigenous population should not and must not be trampled on by policy makers in SVG.
1 Comment
There are no Vincentians who are indigenous to Mustique. Mustique is the states largest employer after the government. They willingly fund almost every crisis that SVG gets itself into. They pay for schools, numerous scholarships for Vincentian children. I believe that this man was damaged somehow when he was in the British airforce. He has spent his political life attacking Mustique and attacking white people who are rich. Yet he has himself a mansion that he lives in, has at least two British pensions, perhaps three even. By Vincentian standards he is rich, very rich. He take the white mans money, has done the white man dance all his life, now he continuously attacks the Mustique people. It really is time for him to shut up, he has proven to be unelectable, he has stood as the Green Party in every election and hardly a Vincentian has given him support. He is a product of Britain, educated by Britain, funded by Britain. He has made an idiot of himself for years now over the Mustique matter, it has become his obsession. I for one am sick and tired of him, his attitudes and racial bigotry.