National News

Eveline Street market earmarked for renewal

Eveline Street market earmarked for renewal

Martin Endjala At its last council meeting on 31 August the Windhoek Municipality has resolved to approve the upgrading of the Onghendambala Market for informal traders on erf 3222 on Eveline Street in the Goreangab residential area. The council approved a request by the VISET Namibia, who received funding from the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) through the American Embassy, to use the funds for the upgrading of the Onghendambala Market. The value of the upgrades is costed at N$643 266 and the upgrades, which include fencing of the entire market area to protect the site from encroachment and illegal…
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Aminuis inhabitants appeal for a halt to<br>uranium exploration, mining activities

Aminuis inhabitants appeal for a halt to
uranium exploration, mining activities

Staff Writer Is the mining of uranium due to begin in all earnest or is the process still in its exploratory phase? This is one of the pressing questions by the farming communities in the Aminuis Constituency, especially in the Aminuis communal area, as they probably belatedly are starting to raise their voices after observing lately suspect mining activities in their areas. They are in this regard joining the Stampriet Aquifer Uranium Mining Committee, that seems already to have irked Uranium One, a Russian parent company of a subsidiary exploring uranium in Omaheke, for expressing itself against the exploration/cum-mining activities…
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Fishrot scandal ultimate test for Whistle-blower Act

Fishrot scandal ultimate test for Whistle-blower Act

Obrien Simasiku The Fishrot scandal, regarded as the biggest corruption cases ever to have happened in an independent Namibia is touted as the most challenging scenario to test the effectiveness and implementation of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017, says the Minister of Justice Yvonne Dausab. The high level corruption involves, whistleblower Johannes Stefánsson, the former director of operations in Namibia for the Icelandic fishing company Samherji, who spilled the beans involving hundreds of millions of dollars in which businessmen and politicians benefitted in bribers, while facilitating the access to fishing quotas for Samherji in Namibian waters. At the centre…
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Tsumeb resident sues Shopright for injuries

Tsumeb resident sues Shopright for injuries

Tujoromajo Kasuto A Tsumeb resident, Veronika Neidel is suing Shoprite Namibia N$500 000 for alleged injuries sustained while shopping at a Shopright outlet at the Le Platz Shopping Centre, in Hage Geingob Street at the copper town late last year. According to court documents, on 3 September 2021, and at the defendant’s shop situated at Le Platz Shopping Centre, 1304 Hage Geingob Street, Tsumeb, Neidel allegedly slipped and fell as a result of an uneven and dangerous tile on the floor of the shop. As a result, the she sustained soft tissue injuries and a concealed pelvic fracture, according to…
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GIPF takes a stand against unethical conduct

GIPF takes a stand against unethical conduct

Martin Endjala The Government Institutes Pension Fund (GIPF) is promising to come down on individuals and organizations that are conducting themselves unethically, as it launched today its Ethics Helpdesk and website for whistleblowers, to create and promote a culture of speaking out without fear of retribution or intimidation against corruption. According to GIPF the ethics management strategy standard operations is linked to the implementation of whistleblowers mechanism that will ensure that they are protected and kept anonymous when they lift the lid on possible unethical conduct. The GIPF believes that improper and irregular behaviour will be nipped in the bud,…
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Government to effect civil service increase in October

Government to effect civil service increase in October

Obrein Simasiku Civil servants will receive the arrears of the revised salaries, housing and transport allowance on a new notch at the end of October, while the accumulated back pay will come in November. This comes following a settlement agreement between Government’s Negotiating Team and the employees bargaining units, Namibia Public Workers Union (NAPWU) and Namibia National Teachers Union (NANTU) in August, in which a N$924 million was set aside for the benefits and salaries of the more than 100 000 civil servants. The adjustment which came as a result of protracted wage negotiations between the parties escalated to a…
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Botswana, Namibia bi-national commission talks kick off

Botswana, Namibia bi-national commission talks kick off

Staff Writer The Botswana-Namibia Bi-National Commission, BNC inaugural session began today in Botswana. The BNC is a high-level bilateral platform that replaced the Joint Commission on Coo Operation and the Joint Permanent Commission on Security and Defence between the two countries through an agreement signed during the working visit by Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi to Windhoek in late January this year. Last year the two countries disbanded their Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security (JPCDS) during the 29th session at Swakopmund and elevated to a bi-national commission (BNC) on defence and security, chaired by the Heads of State of…
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Swapo Politburo done with top three

Swapo Politburo done with top three

Staff Writer Saara Kuukongelwa-Amadhila and incumbent vice president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah came through as the only candidates at today’s Swapo Party Politburo meeting held in Windhoek to endorse nominations for the position of Vice President, secretary general and the deputy secretary general. Only the position of the president will not be contested and Hage Geingob will be going into the congress unchallenged. Nandi-Ndaitwah did not need any nomination as the incumbent after she declared herself as contesting, while Kuukongelwa Amadhila was nominated by Tobie Aupindi and seconded by Calle Schlettwein. The succession battles were always fought among the older generation or…
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40 Endombo families evicted

40 Endombo families evicted

Obrein Simasiku “Where will we go now, this is the only place our children knew and could call home,” these were the words of some tenants evicted from Tsumeb’s Endombo compound, as hundreds of people including women and children were left homeless today as they languished in the scorching sun, with no food or water, as the messenger of court or sheriff, continued to dump their properties outside. The evictees are from 40 households. The landlord Christo Groenewald said, justice is being served after years of being barred from accessing his property as well as the millions he lost in…
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Traditional leaders urged to avoid succession fights

Traditional leaders urged to avoid succession fights

Martin Endjala President Hage Geingob has urged traditional leaders to inspire their communities and to division among themselves at the 23rd annual meeting of the council of traditional leaders that started in Eenhana today. “We call on you as elders to continue to guide and to inspire communities. With your strength, with your support and with your patriotism, I am confident that Namibia and its people will overcome all challenges and obstacles and ascend to the heights of continued peace, national harmony and shared prosperity,” Geingob reiterated. Urban and Rural Development Minister Erastus Uutoni read the President’s address during the…
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