Uncategorised – Page 29 – Windhoek Observer

21 Nov

Whither to Namibia, is there ever a point of halting and/or return?

ObserverUncategorisedNamibia, Walvis Bay

A young man last week lost his life in Walvis Bay over a vetkoek. He grabbed a vetkoek from a street vendor and while trying to get away to go and enjoy, which may have been his first eat in how many days, who knows, and indeed the last, he was hit by a car. A sad story indeed! Many a times our government has been priding itself in the fact people in the country do not die from hunger. A young lad lost his life after grabbing something to eat which in the end he could not enjoy having…

14 Nov

GIPF members’ Data Integrity, a critical step in achieving service excellence

ObserverUncategorised

Owen Sikanda The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) is a defined benefit scheme with guaranteed pension benefits. The Fund guarantees a monthly pension upon retirement, and a monthly pension for life to spouse(s) of deceased members. One of the Fund’s key values is “service excellence” and in order for GIPF to achieve this, government institutions and participating employers are critical stakeholders who are tasked with providing vital information to the Fund through their Human Resource (HR) practitioners. The HR practitioners are also encouraged to contact the Fund when the need arises to schedule HR practitioners training. GIPF believes that HR…

14 Nov

Unionism vs opportunism, only ideological workers can truly liberate themselves!

ObserverUncategorisedIgnatius Shixwameni

Yours Truly Ideologically chose this week to look at the mushrooming of trade unions not knowing that this week would rob the country of one of her gallant revolutionary souls by the Name of Ignatius Shixwameni. Many tributes has since been pouring testifying to his revolutionary spirit. But few dare to put this spirit in its proper ideological context. Except for the Swanu President, Tangeni Iijambo who referred to Shixwameni as a fellow communist and socialist. Indeed a socialist Shixwameni was, not by fashion and fads but by conviction. And that is why he turned out to be a principled…

10 Nov

A missed opportunity for Africa? . . . as ILO plum job eludes trail-blazing judge

ObserverUncategorisedJustice Oagile Key Dingake, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Moses Magadza Recently news from Botswana media indicated that Justice Oagile Key Dingake, a Motswana now serving as an international judge abroad, was one of the three short-listed candidates Botswana was considering fielding for the then vacant post of Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The Secretary General of the Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSO), Tobokani Rari, was quoted as saying they had been consulted on who was the best candidate Botswana could field and they held out the name of Dingake, one of the most revered and respected jurists in the world.…

08 Nov

Can the country really be wishing for the recovery of Capitalism?

ObserverUncategorisedcapitalist

“The whole world has been a modern slave plantation disguised as a sophisticated political economy. The governments are modern day fiefdoms exercising autocratic control over their unenlightened slaves. Man has become so gullible through a false consciousness of living a better life, that he failed to see the deceit that was perpetrated against him. Orwell's "Animal Farm" and Thomas D'Urfey's song "Old MacDonald had a Farm" depicted in an allegorical way the development of a new form of enslavement that escaped the intellectual understanding of even the academics whose eyes were glued to an illusory utopia. Like the average man…

30 Oct

Most MPs dismally miskicking and missing Reparations ball!

ObserverUncategorisedOvaherero, Ovambanderu

It has been becoming crystal clear since the beginning of the debate for Genocide, Apology and Reparations (GAR) in the National Assembly for more than a month now, that this debate was, has never been and is not meant and nor bound to be head and ultimately culminate in a constructive progressive, if not radical consensual solution. If anything while the debate should have crystalised and constellate into ideas towards the way forward, from the verbiages of many honourable members of this August House, this far, with a few exceptions, their contributions at best has been nothing less and but…

23 Oct

Beginning of the beginning; beginning of the end; end of the beginning or end of the end?

ObserverUncategorisedGerman

Is this the beginning of the beginning; beginning of the end; end of the beginning or end of the end? One cannot but pose and ponder this question with regard to Genocide, Apology and Reparations with a particular focus on the current debate in the National Assembly on the Joint Declaration between the Namibian government and its German counterpart. Because since the ongoing debate on this vexed question, it has never been clear which way the debate is ultimately headed, and where and how the debate, and the whole question of GAR may be concluded eventually in the best wishes…

17 Oct

Joint Declaration is no substitute to the Ozombuzovindimba Declaration

ObserverUncategorisedKazenambo Kazenambo, Nama, Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner

October 2nd, was the 117th commemoration of the Extermination Order against the Ovaherero issued at Ozombuzovindimba in 1904. Similarly Monday, October 4th was the tenth commemoration of the expatriation from Germany of the first consignment of the remains of the Ovaherero , Ovambanderu and Nama victims of the 1904-1908 Genocide. Last but not the least, this November also sees the 17th anniversary of the Ozombuzovindimba Declaration. While all these dates somehow are related and intertwined, each, in its own unique way, marks an important and inerasable historical imprint in the sad but heroic historical epoch of the Nama, Ovambanderu and…

09 Oct

Could the SPD be the silver lining to the dark cloud of reparations?

ObserverUncategorisedSwapo Party of Namibia

Can the descendants of the survivors of German onslaught inflicted on the Nama, Ovambanderu and Ovaherero, culminating in extermination orders against them and their Genocide between 1904 and 1908 expect anything from the recently concluded German polls? This is the foremost question on the lips and reflections of most Genocide descendants, and indeed bevooves them to pose and ponder such a question. With the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Socialist Union (CSU), the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FPD) emerging the four front runners. And horse trading already underway to see likely government coalition. Ala…

08 Oct

GIPF takes member education to the Omaheke Region

ObserverUncategorisedAmos Kambonde, GIPF, Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF)

Amos Kambonde The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) is a defined pension Fund that provides guaranteed pension benefits to its large membership base. As a government pension fund, membership to the fund is compulsory, as such GIPF has the mandate to make sure that its members are knowledgeable about their benefits and how the Fund operates. The Omaheke Region is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the country. As a result, members find it difficult to reach or access GIPF services timeously. Against this background, the GIPF decided to embark on an initiative of taking member education to…