Covid-19

The missing link: including civil society in COVID-19 responses
02 Dec

The missing link: including civil society in COVID-19 responses

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Moses Magadza WINDHOEK - A rapid assessment on the impact of the COVID-19 national measures on community-led HIV responses in the SADC Region shows a complex scenario in which interventions aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 significantly disrupted community-based responses to HIV and AIDS, while also catalysing creativity and innovation in the way Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) respond to the health and rights challenges facing their communities. The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD), undertook the assessment, whose findings were released virtually yesterday…
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COVID-19 measures extended to 2021
01 Dec

COVID-19 measures extended to 2021

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Andrew Kathindi President Hage Geingob has extended the period under which current COVID-19 regulations are observed to 25 January 2021. This comes after the current set of measures to fight COVID-19, which came into force on 17 October, will expire at midnight, 30 November 2020. Following the lapse of the State of Emergency in September, the Health Minister, Kalumbi Shangula was empowered, under the Public and Environmental Act to make further adjustments to measures even after the end of the State of Emergency, which could not be extended beyond six months without cabinet approval. “I observed, with great concern, that…
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Tourism sector crisis deepens as international arrivals dry up
24 Nov

Tourism sector crisis deepens as international arrivals dry up

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Helena Johannes Namibia Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Digu Naobeb, has revealed that income flow from the tourism sector is still very weak regardless of the opening of boarders and relaxed COVID-19 measures. “The fact that the country has not seen much uptake by international travelers for holiday purposes is mainly driven by the fact that Namibia’s main source markets are going through a second wave after the borders were opened,” Naobeb said. “Namibia will surely, for now, rely on domestic and regional tourism from our neighboring countries, particularly South Africa, who opened its borders, and Botswana is also…
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Rent prices slip back into negative territory
20 Nov

Rent prices slip back into negative territory

ObserverUncategorised, , ,
Staff Writer The FNB Residential Rental Index shows that the 12-month moving average growth in rent prices took a dip of -1.3 percent at the end of September 2020., bringing the national weighted average rent to N$7 091 at the end of September 2020 compared to N$7 164 recorded over the same period in 2019. “The sudden return of the rental index growth into negative territory affirms the pass-through effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the rental market. This is unsurprising given the notable job losses and reduced income for the most part of the workforce as the country implemented COVID-19…
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20 Nov

Empty rhetoric cannot address regional, local dire conditions

ObserverUncategorised, ,
Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Is there any single political party, association or for that matter any independent candidate that is deserving of my vote in four days’ time when we go to the polls for the Regional and Local Authorities on Wednesday? Yours Truly Ideologically cannot help but think loudly. Just four days before the elections not convinced that anyone may be so deserving. Not only the vote of Yours Truly Ideologically but certainly it would not be strange that this may be the sentiment of many a Namibian voter. Perplexed at the lack of choices from the various entities bidding to…
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Ministry of Health spends N$3m on COVID-19 drug …as WHO cast doubt over its effectiveness
18 Nov

Ministry of Health spends N$3m on COVID-19 drug …as WHO cast doubt over its effectiveness

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Andrew Kathindi The Ministry of Health and Social Services has spent N$3 million on procuring Remdesivir, the experimental drug used as a last ditch treatment for COVID-19 patients in extreme conditions. Although the ministry has announced that it will be halting further purchases stating that they have enough stock, Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula however, said the government would still purchase the drug should the need arise. “COVID-19 has not gone away, patients still need the medication,” he told Windhoek Observer. The minister’s position comes as a World Health Organization (WHO) study recently cast doubt on the effectiveness of the drug.…
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Parliament still to discuss abortion …as matter is postponed to next year
18 Nov

Parliament still to discuss abortion …as matter is postponed to next year

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Helena Johannes Parliament has blamed COVID-19 for its failure to debate the issue of legalizing abortion in Namibia despite the matter having been tabled for discussion during the pandemic. National Assembly spokesperson David Nahogandja said Parliament has received two petitions of which one is for and the other against abortion in June this year. “We only sat for two terms this year due to COVID-19, we have not sat as usual to discuss more about this,” he said. Nahogandja said the parliamentarian committee seized with the matter will sit early next year when parliament opens to look at both petition…
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Baby Shiloh family yet to receive answers from Health Ministry
06 Nov

Baby Shiloh family yet to receive answers from Health Ministry

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Andrew Kathindi Over three months after the death of Shiloh-Dean Ponhele, the Ministry of Health and Social Services is yet to confirm to the parents, Lavinia Kanyumbo and Damson Kosmas what transpired. A legal case will be pending. This comes as the Kanyumbo and Kosmas still maintain that their son did not die from COVID-19 but rather negligence. Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula stated in August that an investigation had been launched to explain what happened. The Health Ministry recorded Shiloh's death as a COVID-19-related death in August, the youngest in the country, however, the mother of the baby, Kanyumbo insisted…
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NUNW attacks ‘foreign’ companies
06 Nov

NUNW attacks ‘foreign’ companies

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Helena Johannes The National Union of Namibia (NUNW) has accused foreign companies operating in Namibia for deliberately firing workers under the guise of negative impacts from COVID-19 and poor economic conditions. They allege that this has been done to sabotage the ruling Swapo party. This comes as Swapo president Hage Geingob last month accused white Namibians of voting against the ruling party when Swapo is the author of the reconciliation policy that kept them wealthy and safe at independence. The NUNW statement was made on Wednesday when it announced its backing of the ruling party ahead of the upcoming regional…
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Post-Covid-19 business success is not about navigating the new normal, it’s about defining it
04 Nov

Post-Covid-19 business success is not about navigating the new normal, it’s about defining it

ObserverUncategorised,
Sam Ikela Apart from the obvious impact of months of lockdown regulations on business turnover and profitability, one of the biggest challenges that faced organisations during the first few months of Covid-19 was a complete lack of data. The world had never faced a situation quite like this, and given the significant dependence of businesses on data for strategy development and decision making, most companies found themselves having to ‘shoot from the hip’ given that there was now a structural break in their data flows, and they had no access to any particularly relevant customer, industry or economic data to…
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