Windhoek Observer

Stefanus Nashama The Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture has maintained that the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) disrupted the opening of Minna Sachs Primary School at Keetmanshoop in the Kharas region on Monday. This is according to the education ministry’s executive director, Sanet Steenkamp. “They can’t deny that, and I am not accusing them,” she reiterated. The disruption follows Wilika Mutotwa's appointment as the school's principal. According to Steenkamp, all due processes to appoint Mutotwa for the principal post were followed. “After a successful engagement with the respective school board management, parents, teachers, and learners on 18 and 19 July,…

Martin Endjala The Walvis Bay municipality released a statement clarifying recent events at the council’s meeting. These allegations concern the appointment of the local authority’s acting chief executive officer, David Uushona, and RedForce, as well as the withdrawal of the municipality's legal representative, among others. The office of the chief executive officer issued a media statement on 22 July, stating that they submitted a proposal to the council in November 2023 to grant department heads the authority to carry out their daily duties and responsibilities, among other things. This was done under various legislation, such as the Public Procurement Act…

Erasmus Shalihaxwe The Electoral Commission of Namibia’s chief electoral and referenda officer Peter Shaama said even though the number of registered voters keeps increasing week by week, the low turnout is still concerning. Shaama was speaking during a media briefing at the weekly update of registered voters last week. He said that while ECN appreciates those who have registered as voters since the first day of registration, the commission has noted with great concern a considerable decline in turnout during the third, fourth, and fifth weeks of the General Registration of Voters (GRV) between 17 June and 6 July. “The…

Niël Terblanché Nedbank Namibia’s Kapana Cook-Off has established itself as the foundation of hope and opportunity by empowering participants to transform their culinary skills into viable business ventures. The culinary excitement continued as the third preliminary round of the 2024 Nedbank Kapana Cook-Off took place last weekend in Windhoek, with three contestants earning their spots in the grand finale. Hasheni Mandume, Maria Mumbala, and Sxelse Tsamases emerged victorious from a pool of 60 contestants on Saturday, 20 July. They will join six other finalists to compete for the grand prize of a fully furnished mobile kitchen worth N$130,000 at the…

Niël Terblanché Namibia is hosting the second edition of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) workshop in Windhoek. The workshop, with the theme "From Frontier to Discoveries: Namibia's Journey to Major Oil and Gas Discoveries," began on Monday. The event follows the successful inaugural edition of the grouping, which focused on Namibia’s noteworthy progress in the oil and gas sector. In her keynote address, Maggy Shino, Namibia's Petroleum Commissioner, outlined the nation’s remarkable journey in oil and gas exploration. She described the journey as a story of innovation, strategic foresight, and international collaboration, integral to Namibia's emergence as a…

Niël Terblanché The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security has acknowledged challenges with the national document registration programme. On Friday, the human rights organisation accused the ministry of being inconsistent in the issuance of Namibian citizenship identity cards. NamRight's executive director, Phil ya Nangoloh, cited widespread complaints from citizens and residents about the slow processing of applications and the lack of proof of application issuance. “Many other residents complain about voter disenfranchisement. Specifically, they claim that in the past, those residents who were not in possession of both birth certificates and identity documents used to vote through representation.…

Martin Endjala The Landless People's Movement Party’s (LPM) leader, Bernadus Swartbooi, said that the much-criticised Redforce Debt Management Company (RedForce) should not be blamed for doing its job. He argued that the local authorities should bear the responsibility for their ineffective revenue collection. Swartbooi made this statement at a press conference earlier this month in response to increases in electricity and water prices. "We must ask the question: why have local authorities, post-independence, had reduced capacity for revenue collection? This is because the funding to local authorities has decreased. It is because that funding went down that the local authorities…

Martin Endjala Evalistus Kaaronda, president of the South Africa West National Union (Swanu), says marijuana should only be used for medical purposes if it is legalised. Kaaronda made this statement to the Windhoek Observer over the weekend, in response to a high court case on marijuana that Kadhila Amoomo, a legal practitioner law firm, filed. Last week on its social page, the law firm announced that it had launched a case in the high court to legalise the private use of marijuana for health and recreational purposes. The matter was opposed and postponed by the presiding judge, Eileen Rakow, to…