info_e12wt4cs – Page 947

19 Jun

Lowering the bar damages our children

info_e12wt4csUncategorisedCovid-19, Jackie Wilson Asheeke

Jackie Wilson Asheeke I am disgusted at the ridiculous decision to drop the passing average for primary school to 35 percent. It was already obscenely low at 40 percent! I am throwing shade on any ministry of education official that agreed to reduce the passing rate percentage. I am insulted to read officials blaming this outrageous decision on COVID-19. That doesn't work! Step up and take your tomatoes in the face for this bad decision that hurts our children. Whether you realize it or not, our children are smarter than you think! The issue around low scores is less to…

19 Jun

Land of the free and home of the brave?

info_e12wt4csUncategorisedNamibians, The Time Traveler

The Time Traveler: Hugh Ellis I have very mixed feelings about the new US Embassy compound currently being built on a large plot of land in my neighborhood. On the one hand, the United States is a great nation. It's the nation of Barack Obama and Martin Luther King. The nation of the Wright brothers, the humble bicycle mechanics who built the first airplane. The nation of Neil Armstrong and Katherine Johnson, and all the others who got men to the Moon. My education would have been immensely poorer if it were not for the Americans who taught African history…

19 Jun

National Resistance only first phase of National Revolution

info_e12wt4csUncategorisedNamibian independence

Yours Truly Ideologically: Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Did March 21, 1990, the day of Namibian independence, usher in the first phase of the national revolution? Comes the question cautious to presume this may have been the case because of the lack of ideological clarity, if not lack of ideology all together in Namibia on national issues. There were two major epochs of national resistance. First against German colonialism and imperialism and occupation, and subsequently against the Apartheid South African regime’s occupation and de facto annexation of South West Africa as its first province. The National Resistance had in its first and launching…

19 Jun

Bank Windhoek cuts interest rates

info_e12wt4csUncategorisedBank of Namibia (BoN), Bank Windhoek, Monetary Policy Committee

Staff Writer In response to the announcement by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Namibia (BoN) to cut the Repo rate from 4.25 percent to 4 percent as announced on 17 June 2020, Bank Windhoek has announced a reduction of its Prime Lending Rate by 0.25 percent from 8 percent to 7.75 percent. The bank’s Mortgage Lending Rate will decrease from 9 percent to 8.75 percent, effective from Tuesday, 23 June 2020. “While the possibility of more cuts cannot be ruled out at this point, we expect that the benefit from the sharp cuts will gradually alleviate the…

19 Jun

Shiimi applauds private sector COVID-19 efforts

info_e12wt4csObserver MoneyBank Windhoek, Baronice Hans, Finance minister, Iipumbu Shiimi

Staff Writer Finance Minister, Iipumbu Shiimi, said that he is content with the response he has seen from all Namibians from both the private and public sector who continue to embark on fighting COVID-19 as a united front. He said this during the Capricorn Group/EY 2020 Budget Review Discussion, an online live social media broadcast focused on discussing and reviewing Namibia’s 2020/2021 Budget recently tabled in the National Assembly. “The pandemic's impact is something we have never seen before, and as a result, it requires a united front,” said Shiimi. Bank Windhoek's Managing Director (MD), Baronice Hans, echoed Shiimi’s sentiments.…

19 Jun

NAC HQ placed under lockdown

info_e12wt4csObserver MoneyCovid-19, NAC, Namibia Airports Company (NAC)

Staff Writer The negative effects of Case 33 who was arrested by police for entering the country illegally are being felt by various organisations in Windhoek, with the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) becoming the third organisation this week to lockdown its building as part of precautionary measures against Covid-19. According the airports operator, one of its employees resides in the same building, 77 on Independence, where the Covid-19 positive suspect was arrested. “This decision comes after careful consideration of the possible risk of exposure,” NAC Chief Executive Officer, Bisey Uirab said. On Thursday, the Ministry of Agriculture was also forced…

19 Jun

Job vs Swapo is not the point . . . inclusive democracy is

info_e12wt4csNational NewsAffirmative Repositioning (AR), City of Windhoek, Electoral Commission of Namibia, Job Amupanda, SWAPO

The new normal could mean a serious reconsideration of proportional representation in Parliament and an end to parties making decisions about who represents people locally. Affirmative Repositioning (AR) has registered with the Electoral Commission of Namibia in time for the upcoming 2020 local authority and regional council elections. AR co-leader Job Amupanda has had long-stated aspirations to be the Mayor of the City of Windhoek. The stage has been set for an exercise in inclusive democracy that is long overdue in Namibia. Namibian politics has shifted significantly from where things were in March 1990. The world has altered remarkably since…

19 Jun

Close the preferential treatment door

info_e12wt4csNational Newsbillionaires, Frans Kapofi, Minister of Home Affairs

Rules and laws must apply to all, especially during a state of emergency for a global pandemic. There must be no preferential treatment for well-connected billionaires of anyone else. Apparently, Russian billionaire Rashid Sardarov's private jet landed at HK International airport with a crew of people from the outside that were not put in quarantine. The Executive Director in the ministry of works evidently commented that they have recorded increased frequencies of private planes coming in when this is not supposed to be happening. The rich and powerful do not have an inherent resistance to COVID-19. Let the pandemic restrictions…

19 Jun

Learner tests positive for COVID-19

info_e12wt4csObserver MoneyMariental High School, Ministry of Education Executive Director, Sanet Steenkamp

Andrew Kathindi Namibia has recorded its first school COVID-19 case after a 20-year-old learner from Mariental High School in the Hardap region tested positive for the virus on Thursday. The learner is case number 37 who travelled from Walvis Bay, a current hotbed for the rising COVID-19 cases in the country and attended school on 11th of June. This comes less than a month since over 49,000 learners in grade 11 and 12 across the country returned to school as part of the first phase of the Ministry of Education’s roll out plan to resume face to face teaching. Ministry…

18 Jun

President Geingob’s Philosophy is paying off

info_e12wt4csUncategorised

…the case of Namibia’s COVID-19 response Lameck Odada Like any other country in the world, Namibia is also dealing with the outbreak of COVID-19 and trying to alleviate what has become a pandemic. With confirmation of the first two cases of COVID-19 in the country on March 14, 2020, President Hage Geingob declared a State of Emergency on March 17, 2020 and directed an immediate lockdown that lasted for 38 days. Among many other crucial decisions was the cancellation of the 30th Independence Day public celebration. Infections flattened at 16 cases with no new cases reported for 45 days, until…