Uncategorised

Manganese boosts TransNamib’s volumes

Manganese boosts TransNamib’s volumes

Staff Writer The transportation of manganese has provided a boost for TransNamib, with the company now transporting 15,000 tons per month. Manganese is mainly used in the steel industry as an alloy, playing a significant role in making steel from iron, also used in dry cell batteries and as a black-brown pigment in paint, with its main export market being China. "The route travelled has become a major revenue source for TransNamib in terms of moving manganese for our customers and the executives needed to see first-hand the operations and challenges on the route," TransNamib Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Johny…
Read More
Commemorative banknote to start circulating

Commemorative banknote to start circulating

Staff Writer The N$30 commemorative banknote launched on Independence Day by the Bank of Namibia shall be available to the public as from Friday, 15 May 2020, the apex bank has announced. “ The public is also hereby informed that the N$30 commemorative banknote will only be issued at the tills, inside all commercial bank’s branches and not at the Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs),” BoN Deputy Director: Corporate Communications, Kazembire Zemburuka said. “To obtain the N$30 commemorative banknote from commercial banks, one will have to exchange an equivalent amount of the current family of banknotes or coins, for the banknote.”…
Read More

The COVID-19 #newnormal won’t be business as usual

Jan Coetzee Namibia, went into lockdown several weeks ago, our Government’s firm and swift response has so far kept the number of infections very low. Thankfully no deaths have been recorded either and Namibia may come out of this quite well. Certainly not discounting the damage to the economy or the closure of the schools and social activities that these necessary steps have caused. Eventually the economy will recover, kids will go back to school, but COVID-19 has left an indelible mark on our society and how we life, work and play. How we work is what I would like…
Read More
Handcrafted products: a revenue source for women

Handcrafted products: a revenue source for women

Jackie Wilson Asheeke Can we get our crafts to the tourists, since the tourists cannot come to buy the crafts? Check out www.tenthousandvillages.com. According to the history on their website, the idea of bringing products made by women in developing communities to the USA for sale began with Edna Ruth Byler selling crafts from her car boot back in 1940. She worked with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). I was surprised when I read that part as I worked closely with the MCC during my days on Capitol Hill. They were very active in the anti-apartheid movement and worked hard…
Read More
Momma Oteya has a baby girl

Momma Oteya has a baby girl

Staff writer Mother’s Day this year was a perfect celebration for popular Afro pop artist Oteya who was blessed with a bouncing baby girl a month before the popular day. The veteran songstress gave birth on the 1st of April 2020. Even more interesting, Oteya managed to have a baby on her own birthday! The former Gal Level queen confirmed the news on her social media posts. We had wondered what Oteya was up to these days. Lockdown is tough, but bonding with a new baby during these times is a blessing. We wish her a Happy Mother’s Day! Her…
Read More
Lioness finds closure with new song

Lioness finds closure with new song

Here to work through some recent heartache, Namibian rapper and singer Lioness has dropped a new album this week. She is switching things up from her usual rap-focused sound with something a little more melodic on Wish You Were Here from the album of the same name. As the track unfolds, on her smash hit video filmed in Cape Town, it becomes clear this is about more than the beautiful South African setting. “I wrote Wish You Were Here when I was infatuated with my ex-partner," Lioness told Complex via email. "It was a long-distance relationship where I felt very…
Read More

Couch Cat: Mask etiquette rules

Jackie Wilson Asheeke For now, we all have to wear masks on our faces. So, let’s make the best of a weird situation. It cannot be all doom and gloom. Let’s look at this whole thing with a different eye; shall we? I put on my mask for the first time to go to work on the first day after the lockdown ended. My rude awakening is that I dirtied the inside of the thing immediately with my face make-up and lipstick. Duh-uh. I must be some smart person to not have thought about that one. Rule #1 – no…
Read More

Time to analyse issues ideologically, give them an ideological perspective

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Certainly the emergency and lockdown could not but compel all of us to shift gears in one way or another given the time of reflection it may have afforded us. If only if to maintain some sanity from the solitary confinement, for some, and from depression visited by confinement with those some may all the time been trying avoid. For me criticisms which have been floated as analyses in our media, against the administration of Dr Hage Geingob, since the advent of his first term in 2015, compelled me to shift in an ideological gear. A gear that…
Read More

Observatory: Lives are worth more than the economy

Clementine Tjameya Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa has listed Namibia as having reported zero cases of COVID-19 over a couple of weeks. I humbly question this conclusion. I am not a doctor, nor do I have any health care training. Admittedly, I can make my choices about what to believe regarding COVID-19 in Namibia, based only on what I read. With the low level of testing in Namibia (maybe only 1000 tests done for 2.5 million people), I am not certain the number of 16 cases can be accurate. Countries with reportedly high infection rate…
Read More

Focus on the basic needs of the people

. . . anything else is noise Jackie W Asheeke COVID-19 is a game changer. Any business or individual thinking that all will snap back into pre-pandemic shape is delusional. The best thing to do is to lower your barriers against change and thank God you are alive. After that, we all must focus on the needs of the people and step-in to thwart the profiteers, conmen, hoarders, blindly selfish people and other vermin that feed off of other people’s misery. Food stores in Windhoek are raising prices in the middle of a State of Emergency. Government should take legislative…
Read More