Localizing native languages …the key to economic upliftment

Festus Commodore Tshirumbu "Some of our policies are great, but when it comes to translating them to the people who must interact with them, they must make sense." - Monica Geingos, the First Lady of Namibia. She explained that when she speaks of an afrocentric approach, it means policies must be able to accommodate those who utilize them without them having difficulties. Madam Geingos could have not said it any better. This remark triggered a spark of thought within me that our government spends millions of dollars printing and publishing tender documents and not one is printed in our local…
Read More

Grandstanding Geingob sinks Air Namibia

President Hage Geingob stood up in the Parliament and dropped an attention-grabbing bomb. He stated that Air Namibia would be liquidated. Statesmanship and studied leadership was not his goal with that precipitous statement. Self-aggrandisement was. Our esteemed president holds an earned PhD and has 60 years of world experience and exposure to the way things work. He makes statements not from ignorance but with calculation. It is the self-serving side of his personality that is a fatal flaw in his otherwise reasonable leadership persona. When asked in that same parliamentary session about Fishrot, Geingob was demure and coquettish. He said…
Read More
Kalahari Holdings donates school furniture

Kalahari Holdings donates school furniture

Staff Writer Kalahari Holdings has donated of 650 desks and 650 chairs to the Tobias Hainyeko Project School in Katima Mulilo as part of its corporate social responsibility initiative and efforts to assist Government. The school furniture was handed over to the school management by Kalahari Holdings Director, Ephraim Nekongo. Since the school was established in 2018, learners have had to carry chairs from their homes to school and the donation is set to have a positive impact on teaching and learning in the school.
Read More
Bank Windhoek, NUST, B360 partner

Bank Windhoek, NUST, B360 partner

Staff Writer Bank Windhoek, in partnership with the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and B360 Education Partnerships, have decided to host an online Career Starter Programme in compliance with social distancing measures and to combat the spread of COVID-19, Designed to provide a sequential path through career development, knowledge, and skills essential for success in the job search, the online Career Starter Programme will see a total of twelve graduates, divided into groups of four, take part in the initiative. The programme will be spread over six weeks, during which each group will have online contact sessions with…
Read More
Red beans and rice – good food for po’ folks

Red beans and rice – good food for po’ folks

Jackie Wilson Asheeke If you are like me, you are scrambling around for inexpensive meals that can feed larger numbers of people because you’re broke. But, you still need to think about nutrition and full bellies. It is not as easy. Reaching back to my black American roots and hard times from the slave and segregation days, there are foods that my people put on the table that didn’t break the bank. Red beans and rice is one of those meals. You can feed six or seven people with about N$80-$100. I like it because I can make it when…
Read More

Take it seriously and let’s finish

The expansion of the Stage One regulations for the current State of Emergency to the Erongo region is a nightmare. But, it has been bought on by the people of that area not taking the government’s declaration on June 1st for Walvis Bay seriously. If you were warned that a huge pride of lions is in the area, why hold an outside braai and then cry foul when they come running towards the smell of your meat? Let the rest of us in Namibia get tough with ourselves, our friends, family members and those in our communities regarding this pandemic.…
Read More
Role of an HR Business Partner during COVID-19

Role of an HR Business Partner during COVID-19

Agnes Yeboah As a people and change champion, the role of the human resource business partner (HRBP) is critical in these unprecedented times. COVID-19 has disrupted how we do things; from how we conduct business, to how we play with our children, how we shop and stay connected with one another. The effect of this global pandemic has been felt by all and the ramifications will continue for a long time. HRBPs are strategic partners to business and act as the primary contact for the human capital department. This strategic role necessitates that they share, advocate and facilitate the implementation…
Read More
First quarter house prices tumble

First quarter house prices tumble

Staff Writer The FNB House Price Index has posted a contraction of 5.9 percent year on year ( y/y) at the end of March 2020 compared to a contraction of 1.5 percent recorded over the same period of 2019. “This brought the average national house price to a 5-year record low of N$1 038 577 as at March 2020” Although overall house prices in the central and coastal regions have remained buoyant, registering growth of 8.2m percent y/y and 7.2 percent y/y over the first quarter respectively, this was overshadowed by steep contractions of 18.7 percent y/y and 13.6 percent…
Read More
Dundee invests N$5 million in COVID-19 fight

Dundee invests N$5 million in COVID-19 fight

Staff Writer Dundee Precious Metals Tsumeb has reaffirmed its support to the Tsumeb community by making a N$5 million investment to the Tsumeb District hospital to improve COVID-19 preparedness . The donation follows the declaration of a State of Emergency over the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Tuesday, 17 March 2020 by His Excellency Dr. Hage G Geingob President of the Republic of Namibia in support of the Mining Industry’s efforts to partner with the government’s initiative to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The upgrades will improve the preparedness levels of the hospital should the COVID-19 virus be detected in Tsumeb…
Read More

A hangman’s noose ≠ ‘do not litter’

…public brands of Namibia, must reflect who we are now Forget about what was really meant by two men enjoying white privilege during apartheid in Namibia, by their construction of a hangman’s noose in Henties Bay in 1978. The convoluted context offered as the supposed reason which the gallows was erected 42 years ago is irrelevant to the 2020 perception of it. A small gallows on a public beach in Namibia is no longer perceived as an ‘innocent joke’ or a ‘harmless gesture.’ Only those who never face the possibility of extrajudicial torture or murder at the hands of angry…
Read More