|
In praise of Jesaya Nyamu |
 |
 |
 |
|
Friday, 18 May 2007 19:23 |
|
Dear Editor,
I WOULD feel very proud if you allowed me some space in your good newspaper to give tribute to one of the Namibian Heroes, Comrade Jesaya Nyamu.
He was born on March 20, 1942 at Oshigambo in the Oshikoto region. He lives in Windhoek. He joined SWAPO in 1962 and went into exile in Tanzania. He was the SWAPO representative in Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Angola before returning to Namibia in 1989. He was the Radio announcer, External Service of Radio Tanzania in the 1960s. He got a Diploma in Senior management at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after independence, before joining the National Assembly. He was appointed to be Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy in 1991. Eight years later he became Minister of Mines and Energy and in a cabinet reshuffle necessitated by the departure of Hage Geingob from Cabinet in 2002, he took over the Trade and Industry portfolio. Nyamu is a close friend of Mr. Hidipo Hamutenya. Both men attended Temple High School in Philadelphia in the mid-1960s. At the Central Committee meeting before the 2002 Congress, Nyamu nominated Hamutenya to challenge the post of Vice Presidency of the party.
Hamutenya withdrew his nomination choosing to wait until the vote for SWAPO’s presidential candidate in 2004. During the time he was a minister of Mines and Energy, Nyamu was an ardent supporter of the Epupa hydro-electric power Project. He is the first cabinet minister to ask the government to sell diamonds to local Companies and this caused him to be reshuffled from Mines and Energy to the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He was a true fighter in the liberation struggle of our country and he is an honest man. People who have come across him describe Nyamu as a quiet man who never tolerates dictatorship. Nyamu was expelled from the SWAPO party in 2005.
Finally, I salute Comrade Nyamu for his visionary and dedicated leadership of the struggle for the liberation of our motherland.
Ananias Aipinge Kaseven
Windhoek |
|
|
Investigate Gobabis municipality corruption |
|
|
|
|
Friday, 18 May 2007 19:23 |
|
Dear Editor
ALLOW me some space to exercise my freedom of expression by publishing this open letter to the Prime Minister, as I am convinced that it sheds light on what it is going on in the Ministry of Regional, Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, especially the Municipality of Gobabis.
I am also convinced that it is in the national interest for people to know who is abusing the positions entrusted to them.
To substantiate my concerns, I would like to mention an incident that happened recently at the Gobabis municipality. It came as a shock to us who applied for the position of Community Development Planner, Gobabis municipality, that this post had already been given to someone else and the rest were just formalities.
The whole corruption started when they advertised two positions, one of Town Clerk and the other of the Community Development Planner.
The fact that they already had a candidate in mind for the Town Clerk position was evident when a certain official was told to forget about the senior position but on compromise told that he should apply for both positions to be given the junior position while the council would upgrade the salary scale.
The proposed scale for the top position was around N$57,000 per annum. The preferred candidate applied for the position and was appointed. He had been paid about N$116,000 per annum by his former employer. The municipality resolved that they could not do otherwise than to increase the scale to N$118,000 for them to accommodate him.
While the financial manager clearly indicated that there was no money to increase or upgrade the scale, the council imposed the motion without considering the poor situation of the community, but considered the benefit of an individual who would defend their interests at the end of the day.
The gentleman has already resigned from the institution he was working for awaiting to start with the municipality as per their agreement. This is absolute corruption by the Gobabis municipality.
Mr Prime Minister, thank you for taking time to peruse this disturbing and unfortunate piece of information. I hope that it will be helpful for the sake of our country’s accountability and transparency as preached by our President, His Excellency Comrade Pohamba - Zero tolerance for corruption.
It is against this background that we, through your office, want the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate this intolerable practice without delay for the benefit of the Gobabis community and the Namibian Government as a whole.
Concerned Citizens |
|
An Open Letter to Comrade Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma |
|
|
|
|
Friday, 18 May 2007 19:22 |
|
Dear Editor,
I WAS shocked to note that some insecure, helpless, hopeless, and fearful as well as politically challenged, SWAPO activists, have started pushing you into SWAPO presidency again.
They are brave to mention Nujoma but unsure of their own future in politics. These are people who survive by the name “Sam Nujoma”. You are now an elder, pensioner, ex-president, former Commander-in-Chief of PLAN and Father of the Namibian Nation. You were accorded all the retirement benefits to honour you for leaving politics completely. Now they want to bring you back through the back door. I am saying this because during your tenure of office, you had the party’s and State’s presidents.
Anyway, what did you tell the journalists in Lusaka this year? I took it as you said - you will quit active politics - that includes Swapo Presidency. What time will you serve all people through your Office of the Former President? Please Dr Nujoma, take the only praiseworthy step: Retire as a SWAPO President. Do not feel insecure in your own country.
I have recognized some of the useless, bungling and dependent trade unionists who want to be proposed to Parliament or to be ministers that they have started to make deceptive, stupendous and irrational allegations of - “ if anyone wants to kill Nujoma (he/she) has to kill all the workers!” That is indignity!
Pro- SWAPO |
|
|
NBC is dictating peoples voices |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:00 |
|
Dear Editor,
IF the whole purpose of the chat show is to garner the opinions of ordinary citizens, how can that be achieved by leaders dictating to the citizens on what and when to bring to the Air or public attention?
If there are those who abuse the national airwaves by airing profane views, then time-delay devices would be the best options to solve that problem. But when you have a total ban on the open-line’s chat shows, then the whole aim of giving a chance to all the citizens of the country to actively participate in the affairs of their nation becomes a “ghost” idea or a still-born ambition.
Ideas/views are only as good as the timing and place at which they are aired or expressed. If a person has to wait for several weeks and months before he / she can express his / her opinions, how much of the views of ordinary citizens can we timely be exposed to? This whole idea is counter-productive to all-inclusive nation-building. Radio and television are the fastest media through which people can exchange information as one does not need to be able to read and write to exchange information through such media. If our national radio is cutting down on the freedoms of ordinary citizens to bring their problems and aspirations to the attention of the public, then how is the national radio supposed to “entertain, inform and educate” as it claims in its motto? Up until the ban of “open line chat shows”, NBC has been the only media in the country that could truly reach out to the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable members of our society and get the nation informed of the struggle facing their day-to-day lives.
Not long ago, I congratulated NBC for being the only media in the country that offered a platform through which Namibians can exchange views and opinions in their own languages. I had no idea that I was dishing out congrats to a dying achiever.
Time-delay devices should be considered rather than a total ban of free-topic chat shows. Why should we sacrifice so much for so many people for the sake of very few individuals who have opted to abuse the national airwaves?
D. Uuyuni waKamati
Mariental
|
|
Dismissed for giving Shoprite extra N$5.60 |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:59 |
|
Dear Editor,
WHAT is going on at Shoprite Mariental is a straight forward case of unfair labour practices. Recently, an employee was dismissed because she produced a surplus of N$5.60 at her till. This N$5.60 was a surplus she produced for collecting more than N$2,800 in daily takings for her employer. To make matters worse, the chairman of the disciplinary hearing did not want to reveal records from which the charges were trumped up to the representative of their employee. The chairman, who is a member of the management team of the company, when confronted that his practices do not meet the fair procedures as set out in the Labour Act, retorted that, “I do not care what the labour law says because that law is for the labour office not for our company”.
The same man, Mr Errol Maart, boasts that his company has enough money to pay lawyers and labour court fines and does not care. How can a company the size of Shoprite place such an ignorant man in a position of responsibility at its Mariental outlet? His attitude, apart from violating the rights of its worker, is tarnishing the image of the company.
Almost all the employees of the Shoprite outlet at Mariental are not happy with the way he treats his subordinates. About fifty employees of shoprite outlet at Mareintal claimed that “Mr Maart” gives them warnings for talking to each other during working hours. The same gentleman can decide to reduce the numbers of working days and remuneration of his employees simply because he does not like “their attitudes”. It appears that the Shoprite group has a practice of setting out unrealistic demands for its employees in an effort to frustrate them so that such employees do not work for longer periods and accumulate enough severance package that can become payable at the termination of services after working for a period of one year.
Another questionable practice of Shoprite is that of “hiring” employees as casual for more than a year. This is a direct and cunning manoeuvre on the part of the company to avoid liability to the employees in terms of the Labour Act. What is the point of hiring 10 casual employees who each work two days per week rather than hiring four employees who work four to five days per week? The only reason is for the company to get the best out the employees while employees get ripped off as far as leave days and severance pay are concerned.
Concerned employee of Shoprite
Mariental |
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 289 of 312 |
