NSC commends Esau over “job creation initiative”
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- Waldo
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Dear sir,
Our Constitution clearly provides the right to the utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future. The Namibian Seal Conservation group (NSC) was always concerned that the natural resource of harvestable seals was not divided equally amongst the country’s population.
It is for this reason that the NSC would like to congratulate the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Hon. Bernard Esau, for the courageous steps he took in granting additional three seal harvesting permits to the previously disadvantaged.
Although the existing seal harvesting right holders are not happy and claim that the current seal biomass eligible for harvesting will not be able to sustain this, it must be said that the NSC seriously doubts if the quota – which is still to be granted - will exceed the sustainability of the harvest. We live in a free-market economy and these businessmen’s objections are made purely to protect their own market. The NSC believes there are ample resources available to include more permit holders, as the previous three permit holders were not able to harvest fully according to the quotas received before.
What historical link with China?
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- Administrator
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Dear sir,
I would like to correct a recurrent spate of utterances coming from certain reactionary and/or high-ranking Namibian government leaders, including former President Sam Nujoma.
Through their daily public pronouncements lately, our leaders have misled the people of Namibia into believing that during the liberation struggle for Namibian independence, the Chinese Government militarily supported SWAPO.
This explains why Chinese nationals are allowed to do whatever they wish in this country, even if this is done at the expense and or to the detriment of Namibians - the owners of this country.
Elias Manga, president of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), who might never have been in exile (and if he was then he must forgive me), has been quoted in the local media as saying that Namibian “workers value and appreciate the historical link between Namibia and China”. What historical links are these?
Land grabbing ‘legal offence’
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Dear sir,
More and more cases of land grabbing are popping up in the media. Even the Minister of Defence and the head of our police were named amongst those who broke the law in this regard. Many more cases are well known in this country, the most shocking is the case of the [Minister of Trade Tjekero] Tweya.
However, government obviously did nothing to stop this and that makes the grabbing of land in the eyes of many, a ‘legal offence’. Fencing in – or off - communal land is punishable but no one got punished so far. Land grabbing is tolerated by the authorities, some argue and say, “let’s join the grabbers before all the communal land is gone.”
How long will it take before the grabbers are the majority in cabinet and parliament, we ask!
US/Africa policy must shift from naming and shaming
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“Support regional institutions in Africa and find incentives that recognise good leaders,” Dr Mo Ibrahim told US Senators recently.
Dr Mo Ibrahim, the chairman of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, has urged the United States government to encourage efforts to resolve crises in Africa by supporting and endorsing actions by regional institutions.
In a recent address to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, Dr Ibrahim emphasised the need for US/Africa policy to shift from a focus on individual Heads of State and on naming and shaming, to a focus on institution building and incentives that encourage good leadership.
He said initiatives such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Natural Resource Charter were invariably more constructive than policies that blame and isolate individual leaders.
Read more: US/Africa policy must shift from naming and shaming
Tweya: Another case to hide under the pillow?
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Dear sir,
I am afraid the case in which Tjekero Tweya, the deputy minister of Industry and Trade is being accused of land grabbing will be the next case that will find itself safely buried inside the state house.
And before some people get ‘funny’ ideas, let me state that the so called ‘grabbing of land’ is a criminal offence. The state should punish the offender and not sweep it under a carpet or hide it under the pillow, as so many other cases of such kind. However, no one in our government is serious about land grabbing, and its penalty is a mere joke. Who would not like to get 3000 ha of land at that derisory price of N$4000? Paying that price is the cheapest known way to ‘acquire’ land. Besides, if you are a ‘fat cat’ already, you will not even get penalised.
So many cases known to the public are testimony of this sad fact. You will not even lose your position, your inflated income and certainly not your ‘next opportunities’, described by all the ‘skelms’ as privileges.
We have to ask where did this sort of corruption begin in our new Namibia. Did it not grow from the ‘top’? Certainly, any corruption that starts at the highest level of government will be hard to weed out; corruption that involves the highest institutions and office bearers of a state is bound to live well and for very long.
