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/ 26 January 2007
The Namibian government has adopted all the right policies to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal Seven on sustainable environmental practices, but its good intentions have floundered at the implementation stage. The country has been doing a lot to set up the appropriate policies and regulations conducive to sustainable environmental development.
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/ 21 November 2006
The leaders of neighbouring South Africa and Namibia pledged on Tuesday to open a new chapter in bilateral relations as they signed a joint trade agreement, largely focusing on energy supplies. After the first top-level meeting in three years, South Africa President Thabo Mbeki said he was determined not to allow a similar period to elapse before the next such talks.
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/ 10 November 2006
The Namibian government sparked fears among white farmers on Friday that their land could be expropriated after sending teams of inspectors to carry out surveys of their property. Lands Minister Jerry Ekandjo informed 45 landowners in letters that the assessments were necessary ”to create a land-use model”.
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/ 27 October 2006
One of the most pressing issues facing Namibian officials at present is the country’s high unemployment rate. According to the latest <i>Namibian Labour Force Survey</i>, which was presented to Parliament earlier this year, 36,7% of the country’s population is currently unemployed, up more than 3% since the previous survey in 2000.
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/ 23 October 2006
Pasilius Haingura, of the National Association of Namibian Teachers’ Unions, says that many of the country’s 20 000 teachers want to leave the profession. While noting that Namibian teachers are better off in terms of salaries than other public servants, he says the conditions under which teachers operate leave them with no other option but to seek other jobs.
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/ 21 October 2006
Hollywood star Wesley Snipes, wanted in the United States after being indicted this week for dodging millions of dollars in taxes, is filming a new movie in Namibia, an official said on Friday. A newspaper report claimed the movie’s producers were trying to delay his extradition until shooting had been completed.
Seven people have died in Namibia and 27 have fallen ill after an outbreak of polio, the first in the Southern African country since 1995, the health ministry said on Tuesday. "We have 34 cases and I can confirm today that it is polio," said Kalumbi Shangula, the permanent secretary of the health ministry.
Namibia’s relaxed approach when it comes to celebrity is one of the main reasons why Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt chose this arid stretch of Africa to have their baby — and they should be left alone, locals say. In early April, Hollywood’s golden couple quietly jetted into Namibia where Jolie (30) is expected to give birth to their child.
The European Commission has donated €18-million to Southern African countries to modernise their customs systems and improve border posts, officials said. The commission and the 14-member Southern African Development Community regional bloc signed the deal in the Namibian capital late on Thursday.
Namibia has suddenly gained immense popularity in the United States thanks to the visit by Hollywood golden couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the country’s ambassador to the US said on Thursday. Jolie, who is eight months pregnant and is expected to give birth in Namibia, arrived with Pitt in the Southern African country in early April.
A Namibian human rights group on Wednesday accused bodyguards and local police of resorting to ”heavy-handed tactics” to keep the paparazzi away from movie stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Jolie, who is eight months pregnant, arrived with Pitt in the Southern African country in early April.
"They have no voice, no jobs; poverty is excruciating, slavery is there. They are just suffering." This was the sobering assessment of Namibia’s indigenous San community, delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila last September after a visit to the north-eastern Otjozondjupa region where the majority of San live.
Hollywood glamour pair Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie tried to slip into a vacation resort last week in a sleepy part of Namibia using the names of the characters they played in a film of Mr and Mrs Smith. The couple has declined to confirm reports of their stay at game lodges between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund in the south-western African state, or the purpose of their visit that follows on a trip to Paris.
Hollywood film stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are holidaying in Namibia, officials and local papers reported on Thursday, with rumours that the pregnant starlet may give birth there. Immigration officials confirmed the couple jetted into the small Atlantic port of Walvis Bay on Monday morning.
The sight of an elderly person caring for children with Aids-related illnesses — and grandchildren who may have been orphaned by the pandemic — has become a common one in Namibia, and the Southern African region as a whole. According to the 2004 <i>Common Country Assessment</i>, grandparents provide care for most orphans under the age of 18 who live in rural areas.
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/ 27 February 2006
Heavy rains have cut off the main road from the South African border to Windhoek after the southern Namibian town of Mariental was flooded at the weekend, officials said on Monday. More than 2 000 people were evacuated from their homes in the town, about 280km south of Windhoek.
Legislation nearly 30-years-old that outlaws male-to-male sodomy may appear more a target for gay rights activists than Aids campaigners.
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/ 23 November 2005
Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba has requested South Africa send forensic experts to help investigate apartheid-era mass graves recently found in the north of the country, Namibian Minister of Safety and Security Peter Tsheehama said late on Tuesday.
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/ 17 November 2005
”We have cried long enough,” says Hilde Wiese, a commercial farmer from Namibia, her eyes red. ”Now we’re actually pleased that it’s all over.” This week, a chapter of colonial history closed as the Wieses prepared to vacate their farm, the first white-owned farm to be expropriated under Namibia’s fast-tracked land-reform programme.
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/ 15 November 2005
The owner of the first commercial farm expropriated in Namibia on Tuesday auctioned off farm equipment after moving out of the property, more than a year after being ordered to sell her land. ”I feel rather sad today, standing here in our empty farmhouse,” said Hilde Wiese (70).
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/ 1 November 2005
The trial of 120 Namibians for alleged treason and participation in a failed separatist uprising six years ago resumed on Tuesday with the suspects requesting a ”political dialogue” with the government. Speaking on behalf of the group supposedly active in Namibia’s restive Caprivi region, one of the accused, Martin Tubaundule, made the demand to Judge Elton Hoff.
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/ 28 October 2005
Nama-speaking tribes in Namibia will flock to a tiny village this weekend to pay tribute a famous chief who raised the banner of revolt against German colonial forces but was killed in battle a century ago. Tribal members will descend on Gibeon, a small town about 360km south of Windhoek, to commemorate Hendrik Witbooi, who perished on 29 October 1905 while fighting the German army.
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/ 28 September 2005
A German-language Namibian weekly is to publish an apology after an advertisement appeared in its pages celebrating the death of ”the big monster” Simon Wiesenthal, the publisher said on Wednesday. Hans Feddersen, of the Plus weekly, admitted that it was ”not a good idea” to publish the advertisement.
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/ 26 September 2005
Namibia’s land reform programme is flawed because poor and landless people are not being empowered to become successful farmers once they have been resettled, claims a new report. The Legal Assistance Centre, a local NGO, stressed that land reform involved more than just ”buying or expropriating land from one group in order to give more land to another group”.
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/ 19 September 2005
About 70 Namibian farmworkers and their families face an uncertain future after the first expropriation of a white-owned farm by the government and are fighting to retain their jobs and homes. The Namibia Farmworkers’ Union has taken up their case and says the workers, who face penury and homelessness according to the present owner, cannot be cast away on the roadside.
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/ 2 September 2005
The first compulsory sale of a white-owned farm concluded in Namibia this week, bringing fresh impetus to the government’s land-reform programme and raising concerns among white farmers of Zimbabwean-style land seizures. ”we have no choice and we have to make the best of it,” said the farm owner.
Namibia’s biggest graft scandal since independence has claimed the job of a government minister and led to the apparent suicide of a key witness, an official and press reports said on Thursday. Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication Paulus Kapia quit on Wednesday night.
Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano said on Friday he is ”ready” to mediate between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and the opposition, following his appointment to broker talks in the crisis-hit Southern African country. ”I will now assess if the two sides wish to talk to each other,” Chissano said.
Namibia’s government is set to serve final notices of expropriation on 18 white commercial farmers after it failed to reach an agreement on the price of the land in the arid Southern African country. ”If there is no other solution, then that is the way to go,” Lands Minister Jerry Ekandjo said late on Thursday.
Newly elected Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba on Sunday extended the olive branch to the country’s white Afrikaners, but warned that an unwillingness to share land in the arid country ”could spark a revolution”. Pohamba became the first head of state since Namibian independence in 1990 to attend a church service of the Dutch Reformed Church.
Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was sworn in on Monday as the Southern African country’s second head of state since independence, is known for his close ties to Sam Nujoma, whose legacy he has vowed to pursue.
President-elect Hifikepunye Pohamba was sworn in on Monday as Namibia’s second president since independence, succeeding veteran leader Sam Nujoma who held power in the Southern African country for 15 years. Pohamba took the oath to uphold the Constitution before 20 000 people assembled at a stadium in Windhoek.