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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.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma on Saturday hailed his country’s 15-year record of democracy and peace, as he gave his farewell speech to Parliament before he steps down. He praised the members of the former Constituent Assembly who elected him as head of state in 1990 and who drafted the country’s Constitution after its independence.
Namibia’s High Court on Thursday ordered a recount of ballots from the November parliamentary elections that were overwhelmingly won by the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation party. But the judge refused to grant a request from two opposition parties that the elections should be declared null and void due to irregularities.
Namibia is feeling the pinch of providing treatment to civil servants living with HIV/Aids.
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/ 21 February 2005
It is the type of retirement package by which even those leaders most wedded to their jobs might be seduced. When outgoing Namibian President Sam Nujoma hands over power to his successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, on March 21, he will continue receiving the same monthly salary as the Southern African country’s new leader.
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/ 2 February 2005
A Namibian Supreme Court judge arrested on charges of kidnapping two young girls from a township bus stop and sexually assaulting them was granted bail on Wednesday. Magistrate Sarel Jacobs posted bail of N 000 (R9 600) for Judge Tio Peek and ordered him to hand in his passport.
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/ 1 February 2005
Battered by two years of a strong Namibian dollar, the country’s fishing sector — a key foreign exchange earner — is now in trouble, with retrenchments and factory closures on the horizon. After mining, fishing is the largest industry in Namibia, bringing in just more than R312-million) in export earnings each year.
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/ 20 November 2004
President Sam Nujoma’s chosen successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, won an overwhelming victory in elections in Namibia, garnering more than 77% of the vote, results from more than half of counted ballots showed on Friday. Pohamba is to become Namibia’s second president since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
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/ 18 November 2004
Namibian President Sam Nujoma’s chosen successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, held a commanding lead on Thursday as first results of elections in the Southern African country of Namibia were released. Namibians voted on Monday and Tuesday to choose a new leader to fill the shoes of founding president and liberation hero Nujoma.
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/ 15 November 2004
President Sam Nujoma called on Namibians to vote on Monday as he cast his ballot on the first day of elections in the Southern African country that are set to hand victory to his hand-picked successor. Nujoma is expected to be succeeded by Lands Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba, who is widely tipped to win the presidential election.
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/ 9 November 2004
Namibia is getting ready to turn the page on an era with elections next week to choose a successor to President Sam Nujoma, a pivotal figure for the past five decades in this Southern African country. Nujoma’s close ally and hand-picked successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, is expected easily to win the election.
Namibia’s health officials are grappling with the magnitude of the HIV/Aids pandemic in the Caprivi Strip, which borders three of the world’s worst-affected countries — Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women in the Caprivi region stands at 43%.
The leader of Namibia’s largest opposition party on Friday criticised the government’s plan to expropriate white farmers, saying that it will destroy agriculture and harm black farm labourers. Ben Ulenga of the Congress of Democrats also called on Germany to help with land reform through more financial aid.
Namibian church leaders called on the country’s government on Wednesday to be cautious as it moves toward the first expropriations under its land reform programme. A 14-strong delegation from the Council of Churches in Namibia made the appeal after meeting with Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma travelled to Zambia on Thursday ahead of trips to Kenya, Tanzania and later this month to China and Malaysia as part of a farewell tour before stepping down in March. Nujoma, who is travelling with members of his Cabinet, is to open a trade fair in Zambia.
Parts of Namibia’s exotic Skeleton Coast could be submerged by the end of the century and its rich marine life badly hit by global warming, a report by the Southern African country’s Environment and Tourism Ministry warns. The sea level could rise between 30cm and 100cm in the next 96 years, the report says.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma on Monday lashed out against ”imperialists” who he said either steal Africa’s wealth or engineer wars to prevent the continent from benefiting from its riches. ”Africa must stop living on handouts of imperialist countries,” Nujoma told the opening of a parliamentary forum in the Namibian capital.
Namibia’s white farmers are hopeful of a negotiated solution to a crisis over land reform despite recent moves by the government to expropriate farms and hand them over to blacks. The government in the middle of May served notices on 15 white farmers giving them 14 days to offer their land for sale to the state.
Namibia’s Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab on Wednesday defended his government’s move to expropriate white farmers, saying it is ”doing the right thing” to redress an imbalance in land ownership. ”There is no crisis nor any land grab in Namibia … the government is doing the right thing,” he said.
The offer Namibian farmers can’t refuse