The Namibian government said on Wednesday it will continue culling seals after a meeting with animal rights activists failed to halt the mass killings. The government argues the seals consume 900 000 tonnes of fish a year, more than one-third of the fishing-industry catch.
A child plays in a stagnant pool of water beside a mongrel dog that gives out a half-hearted bark before retiring in the sun-baked dust. Take a stroll from here into Babylon, an informal settlement. The filth and decay, the lack of water and proper sanitary facilities in Babylon and other informal settlements in Namibia are a blueprint for a disaster.
Will former Namibian president Sam Nujoma simply fade into the background of Swapo — or will he succumb to pressures from his hard-line loyalists to hang on to the ruling party’s presidency for another five years? With Swapo’s central committee due to meet this weekend to discuss the date and procedures for its annual congress, which will likely determine Nujoma’s future role.
Namibia’s annual seal hunting season started this week, over the protests of animal rights activists who say the practice is cruel. The government accused the activists of ”deliberately distorting information,” and said controlling the seal population was important for the fishing industry.
Africa’s skies are set to become safer with the inauguration on Thursday of the African Civil Aviation Agency (ACAA), a continental body to standardise and oversee licensing, training and inspection of aviation staff and equipment. ”Like the rest of the world, Africa is trying to standardise … airspace,” ACAA CEO Mwangi wa Kamau said on Wednesday.
Working closely with the Central Intelligence Organisation’s directorate of counter-intelligence, Zanu-PF has been setting up secret death squads comprising members of the National Youth Service training programme. The squads petrol bomb political opponents’ homes, commit acts of sabotage and torture opponents to President Robert Mugabe’s regime, a former member of one such death squad said this week.
Namibia has purchased two commercial farms near the Etosha National Park on behalf of a tribe of San who were evicted from their ancestral lands inside the famed game reserve 100 years ago, a minister said. ”This will lead to huge tourism potential for the Hai//om community,” said Namibian Environment and Tourism Minister Willem Konjore.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has bought himself a few more months’ financial wiggle room after Namibia granted him soft loans worth US-million last week. During Mugabe’s four-day state visit to Namibia, the Namibian government announced that its power utility, Nampower, was to loan between – and -million to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
Equatorial Guinea has begun supplying fuel-starved Zimbabwe with oil at favourable terms for an unspecified period, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said. ”They are providing us with crude oil at favourable terms. We only have to pay after every three months,” Mugabe said on Wednesday night in Windhoek.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe denounced the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday evening, calling dependence on the crisis lender and other donors tantamount to economic slavery, reducing African countries to beggars. ”We don’t have to go to IMF for that, even to any European donor, for what we can do between and amongst ourselves,” Mugabe told a business meeting.
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/ 28 February 2007
Rights activists in Namibia on Wednesday shouted ”tyrant” and waved placards condemning Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reforms in a protest to mark the Zimbabwean leader’s visit to the Southern African nation. Mugabe was kept away from scores of protesters who chanted and paraded outside the Zimbabwean embassy in Windhoek.
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/ 28 February 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrived in Namibia on Tuesday at the start of a three-day visit which will see him hold talks with counterpart Hifikepunye Pohamba and sign a number of bilateral agreements. Pohamba was on hand to greet Mugabe who was given a red-carpet reception at Windhoek airport.
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/ 27 February 2007
Human rights groups in Namibia were on Tuesday preparing a hostile reception for Robert Mugabe at the start of a three-day state visit to Windhoek by the veteran Zimbabwean president. Mugabe, who was due to arrive in Namibia on Tuesday evening, is to meet with Namibian counterpart Hifikepunye Pohamba and sign a number of bilateral agreements.
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/ 6 February 2007
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday extended cash and loans as he toured Namibia on an African tour marked by Beijing’s largesse to states where its economic presence is booming. Hu signed agreements extending a grant of ,1-million and a soft loan for the same amount.
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/ 5 February 2007
Chinese President Hu Jintao brought his eight-nation African tour on Monday to Namibia, a sparsely populated, mineral-rich desert country that hopes to benefit from an influx of Chinese investment and tourists. Chinese and Namibian flags and photos of Hu and Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba decorated the main highway from Windhoek’s airport.
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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.
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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/ 28 November 2005
The return to Namibia’s Parliament last week of a Swapo leader who was axed from Cabinet — at the height of the presidential succession battle little over a year ago by then head of state Sam Nujoma — has accentuated divisions in the ruling party.
Hidipo Hamutenya arrived at the National Assembly with hordes of cheering supporters making barely disguised jibes at Nujoma.