Month: August 2023

Executive Director in the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS), Ben Nangombe, has said Namibia has been accorded an unprecedented opportunity to eliminate HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B.

During the joint mission meeting on the validation process of Namibia’s path to the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B Virus here on Monday, Nangombe said Namibia achieved the 95-95-95 fast track targets in 2022.

Nangombe said the ministry is fully committed to the goal of attaining zero new HIV infections and that the government continues to invest in the HIV and Aids response to sustain the tremendous progress made in scaling up HIV service to ensure easy and equitable access to comprehensive, high quality treatment and prevention services for all Namibians.

“Namibia has made significant strides in improving prevention of mother-to-child transmissions indicators, so much so that Namibia is being assessed to be one of the next countries in the African region to be certified for being on the path to triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of the three infections,” Nangombe said.

At the same occasion, World Health Organisation (WHO) representative, Dr Mary Brantuo, congratulated the MoHSS on this very laudable milestone.

The routine programme data indicates that Namibia is on the path to eliminating mother-to-child HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B virus, and has met the path to elimination target for several key indicators,” Brantuo said.

“We are particularly pleased to see the initial enthusiasm and passion has not waned, and you remained as determined as ever to move with this inspiration to eliminate mother-to-child transmission not only for HIV and syphilis, but also for hepatitis B,” Brantuo stated.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

The parliamentary standing committee on economics and public administration on Monday commenced a four-day oversight visit on the management of railway services, rail transport, infrastructure and facilities in the Oshana, Ohangwena, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa regions.

The team started in the Oshana Region where they paid a courtesy call to Oshana governor Elia Irimari, before they proceeded to the Oshakati train station which is under construction.

During their visit there, Deputy chairperson of the committee Mathias Mbundu, expressed his dismay over the delay with the completion of the Oshakati train station.

The new infrastructure was expected to be handed over to TransNamib in July but has now been extended to September 2023, which they say is very close and might see the handover postponed.

However, Mbundu stated that they are happy with the quality of the building.

“After the observation, we will share our findings with the members of parliament for further deliberations,” he said.

The team also visited the Oshikango and Ondangwa train stations, before heading to Oshikoto Region where they will visit the Omuthiya, Oshivelo and Tsumeb train stations.

The team is expected to conclude their visit Thursday with Otjozondjupa Region where they will visit the Otjiwarongo and Outjo train stations.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says at least half of the actions set out in the Energy Action Plan (EAP) are either completed or on track.

He was briefing the media on the progress made on the one year implementation of the Energy Action Plan on Sunday.

The EAP was introduced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July last year and thrashes out work that must be done by both Eskom and government to ensure that load shedding is reduced and eventually eradicated and to ensure energy security for the country in the future.

“About 56% of the work we are doing is either completed or on track. About eight of these actions that the President has set out in the Energy Action Plan we have completed. Twenty of these actions are on track so essentially what that means is that we are in keeping with the timelines that we had set for ourselves.

“Twelve of these actions are delayed but progressing well. Of course that is a dent because what we want to is to be either ahead of time or on time. Eight of those are off-track and intervention is on the way…so we are missing our own targets that we set ourselves,” he said.

All of the actions that government is undertaking are underpinned by five interventions, namely:

Fix Eskom and improve the availability of existing supply

Enable and accelerate private investment in generation capacity

Accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage

Unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar

Fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security

According to Ramokgopa, actions that government has taken include:

Sourcing additional capacity neighbouring countries. Some 100MW has already been sourced from Mozambique with an additional 600MW on the way.

Addressing outages breakdowns at Eskom power stations. The amount of breakdowns has decreased from some 17000MW in May to some 15000MW average in the last week.

Delays in returning broken down units to service have come down from 2000MW to 1300MW during the past week.

Private investment in capacity generation has increased following the removal of the threshold.

Government is procuring renewable energy through the Independent Power Producers. Currently there is a 66GW of projects in the pipeline.

The Minister said although these interventions are contributing greatly to the reduction of load shedding, South Africans must also contribute by taking actions to reduce demand on the grid.

South Africans can contribute by switching off non-essential appliances, switching off geysers and pool pumps during peak periods and also switching off plugs and lights when not in use.

“Demand management is the fastest and most efficient way to reduce demand particularly during peak hours. There are a few things that we can do and the aggregate of those things is going to lessen the intensity of the demand. It’s quicker because we don’t have to spend money, we don’t have to have new generation capacity [and] we don’t have to improve the energy availability factor.

“It has to do with our own behaviours and how we treat consumption in our own homes. It does not mean we need to deteriorate our quality of life. We can achieve both. Just by switching off lights [you are not using], you are switching on the South African economy.

“By reducing the amount of electricity that we use through simple actions, we can reduce load shedding while saving on energy bills,” he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Deputy President Paul Mashatile says managing coalition governments better remains imperative in stabilising local government and improving service delivery.

He was addressing a media briefing at the National Dialogue on Coalition Governments in Cape Town.

“The Minister of CoGTA [Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Thembi Nkadimeng] remains my key partner in driving this because, as you have seen, we are quite focused at local government where we have more challenges. So the Minister of CoGTA is key because the dialogue itself felt that there is an urgency in addressing challenges at local government level.

“We will definitely be looking at how these engagements will allow us to go down to local government to ensure that we have stable coalitions that are focused on good governance and serving the people even much better than they have been doing up to now,” he said on Saturday

The Deputy President said further engagements will be held in order to thrash out finer details.

“We only finished commissions [on Saturday], the secretariat needs more time to factor in the comments of political parties so they agreed that we will finalise the declaration once we have taken into account [political parties] comments.

“The most important thing is that all those who participated felt that we are going to need more engagements. There were issues where political parties expressed different views…that they felt need further refining.

“But generally, the idea of a national framework is agreed to but the issues of how you are going to implement it, whether you need legislation or regulation, those are the issues that are going to go for further refinement,” he said.

Earlier, during his closing address of the dialogue, the Deputy President called on political parties to work together to bring much needed stability and economic growth to South Africa.

“All what needed to be said this weekend, has been said. We came, we engaged, we listened to one another and we have agreed that this issue of coalitions is something that is with us and needs to be discussed.

“We want stability in the country, we want economic growth [and] we want a South Africa that is prosperous. We want municipalities to be stable… we want to make South Africa work. We can do it if we ensure stability in the country,” he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency