Month: November 2023

Two male suspects reportedly attacked a City Police officer and his partner in the Soweto residential area of Windhoek on Friday.

According to the Namibian Police Force (NamPol) in a crime report on Sunday, the two armed attackers allegedly approached the vehicle they were in around 00h45 from both sides.

One of the attackers reportedly opened the door of the driver’s side and held the female driver at knifepoint while stealing her property.

At the same time, the other suspect threatened the passenger with a knife in an attempt to rob him.

‘The passenger (City Police member) reached for his service pistol and resisted the assailant’s demand. In the process, one of the assailants was shot and succumbed,’ the crime report said.

In an unrelated incident, a warehouse in Ausspanplatz, Windhoek was broken into and property worth N.dollars 150 000 stolen between 04h00 and 05h00 on Friday.

The stolen items amongst others included a welder, a drill machine, grinder, three bicycles, a battery charger, and a rive
t gun.

No items have been recovered, and no arrests have been made.

Police investigations in both matters continue.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

The Head of e-learning at the Namibia College of Open Learning (Namcol), Wilhelmina Louw on Monday urged teachers, learners, and parents to capitalise on the online learning resources provided by NotesMaster.

The platform, highlighted by Education, Arts and Culture Minister Ester Anna Nghipondoka last week, is receiving N.dollars 17 million in government funding for the development and distribution of digital lessons aligned with the official Ministry of Education syllabuses.

‘While we rely on the physical textbooks, we continuously encourage schools to reach out to Namcol to receive training on NotesMaster for teachers and learners,’ Nghipondoka said in a speech at the Government Communication Centre on 15 November.

Louw explained that NotesMaster is an e-learning network designed to support teachers and students both inside and outside the classroom. Acting as a digital repository of freely accessible learning materials, the platform features content authored by local teachers, incorporating images, tex
ts, video clips, and interactive activities.

‘This is a platform with Namibian content, created by Namibian teachers for Namibian students,’ Louw said, adding that the platform covers online learning content from Grade 8 up to AS level for all exam subjects, aligning with Namibian subject curriculums.

She further revealed that Namcol’s active training programme from January to April resulted in the registration of 11 000 new learners on the platform. Currently boasting over 40 000 users, the platform has trained 329 teachers and 3 837 learners at formal schools in the current year.

The goal, as articulated by Louw, is to double the number of new learners quarterly in order to address challenges such as limited textbook access and teacher deployment issues.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

The Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) has launched an investigation into the alleged price fixing of quota usage fees paid to fishing rights holders by various fishing vessel owners and operators.

This comes after the NaCC received evidence suggesting possible cooperation among numerous vessel owners and operators in the Namibian fishing industry on 18 August 2023 and 22 September 2023, respectively.

The alleged collusion takes the form of fixing fishing quota usage costs, which are paid to fishing rights holders when they engage in quota usage agreements with vessel owners/operators.

Dina //Gowases, NaCC Corporate Communications Practitioner, told Nampa on Monday that because these fishing rights holders do not own vessels, they sell their assigned fishing quotas for a price to vessel owners and operators.

She stated that the operators provide the same price to all fishing rights holders and refuse to negotiate fees when the fishing rights holders express reservations about the offered quota usage
fee.

‘The NaCC is informed that fishing rights holders receive annual quotas from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, which they are required to utilise fully by the end of each fishing season. This necessitates those that have no vessels to approach the vessel owners and operators, and enter into quota usage agreements, for the latter to utilise the allocated quotas on their behalf,’ she said.

//Gowases added that these owners and operators prioritise harvesting their own quotas and only thereafter, endeavour to harvest the fishing rights holders’ quotas.

‘At this juncture, it is alleged that fishing rights holders have no choice but to agree to any quota usage fees that the vessel owners and operators are offering, also taking into consideration that, the vessel owners and operators also have access to their own fishing quotas as well as those of National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) and Government objective quotas,’ she said.

The NaCC therefore, initiated an investigation agains
t various vessel owners and operators to establish whether their conduct constitutes a contravention of Section 23(1) read with Section 23(2)(a) and Section 23(3)(a) (i.e., directly or indirectly fixing of purchase or selling prices or any other trading conditions) of the Act.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

The chairperson of the Namibia Magistrates Commission, Judge Orben Sibeya said plans are underway to establish a periodic court at Omuthiya in the Oshikoto Region to ease the number of cases dealt with by the Ondangwa court.

Sibeya during his visit to the Oshikoto Regional Council in Omuthiya on Monday said an assessment found that Ondangwa has the heaviest case load in the country with over 4 000 cases, while 60 per cent of the cases are from Omuthiya area.

‘Ondangwa is struggling to cope with this volume of cases. Cases are just too many and they are being postponed for more than two years. Witnesses wait for up to two years to testify which causes them to forget sometimes. We also discovered that there are travel costs involved when they travel to Ondangwa whereas if we bring a court here, we will cut out those travel expenses,’ said Sibeya.

The chairperson said the biggest challenge currently is finding a venue for the court to operate from. One possibility is for the court to operate from the regiona
l police headquarters.

Once established, a magistrate will be availed to serve in Omuthiya either Monday to Friday or for two weeks a month, until a permanent structure is developed in the area.

Sibeya further said that they would meet with the Namibian Police Force’s Oshikoto regional commander Teopoline Nashikaku and her staff and proceed from there.

Oshikoto Regional Council acting chairperson Martinu Kainda said they look forward to such services being made more accessible.

‘From the Oshikoto Region, particularly Omuthiya, there is a big go ahead. Just go ahead and implement as we want justice services to be closer to our people of Omuthiya,’ said Kainda.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her 42-year-old stepfather at Gcamade in the Kavango West Region between August and November 2023.

The weekend crime report issued by the Namibian Police Force on Sunday said the suspect allegedly had sexual intercourse with the minor victim on numerous occasions under coercive circumstances.

The suspect has been arrested and police investigations continue.

The police also reported that a 31-year-old woman was on Saturday allegedly raped by two suspects who dragged her into bushes next to houses at the Dairy compound in Katima Mulilo.

The suspects allegedly grabbed the victim while she was walking around 03h00 and had sexual intercourse with her without her consent.

One of the suspects has been arrested and is said to be a 21-year-old man, while the other suspect is still not traced. The arrested suspect will make his first appearance at the Katima Mulilo Magistrate’s Court on Monday, the report read.

Police investigations continue.

In a separate incident, a m
an was on Friday robbed of his vehicle at Havana in Windhoek.

It is alleged that between 03h00 and 04h00 in Katutura, the complainant woke up and heard his car being driven out of his yard and when he tried to open the door to his house, found that it had been secured from the outside.

The silver Toyota Corolla was recovered in the Ongos farm area a few hours later, the report read.

‘The car was handed over to the rightful owner, no arrest has been made and police investigations continue,’ the report said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

The coach of the senior national football team, Collin Benjamin, has expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance against Equatorial Guinea despite not earning any points.

His focus is now on their upcoming match on Tuesday.

The 2026 International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) African World Cup qualifiers kicked off last week, with Namibia having their opening match away from home against Equatorial Guinea. Namibia is drawn in Group H, along with Equatorial Guinea, Tunisia, Malawi, Liberia, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

In their opening match of the campaign on 15 November 2023, in Equatorial Guinea, the Namibian team lost by a single goal, placing them fifth with zero points in the group of six teams.

In an interview with Nampa, Benjamin said their opening match of the World Cup qualifying campaign started well, with players displaying commitment and discipline.

‘We missed out on scoring opportunities, which eventually led to our opponents winning that game against us. Despite this, the
team had good organisation, and the boys had the right attitude and were fit enough to deal with the humid weather,’ he said.

Going into their next match on Tuesday against São Tomé and Príncipe, Benjamin stated that they are aware they will not be able to reach their target of collecting four points from their opening matches, but they will fight for every point.

‘Players in the team are still fighting for positions in the squad for the African Nations Cup that will be held in Ivory Coast in January 2024. But despite that, we are working towards positive results and are also focusing on giving young players a chance to gain experience,’ Benjamin said.

The Brave Warriors coach also said that in their match against Equatorial Guinea, Uetuuru Kambato got a chance to play, but it was evident that he needed time on the international level. On the other hand, Ivan Kamberipa did very well on the right back after Ryan Nyambe was rested.

The coach acknowledged that the team had some negatives in their opening mat
ch of the World Cup qualifiers, such as conceding a goal and allowing too many set-pieces in their last half. However, he is happy with the mental wellness of his players, and said losing the game would not hamper their targets going forward.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency