Category: General

The Rani Group has put aside N.dollars 1.4 million for 70 bursaries as part of educating a Namibian child.

Company Managing Director Ali Dharani said they believe in building the community, hence their handover of scholarships for students from all the 14 regions.

In an interview with Nampa, Dharani said they believe the biggest investment a person can ever make is by investing in the education of a child.

The 70 bursaries will be distributed to all regions in aid of those in dire need of support.

‘Every year we focus on an initiative that aims to empower our people and hopefully support local communities in which they operate as a way of giving back,’ he said.

He added that those to benefit from the bursaries are expected to study in Namibia and in locally owned institutions with hope of having an educated nation that is proudly Namibian.

Last year, the company donated 700 wheelchairs that were to be distributed equally in all the 14 regions.

Dharani also invested in a computer school that was opened
in the Oshana Region, the school described as one of its kind in Oshana and in the whole of Namibia, so far has physical structures of four classrooms and a storeroom built at a cost of N.dollars 1.6 million donated by Rani Group.

He stressed that they are doing the little they can to assist the community, and hopefully next year they might focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to boost them and hopefully grow their business.

Source: NAMPA

Minister of Urban and Rural Development Erastus Uutoni said he was disturbed by disputes within some of the traditional communities that has ‘really’ reached an alarming rate.

Uutoni made the remarks during the officially inaugurated the |Gaio-Daman Traditional Authority Head Office and Ernst Taguri Gurirab Community Hall at Anker in the Kunene Region on Saturday.

He reminded traditional authorities that disputes not solved on time result in conflicts which are costly, derail focus from serving the people, and disturb peace and stability in the communities as well.

‘This counterproductive attitude delays development which greatly disadvantages community members of service delivery; as it is said, when two elephants fight, the grass suffers,’ he said.

He added that they should by all means avoid disputes and resolve any disturbing issues, and urged the entire |Gaio-Daman Traditional Authority to always stand firm, unite and work together in the interest of the traditional community.

Further, Uutoni indic
ated that as a traditional authority they should hear and settle disputes between the members of the traditional community in accordance with the customary law without resorting to the court of law.

He then reiterated that, their actions as a traditional leadership must be inclusive and people-centred, and this should be that as a leadership, they must periodically consult with and obtain the views and consensus of and also involve the community in the planning and implementation of development initiatives that affect and/or are meant to benefit them.

Moreover, Uutoni also explained that traditional authorities have a major role to play in addressing social, economic and legislative matters.

Similarly, Uutoni stated that traditional leaders are pillars of Namibian society as they play a fundamental role of maintaining and sustaining the norms and principles in traditional communities.

‘You are the custodians of their traditional customs and values, serving as their substance of cultural inheritance that d
efines their very characteristics and the purpose of their existence,’ he said.

Source: NAMPA

The national senior cricket team ‘The Eagles’ are still on course of qualifying for the 2024 International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup after successfully winning their third match on Saturday here.

The 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be held in the United States of America and West Indies from 04 to 30 June 2024 with 20 teams competing for top honours.

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier Final 2023 is underway in Windhoek, Namibia with seven nations competing for the top two slots that will guarantee them a place at next year’s World Cup.

The host Namibia has thus far managed to put up impressive displays winning their opening three matches in the competition on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at the Wanderers Sports Field in Pioneers Park.

Since the competition kicked off Namibia has been on top of their game showing few weaknesses as they outclassed competition favourites Zimbabwe on Wednesday, then got the best of Uganda with a six-wicket win.

On Saturday, the Eagles’ powerful
top-order was at it again as they defeated Rwanda by 68 runs based on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method at the Wanderers Cricket Ground.

Nikolaas Davin who has been impressive since the start of the competition once again made 80 runs off just 59 balls after Rwanda won the toss and elected to field first. Davin, along with the stylish Michael van Lingen, scored a quick 60 runs in the first seven overs before Van Lingen and skipper Gerhard Erasmus were dismissed.

Jan Frylinck remained unbeaten at 45 runs from 28 balls while the powerful JJ Smit scored an unbeaten 30 runs off 10 balls. Together, they hit five sixes, taking Namibia’s total score to 207 for three in their allotted 20 overs.

Rwanda’s response couldn’t have been worse as they lost two wickets in the first seven balls and were at three for three by the end of the second over.

Namibia and Kenya are tied on six points after three matches thus far, but Namibia leads the log standing. They are set to face each other next in the competition on M
onday.

Source: NAMPA

The Oshikoto regional council spokesperson Petrus Nehale said they are planning to improve the livelihood of small and medium enterprise (SME) owners by teaching them business management and other skills.

Nehale in an interview with Nampa on Friday said that as part of their annual work plan, they conducted a two-day free training for small and medium rural business owners to equip them with skills and expertise to thrive in their business ventures.

‘We embarked on training SMEs in far remote areas of the region on the aspect of basic business management,’ Nehale said.

He said that the SMEs were identified from the Eengodi, Okankolo, and Nehale Lyampingana constituency offices and they benefited indirectly or directly from their relevant stakeholders such as the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare and Rural Development Committee (RDC).

‘We are targeting these people during this exercise and training them on business registration, on how to come up with a business proposal,
bookkeeping, and all other areas that they are lacking as we have engaged them before,’ said Nehale.

He said they came up with those modules to train them during the week of 23 to 24 November 2023 in the respective constituencies.

‘Our team has been on the ground to train these SMEs in Eengodi, Okankolo, and Nehale Lyampingana constituencies, we trained a total of 30 SMEs this year and we do this exercise every year,’ said Nehale.

He said the main aim is to capacitate their SMEs in far remote areas to thrive and to employ others.

‘The ultimate goal is to uplift the rural economy and just to make sure they become able to sustain themselves,’ he said.

Source: NAMPA

The Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises intends to implement what it calls a new game plan aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), with a particular focus on boards’ performance.

Minister Iipumbu Shiimi revealed the plan during the public enterprises conference held at Gross Barmen this past week, saying it will include the recruitment of experienced individuals to serve as board members of SOEs and measuring their performance.

He acknowledged that the government, as a shareholder, has been inactive in the management of public enterprises.

‘We have to up our game in terms of board recruitment to ensure that we have experienced people on boards, experienced board chairpersons, people who are really going to make sure that the board is not fighting but is providing leadership and oversight. There is always healthy debate and healthy conflict, but if the conflict is going to destroy the organisation, then there is a lack of leadership there,’ Shiimi said.

The ministry
is also going to strengthen training and development, as well as the evaluation of board members. ‘My experience is that we have never had effective evaluation. I have seen boards evaluate themselves, but they always give each other good scores,’ he said, adding that the renewal of board mandates will be based on their effectiveness.

‘On top of that, we are going to base your performance agreement that we are going to sign with the board members on specific key performance indicators. At the moment, all the agreements that we sign are actually very generic; it’s about confidentiality. But what is your mandate? Because you are there as an institution to deliver on a specific mandate. If you are in the electricity business, you are there to deliver electricity. So are you delivering on that mandate?’ he said.

The minister said that key performance indicators (KPIs) are going to be part of the performance agreements that the ministry is going to sign with the SOE boards.

‘We also want to see the remuneration
of your executives pegged to performance management. It can’t just be that we are going to receive bonuses. These bonuses must be backed up by a clear indication of performance,’ said Shiimi.

The ministry is also going to enforce compliance with the Public Enterprises Governance Act (PEGA) of 2009.

‘We are actually developing a compliance scorecard that is going to measure different requirements of PEGA to ensure that there is compliance,’ the minister said, while pointing to a culture of non-compliance among SOEs.

‘A number of SOEs, if you ask them to give you financial statements, will give you management accounts. Well, those are management accounts. In fact, the law says you need to have audited financials six months after the end of the financial year,’ Shiimi said.

Source: NAMPA

A seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 57-year-old man at Ontanda village in the Omusati Region.

Omusati Regional Police Commander, Commissioner Ismael Basson on Saturday said the incident occurred Thursday evening and a case of rape has been opened.

According to Basson, the suspect works as a domestic worker, and the child and her family reside at a neighbouring house.

‘It is alleged he took the victim from her parents’ house at that time and went with the minor to his room where he raped her,’ Basson said.

The matter was reported by the victim’s biological mother.

Basson indicated that the suspect who is on bail on the same offence has been arrested and will appear before court next week.

Police investigation into the matter continues.

Source: NAMPA