SMSes for Wednesday 30 May 2012
SMS Of The Day *WHY recycle permanent secretaries who have become a liability to the State due to corruption? If my memory serves me well, some of them on the list have been repeatedly in the news due to insider trading and mismanagement of public funds. The rest could have been shown the road to unemployment due to incompetence. Can someone tell me whether Performance Management Systems will be realised if we continue to recycle malcontents? – Frans
Food for Thought
*WHY don't Namibians do something like ‘Last Band Standing’ for the youth to show them that there is more Namibia can offer than just alcohol.
– Hildegard
Bouquets and Brickbats
*USING the term ‘black’ to mean ‘bad’ or ‘tragic’ is unacceptable in an 80-90 per cent black African country. A good writer should not only consider the ‘dictionary definition’ of words but also their connotations, their meanings within a culture. As a journalism lecturer I advise my students that it is poor journalism to use phrases like ‘black weekend’ and you should tell your reporters the same thing.
– Hugh Ellis
Running the Show
*DEAR Prime Minister Nahas Angula why are there so many frustrating delays in most government agencies and ministries? Could this be due to insufficient staff, incompetence or simply the don’t care/lazy attitude of some public servants?
*COMRADE Prime Minister what’s the purpose of a panel interview if the Public Service Commission can simply overrule a recommendation without referring it back or entering into a consultative process. Rather discontinue using interviews and let them just decide to prevent this mockery.
*MINISTRY of Gender we are now approaching winter and some primary school hostels don’t have proper basic facilities. Children sleep on old blankets and mattresses and have old winter clothes. Remember there are also orphans in these hostels. Please do something.
*WHERE is the Minister of Works and Transport Erkki Nghimtina? Is he sick or is he hiding after messing up all state-owned enterprises under him; Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, Roads Authority, TransNamib. Shame Namibia even lost the N$60 billion Trans Kalahari railway to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
From the House
*NAMIBIANS please tell me how the Constitution is defended by Members of Parliament? How are the Namibians’ rights of association protected in Namibia? How do the threats against the members of the opposition parties by those of the ruling party qualify as constitutional?
*PLEASE when are we going to have houses in Windhoek? Who is responsible for this delay? Please Minster Jerry Ekandjo resign.
Politics
*I WOULD like to invite all Namibian citizens with access to the Internet to join the Facebook on ‘Youth in Politics’ where citizens, particularly the youth, are discussing issues in a more professional and objective manner. We need to advise each other on the development agenda of our country.
A Place to Call Home
*PLEASE we want the Minister of Local Government and Housing Jerry Ekandjo to give answers. We have been waiting for our houses (Build Together housing scheme) in Noordoewer since 2008. It is not possible for nine houses to be built in four years and these are still very far from completion.
Business as Usual
*WOULD somebody hasten to explain the logic of the Government Institutions Pensions Fund (GIPF) investing our money outside Namibia and losing billions in the process while the prospective entrepreneurs at home clamour for funding.
– Johannes /Gawiseb
Education
*DR Iyambo and Dr Namwandi please visit the Ministry of Education student loans department and see the chaos there. It appears that many, if not all, of the officials don’t know what they are doing, let alone how to talk to people. How is it possible that there is only one old and retired person (according to the ever rude officials) representing the board and now students are forced to wait for more than three months before approval of requests. This is a big turn-off from our government, especially to students going to study abroad. Action seriously needs to be taken.
*NAMIBIA Training Authority! Who allows the graduates to go to the graduation ceremony in overalls?
Health Matters
*WHY has orthopaedic department of Rundu hospital stopped its outreach programme in Katima Mulilo? Patients are suffering here. They cannot afford to travel about 500 km for services. It has been two years since they last came.We, people with disabilities, need answers from the Regional Health Director for Kavango region.
*CAN someone from the Ministry of Health please advise me where to go and what I need if I want to become a nurse?
Labour Issues
*WE read about the salaries of ministers/deputies in the newspaper. What about the salaries of parastatal bosses? The nation’s taxpayers want to know.
*LABOUR Commissioner as the police of labour unions please do not fail the workers like the Anti-Corruption Commission did. It is an open secret that Petrus Nevonga’s term as the general secretary of Namibia Public Workers Union lapsed two years ago. Who mandated him to take decision on behalf of workers for the past two years? All those decisions should be deemed as null and void.
– Fed-up Public Servant
Note: refer to story on page 6.
*MINISTRY of Safety and Security and Ministry of Defence stop discriminating against the HIV+ and ex-convicts in your recruitment process. Some of these people didn’t commit serious offences.
*MINISTER of Safety and Security we want feedback about our April increase, we don’t want empty promises.
City Fathers
*MUNICIPAL bus 453’s brake lights are not working.
In and From the Regions
*MAYOR of Walvis Bay, the streets of Kuisebmond are dirty. Give the tenders to young people who can reach all corners of the location and supervise them.
*WHAT do town councillors do all day when a town’s infrastructure is falling apart, for example, the Rehoboth solar-powered street lights have been off for how long now? I would have been embarrassed to show my face around town as this is unacceptable.
– HDK
Sporting
*PLEASE Namibia Football Association the teams of the first division are still waiting for their start-up capital for the 2011/12 football season.
*FORMER English soccer player Sol Campbell has a point when he predicted racism and violence at the upcoming European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. Both countries have a bad record but for Fifa, the money comes first.
– Soccer lover
Service Please
*IT is 12h40 on Tuesday. I have just tried calling all seven customer care lines at Inland Revenue. Nobody answered. Have they all gone to lunch early?
*MOST Nedbank ATMs have suddenly started operating in slow motion. Try using most of their machines and you will be shocked at how slowly the card will go in the slot. Please look into this urgently before criminals take advantage.
– Godwin
ACC Alert
*UNAM employees operating kiosks in the campuses are buying their stock during work hours. Anti-Corruption Commission investigate please.
Please Help
*HOW do I participate on your SMS page if I am out of the country using a foreign number? Please help us!
– SMS page lover
Note: The 99902 number doesn’t work outside Namibia, however you can email your message to: smsfeedback@namibian.com.na . Please remember to keep messages short so we can fit more in.
– News Desk
Lost and Found
*I SILIA Kanyemba lost my ID in a wallet in Windhoek. If found please contact me on 081-474-0884.
*I FILLEMON Shidute lost my ID and licence in Wanaheda! If found please contact: 081-211-7158.
*PASSPORTS for the following people were lost in a handbag in a car outside Cheztemba VIP Lounge in Windhoek; Anderson Baptista, Braulio Joaquim, Hilari Sulissa, Alda Sequeira and Paulo Manuel. If found please contact Ally at 081-826-2337 or 081-754-5615.
*I LILIE Navula Shikongo lost my ID around Windhoek. Please if you find it contact 081-319-0373.
Responses to recent SMSes
*SO Namibia Wildlife Resorts management, here you are a few years later with much more money and support received than the previous management, but you still could not achieve anything. Maybe it’s time to get rid of the employees who seem to run the company anyway. Or just give it to them to finish the job of destroying a once thriving business.