SMSes for Friday 09 November 2012
SMS Of The Day *OBAMA is the American president not the world president, so African and Namibian leaders, if you can’t do anything for your people then why do you want Obama to do something for your people? Each country has its own president. You should be proud of Obama.
Food for Thought
*MINISTER of Finance, tell us who advises you on tax policy? You want the nation to save so you can tax it again just for you to spend it on war veterans to buy Mercs or to finance TIPEEG which is earmarked only for some people? We know what’s happening in this country.
*FELLOW Namibians, if you ever get ill try to stay clear of Seven West Windhoek Central Hospital. Rather go to the SPCA.
*THE ground floor of the Maerua Mall parking area was shaking last week when I parked my car there. I called the City of Windhoek and they told me that they have been aware of this problem for years now. I hope Maerua Mall has been certified by the relevant authorities because I remember that a few years ago when they finished expanding this Mall there was a huge crack in the wall. Just imagine the loss of life if this building collapses during daytime.
– Jomo
*PROPOSAL for requirements as Ministers: The health portfolio must be occupied by a retired doctor. Social services must have a person who has worked closely with the community. Education must be headed by a retired teacher or retired director of education. Information and technology’s head must have a mass media or a public relations qualification and have at least worked in that environment. The same should apply to their deputies and PSes. No reshuffling please! Then I believe if professionals and not only politicians lead our noble but fragile country we’ll be best in the eyes of the world. Perhaps then our livelihood will be better. In many western countries lawyers are either prime ministers or presidents!
*PROVISION of free education by the State can reduce poverty and HIV.
*I’M unhappy about the salaries and benefits of the ministers. They are getting too much for nothing. Ministers need to pay 50 percent tax to the government. Please law makers, look into these matters before our ministers suffer from obesity. We need to rescue them from becoming too fat.
– A caring citizen
*EIGHT percent for a teacher who lives in shack and walks kilometres to work. Fifteen percent for the president whose salary is not necessary. Note that his daughter is studying on a scholarship.
*THREE hundred million people vote and the votes are counted the same day. Why can Namibia not borrow that system from the US in the next election?
Bouquets and Brickbats
*CONGRATULATIONS Katima Mulilo library. You are doing a good job of training all the youth on computer basics. Keep up the good work. Thank you.
*I AM happy that I don’t have a Napwu deduction on my pay slip. They failed me a long time ago.
*IT’S disappointing to realise how the Roads Authority is treating the nation. They did not consider how big the populations in Windhoek and Oshakati were when they decided to have only one centre and to have few counters where people have to queue from outside as early as 04h00 if you want to get service on that day. If you miss out you have to go back and queue for at least three to four days before you get a licence for your car or a drivers licence. What on earth is this really?
*FIVE people could not be found guilty of dealing in cocaine worth N$2 million because a police officer does not know the difference between a ‘B’ and an ‘E’. How shocking!
*THE Namibian film that was shown on NBC TV around 18h00 on Sunday contained vulgar language and bias against Caprivians and Kavangos. Is this what NBC is promoting? What happened to ‘one Namibia one nation’?
*ABRAHAM Iyambo, is this the music you said teachers will face? Taking us to court with a GRN lawyer and paying him with our tax money again. I wonder who your advisory committee is who are busy destroying you as a leader!
*RUNDU show is a disaster. No programme, no customer care and to make it worse the show is run like a political get together dominated by councillors. They need to be advised that the event is a business aimed at developing their town and the Namibian economy at large.
*I’M sitting with an insecure man and I have no way of getting out of this relationship. I was always wondering why he disapproves of all my girlfriends. I want to walk out to no avail. Sometimes I think of fleeing the country. I am living in fear. Thanks to The Namibian for the topic.
– Worried lady
*WE thought Gazza went to New York to represent the whole of Namibia. I do not understand this concept of ‘Wambu seun in NewYork’. Can Gazza please tell all the non-Oshiwambo speaking Namibian citizens whether they need to send 10 ‘seuns’ each for every non-Owambo speaking tribal language group to represent Namibia. Or is it now: ‘One Wambu one nation’?
– Namibian citizen
*A very pleasant surprise hit me when I went to Shoprite Independence Avenue on Tuesday November 6 just before 08h00 in the morning. I found junior and senior staff members scrubbing and mopping the staircases and interior of the shop. Well done staff and management. Thank you for your contribution to uplift hygienic standards in supermarkets! Hope we can learn something from this...
*OUR GRN is using the salary increases as a campaign tool for next year. It’s time for civil servants to open your eyes and choose right at election time. It’s no more about who brought independence but about who will exercise the will of the nation. It’s time for change.
Politics
*IF I was to be asked which Namibian woman qualifies to be president, I would say Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
*SPEAKING of Obama’s disrespect for Africa, does the Prime Minister show any respect for his own country’s people?
*DOES Nahas Angula know what he is talking about? What do the Americans have to do with the Libyan leaders death. That was pure civil war.
*WHO said tears are not helpful? Barack Obama did the KK at his last campaign rally and he was elected for the second time. Hopefully it will apply to KK to remain in his job as minister.
Civil Servants
*IMMIGRATION officers are there for the nation’s security but our government do not respect our existence. Our salaries are unbelievable. You won’t believe that seniors are getting below N$10 000.
*TO those who condemn the teachers’ strike: Please note that teachers have tertiary education, they often have to teach classes of over 40 learners. They work long hours. Often also on weekends (preparation, marking, extra-mural activities) and they are burdened with admin work as well. Teachers’ salaries never keep up with inflation while the cost of living sky-rockets. To add insult to injury, the starting salary of a beginner teacher is more than that of a highly qualified teacher with over 30 years experience. And then you expect us not to get fed up with a union that works for the Government instead of for its members.
*WHERE were the SPYL loose canons when civil servants are being exploited in this country? Do they know that eight percent will just be eroded by inflation and ridiculous taxes? Is somebody thinking out there?
*MY sister completed her police probation last year but she is still receiving a cadet’s salary. Are the finance people investing with people’s money? ACC please investigate.
*THE Government should understand that every civil servant needs to be paid at least 25 percent more. Please do not act only when there is labour unrest.
*IF the inflation rate was seven percent and the GRN increased salaries with eight percent it means that they have increased our salaries by one percent. Is the one percent the negotiation that took GRN, NUNW and Nantu so long? Informing the public that it is at an advanced stage. Wow!
Suggestion Box
*JOEL Kaapanda solve your many problems at NBC and leave the teachers alone.
*TRUSTCO start introducing cash backs. We all need to smile, for example after 10 years of not claiming on products, at least give 10 percent cash back.
Labour
*VALOMBOLA VTC, why are you paying contract employees with cheques instead of depositing their money into their accounts? Plus, why don’t they get payslips and what were the criteria used to increase some individuals’ salaries and leave others out?
*WORKERS always make mistakes when they elect representatives. They always elect people who make the loudest noise. Choose people who can think and you will receive your negotiated benefits on time each year.
*LET the unions wake up and act in the interest of their members, not the government. They are our employees, otherwise we are going to stop our contribution.
*THE government must increase salaries by at least 10 percent after every two years to avoid these things. Everything has become expensive now. Not only for teachers and nurses, but many others will follow suit soon. We all want bread for our families, just like ministers and other high ranking officials. Inflation affects everybody.
*HOW dare the Government continue negotiations with unions who lost their members?
*THIS eight percent rise in public servants salary is nothing but a slap in the face.
Health
*RICHARD Kamwi can start counting how many nurses resigned and moved to the private sector as he told them. He just made poor people, who use state hospitals, suffer even more.
Response to Previous SMSes
*I TOTALLY disagree with the SMS in The Namibian November 5, saying police officers are poaching because they are hungry. Let them face the law just like a thief breaking into your house. No excuse dear. There are so many people in Namibia without work but they don’t poach.
*MY response to the SMS of November 5, saying that teachers are ignorant and used by opposition parties – my fellow Namibian, you sound so ignorant and seem to be a blind Swapo member who hears no evil and sees no evil in your house but sees and hears all evil in your neighbour’s house across the street. Please wake up.
*I AGREE with the SMS that says some people don’t buy newspapers but always come to grab our newspapers and never return them even if you haven’t yet read them. I expect all professionals to buy newspapers everyday but they opt to save. Let’s please support our local newspapers to keep them moving forward. If the professionals don’t buy who else will do so! Buying The Namibian only costs me about N$70 monthly. That’s not a lot of money.
Complaint
*FNB Tsumeb, your ATMs are always down on pay days. Are we forced onto those high charges at the counters? Please explain why this happens time and again. There’s also no cover against sun and rain at your main branch.
FNB Response
Dear Tsumeb Client, please accept our sincere apology for the inconvenience you experienced over month end. FNB Namibia’s Tsumeb branch experienced exceptional withdrawal volumes, both at the branch and at ATMs, over the month end period, which caused us not to be able to reload the ATMs fast enough. This issue is being addressed and we trust that it will not re-occur.
Kindest Regards. Brandon Brock – Manager FNB ATMs.
*IN response to the SMS of October 24; I urge the writer to acquaint him/herself with the divide between problems and symptoms thereof. Please point out the real problems, not symptoms. Hospitals may be dirty because of irresponsible members of public and the fact that workers are not motivated to go the extra mile because of poor salaries. The same applies to learners failing. It starts at home. If parents do not have time for their own children, to make sure that they are committed to school, learners will obviously fail. For the record, teachers are hard at work with many of them conducting afternoon, holiday and even weekend classes despite low salaries. Police, which do you think is likely to contribute to the other? Isn’t corruption contributing to poor salaries or is it low salaries contributing to corruption? I’m sure you have the answer.
– Kamati, Windhoek
In and from the Regions
*COUNCIL of Etayi circuit, when are we going to get clean water in Oshivanda village? Minister of Health help us please.
*MY heart bleeds when I think of paying the school fund again for my three kids who are currently in Grade 9 at Ombome Combined School in the Omusati Region in Onesi circuit. The Grade 9s and Grade 8s of this school have not been taught History since January. If they were taught they didn’t even finish a chapter. I checked their summary books myself. These learners are left unattended in English and Oshindonga since their teachers went for maternity leave two months ago. These poor learners are about to write their final examination. Please Minister Abraham Iyambo, this school needs a serious check up soon!
*WE are having a problem with drivers licences here in Otavi. We have to travel to Tsumeb twice for learners and twice for drivers licences. We have no driving schools and no Natis officials here.
*WATER is a basic need and each citizen should have access to portable water. I belatedly read the column by Alexactus Kaura and the editorial in The Namibian of July 13 on water provision in Namibia. Sadly, even a water rich community such as Epupa Falls village does not have portable water. There are numerous recorded incidents of people being attacked by crocodiles when they fetch water from the Kunene River.
Unions
*UNION members, by now you all have opened your eyes and realised that many unions have become private businesses of individuals. We better cancel our memberships as we have nothing to lose at all by doing so. What are we waiting for? I already did. Or else stop complaining and allow them to chop your money.
*SHAME on every union member who was on that table that agreed on eight percent salary increments for poor civil servants. It’s a great pity to to see what trade unions have turned into.
*WHO were in the negotiations for the salary increments of traditional leaders? They did a better job than the unions. Their increase is backdated to April.