SMSes for Friday 18 January 2013
SMS Of The Day *FREE education without having paid a cent of the measly N$109 per pupil to schools and without having organised a single sheet of paper? School has started and my daughter’s teachers have neither paper nor ink to print or copy a letter, let alone teaching material. What a disgraceful and pathetic exercise by the government while the Minister of Education appears to still be on holiday. Well, clearly holiday comes before honouring promises, while those in charge are in any event sending their kids to private schools. They can afford that because they simultaneously decided to increase their salary by huge margins. Teachers should go on strike again. This time alongside pupils. They may lose a year – but will win a lifetime of dignity.
Food for Thought
*SINCE the beginning of last year, Namibians were encouraged to come forward with creative ideas on how we can help make the country shine for the Adventure Travel World Summit to be hosted in Swakop in October. Until now, after calls and emails, no one seems to be interested in our ideas or even replies to them. Is the budget meant only for a few people in the tourism industry or what? Secondly, please don’t just forward your ideas to those in charge before you protect or copyright them. Ideas get stolen and you will be crying if you don’t have the connections. Let’s rather hope our country makes a professional impression.
*IF our Namibian government is capable of increasing the salaries of POB with 41 percent, then we are more capable of assisting the people of Zimbabwe that are in dire need of food. Why is that not happening?
*TO the Minister of Works and Transport, I would like to express my dissatisfaction regarding the bailing out of Air Namibia. As a taxpayer, I fail to understand why government is spending millions on the airline that can hardly afford to pay its fuel accounts. Stop this exercise and use those billions to build houses for low income groups. How many houses could have been built so far with the money recklessly spent on the airline that has decided to remain in its infancy shoes?
Bouquets and Brickbats
*CITY of Windhoek Parks Division – thanks for beautifying Snyman Circle!
*NO one asks who is responsible for the mess at Air Namibia! Who will be held accountable for the current situation? Nothing will change if no one is held responsible and dealt with!
*I AM a Rundu resident and I heard of an incident where young women were arrested for wearing mini skirts. Vakuetu, what is going on in this country? Police officers, there are plenty of criminals out there! If you have nothing to do in your free time just go and arrest them and leave the poor girls alone. It is their right to wear what they wish and it is their clothing they are wearing. For your information, if you arrest my daughter for such a stupid reason, I will sue.
*IT is because of N$1 shots at a specific bar that Khomas Region Grade 12’s failed the way they did.
*I SALUTE the police at Rundu who reprimand the ladies in mini skirts. It is long overdue because some women wearing these short skirts don’t even mind if they are on their periods. Disgusting!
*DEAR taxis. If you wish to turn, use the turning lanes. Pushing in is rude, dangerous and illegal. STOP IT!
*SHEBEENS are the root of all evil in Namibia. It can harm your culture and morals. Shebeen owners in government can pay for promotion but in practice, he/she can’t do the job, so the government of the Namibia, please close down all the shebeens and provide jobs. It’s that easy.
*CEO of Otavi, where do you want government to bring offices to Otavi if you don’t even have plots for the residents?
Education
*OHANGWENA education directorate, follow Omaheke and Kunene’s strategies of reshuffling the school managers.
*I AM humbly requesting our government to bring back the colleges of education whereby students with E symbols in English can enrol for an education diploma, in order to alleviate the lack of teachers in the country.
*CAN the government do something about some of our kids who were not successful at being admitted at the schools we applied for, especially Grade 8. All the schools we went to have notices saying they don’t have space available and we are clueless as to what we should do or where we should go.
*MINISTER of Education, think carefully. Some younger people are not continuing with their studies after Grade 12 because their parents cannot afford Unam. If you keep increasing the registration fees, what do you expect? Now you provide free primary education, but you increase the fees for higher education.
*I AM shocked to learn that I am not admitted at Polytechnic of Namibia for further study. I am a Polytech graduate with a diploma in commerce. I wanted to further my studies with B. Tech in Business Administration via distance, but to my surprise, I have not been admitted. Luckily enough, I was admitted to Unam for the same course. How do you expect your products to further their study if you can not admit them with your diplomas?
*IOL, please keep your promises. We, the PPDE-N students are suffering. We do our assignments without the study guides. How can we be expected to pass the course? Remember, we have a limited period of three years to finish. Please do something! Give us study guides.
Labour
*ABRAHAM Iyambo, many retired teachers are prepared to come back, but you make it unattractive by giving us only a temporary appointment and no bonus cheque. Please change this and we will gladly come back.
*I REALLY hope that now that Hage Geingob is PM, he will stop this “friends appointing friends” as CEOs so that they can “eat” things. So appalling!
*IT is only in Namibia that we do things like what happened at TransNamib. The appointment of CEOs for SOEs who were board members is becoming a common phenomenon. I can confirm this because it happened to me. As soon as a board member has an eye on that job, the board will start to put pressure on you until they get you out.
*IT looks like there is too much demand now for teachers than in past years when we had teachers, especially those trained in Zimbabwe. We are wandering the streets without jobs. The government must start implementing its human resources plan and must continuously monitor and evaluate the demand and supply of all professionals.
*IS it prohibited to apply for more than one teaching post in the same region? In the Erongo Region, this seems not to be the case, as one is not given a choice or a preference.
*WITH the 100 percent increment of housing allowances for civil servants, back pay should start as from April because it is part of a salary increment. Otherwise we must get the 40 percent salary increment we were demanding. And danger allowance must apply to all labourers working for government.
*MINISTRY of Education, teachers department (Gobabis), I don’t know who works with manual cheques for relief teachers but I want to reprimand that person. Since the beginning of December 2012 until now I have not received my cheque, I don’t know why. It took only two days for me to start teaching after they took in my CV because they needed a person urgently, but why can’t they do the same with my money? Does it really have to take a month just to process a cheque? No man!
*SHAME on the greedy political office bearers, your selfish egos permeate every time you pat yourselves on the back with ludicrous increases. Forty-five percent in the era of austerities? God have mercy on your souls.
*FOLLOWING the recent high court verdict/judgement (January 11 2013) on the matter of the use of GRN vehicles and car allowance benefits for management cadres and POBs. The public service commission needs to clarify what car allowance receivers are allowed and not allowed and what the car allowance constitutes. Public service commission, please study and research the high court verdict/judgement and provide new clear directives and rules to avoid misuse and misinterpretation.
*NAMIBIAN high ranking officials ‘underpaid?’ Totally untrue! GRN wake up! Pay all civil servants for devotion to duty and actual performance! That will save our country millions.
*CAN the OPM substantiate what the prison officers (correctional staff) do which makes them higher paid than police and army compatriots? They even rank higher than other professionals (eg teachers and nurses). Look at their new structures, a warrant officer is paid more than a teacher or a nurse who went through four years of study, while police men/women and men and women in the army get peanuts.
*MINISTER of Education, please help us. We, the teachers who completed a diploma last year, are still unemployed, especially in the upper primary phase. We applied but no interviews and no feedback from the schools. Please help us.
In and From the Regions
*COUNCILLOR of Tsandi, provide us with water at our two villages, Okafitu Kashau and Otapaela near Olufa. There are a number of households to be catered to by one water point between these two villages. Do something for us in 2013, we are thirsty.
Lost and Found
*I, KAINO T Nangolo, lost my wallet in Windhoek, containing my ID, FNB bank card, birth certificate, marriage certificate and more. If found, contact 081-297 9626.
*I, SHIKONGO Joseph, lost my wallet with my ID and ATM cards in Kuisebmond, Walvis Bay. If found, please contact me at 081-315 1169 or 081-340 1901.
*I, GARIEL Gilbert Nawaseb, lost my wallet in Khorixas including my ID, driver’s licence, medical card and all other relevant documents. If found, please contact me at 081-289 9797.
*I, IN Kaliki, lost my driver’s licence and access card. If found, please call or SMS 081-631 7199.