Honesty Wins The Day

I WOULD like to write to express my awe at the level of honesty displayed by the Namibian people to me recently.

I am a foreign immigrant, I have had Namibian Citizenship for approximately 5 years, and I am constantly told by others that the locals will rob the shirt off your back if given a chance. What happened to me recently contradicted this general impression of the crime in Africa, and I thought was astounding because the persons concerned probably needed the money much more than I did.The first experience was when I left my cell phone at the counter at Trade Centre in Kleine Kuppe.I left for an appointment in the same area.When my colleague arrived, she said to me ‘By the way, so you know, your phone is at Trade Centre, I phoned you and they asked if I knew whose phone it was, so that I could let you know.”It turned out the checkout assistant had answered the phone when it rang, then handed it in to the manager.Needless to say the manager was very proud of his staff member, as was I.The second experience was even more endearing as cash was involved.On arriving at work I had paid for a coffee and put my cheque book with approximately N$1200 worth of cash back in the outside pocket, without closing it.I placed the bag down to speak to some colleagues, at the time there were many cleaners and security guards around, I had moved away from my bag and back again to let some of them past, and when I sat down at my chair and placed my bag down by my feet I realised the cheque book was gone.As licenses and other items which were difficult to replace were inside I notified the personnel manager at the station that I would like the cards back regardless of money, and I would not press charges if someone had stolen something.However, the cheque book was returned with all the cash in tact by the security guards of G4 to the station manager for owner collection.I retrieved the item approximately 30 minutes later.These are just two instances of honesty displayed by our Namibian people that I wanted to share.I have seen many more that demonstrate the caring attitude of our people, and hope we can stop criticising and look forward to the years after independence as positive ones with hope for the future.Danielle Bruckert WindhoekWhat happened to me recently contradicted this general impression of the crime in Africa, and I thought was astounding because the persons concerned probably needed the money much more than I did.The first experience was when I left my cell phone at the counter at Trade Centre in Kleine Kuppe.I left for an appointment in the same area.When my colleague arrived, she said to me ‘By the way, so you know, your phone is at Trade Centre, I phoned you and they asked if I knew whose phone it was, so that I could let you know.”It turned out the checkout assistant had answered the phone when it rang, then handed it in to the manager.Needless to say the manager was very proud of his staff member, as was I.The second experience was even more endearing as cash was involved.On arriving at work I had paid for a coffee and put my cheque book with approximately N$1200 worth of cash back in the outside pocket, without closing it.I placed the bag down to speak to some colleagues, at the time there were many cleaners and security guards around, I had moved away from my bag and back again to let some of them past, and when I sat down at my chair and placed my bag down by my feet I realised the cheque book was gone.As licenses and other items which were difficult to replace were inside I notified the personnel manager at the station that I would like the cards back regardless of money, and I would not press charges if someone had stolen something.However, the cheque book was returned with all the cash in tact by the security guards of G4 to the station manager for owner collection.I retrieved the item approximately 30 minutes later.These are just two instances of honesty displayed by our Namibian people that I wanted to share.I have seen many more that demonstrate the caring attitude of our people, and hope we can stop criticising and look forward to the years after independence as positive ones with hope for the future.Danielle Bruckert Windhoek