Ministry told not to meddle in Trade Fair preparations

THE Ministry of Trade and Industry has been told to stop interfering in the preparations of businesses taking part in the Ondjiva Trade Fair that started yesterday in southern Angola.

It is the second year in which small and medium businesses from Namibia are participating. Last year, participants organised themselves without the direct assistance of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.However when an invitation came from Angola 10 days ago, Ben Hango, who heads the Ministry’s Office in the North, said his office would manage the preparations this year.When the exhibitors, many of them women, arrived at the Oshikango border post on Friday, they were stunned to be told by Namibian Immigration Officials that they did not have the necessary documentation to cross the border.When contacted for clarification, Hango also told them to return to Ongwediva and Oshakati for ‘other arrangements’.On their arrival at Ongwediva on Friday afternoon, they learnt to their dismay that Hango was attending the memorial service of a relative and that he would only be back in his office today.The businesses managed to organise an emergency meeting with the Acting Chairman of the Northern Chamber of Commerce and Industry Joseph Endjala on Saturday.They told Endjala to instruct Hango to withdraw from the preparations.They claimed that the Ministry was “cheating them” and that it was something they could not tolerate.”We thought the Ministry will do things better than we did alone last year, but this is a shame from the Ministry to cheat us and to treat us like this.Hango and his officials have to pull out immediately, and we will organise ourselves with our Chamber and go as we did last year,” they said.According to them, Ben Hauwanga, the owner of BH Businesses, successfully assisted them last year.”We want Hauwanga again to be in the forefront, not Mr Hango from the Ministry of Trade, because he has already failed at the very beginning,” they said.Endjala agreed, and said that he would ask the Ministry of Trade and Industry to withdraw.Last year, participants organised themselves without the direct assistance of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.However when an invitation came from Angola 10 days ago, Ben Hango, who heads the Ministry’s Office in the North, said his office would manage the preparations this year.When the exhibitors, many of them women, arrived at the Oshikango border post on Friday, they were stunned to be told by Namibian Immigration Officials that they did not have the necessary documentation to cross the border.When contacted for clarification, Hango also told them to return to Ongwediva and Oshakati for ‘other arrangements’.On their arrival at Ongwediva on Friday afternoon, they learnt to their dismay that Hango was attending the memorial service of a relative and that he would only be back in his office today.The businesses managed to organise an emergency meeting with the Acting Chairman of the Northern Chamber of Commerce and Industry Joseph Endjala on Saturday.They told Endjala to instruct Hango to withdraw from the preparations.They claimed that the Ministry was “cheating them” and that it was something they could not tolerate.”We thought the Ministry will do things better than we did alone last year, but this is a shame from the Ministry to cheat us and to treat us like this.Hango and his officials have to pull out immediately, and we will organise ourselves with our Chamber and go as we did last year,” they said.According to them, Ben Hauwanga, the owner of BH Businesses, successfully assisted them last year.”We want Hauwanga again to be in the forefront, not Mr Hango from the Ministry of Trade, because he has already failed at the very beginning,” they said.Endjala agreed, and said that he would ask the Ministry of Trade and Industry to withdraw.