Opposition fires off battery of questions

THE National Assembly yesterday resumed its last session for the year, with opposition MPs ready with questions and motions.

DTA Vice President Philemon Moongo wants to know from Foreign Affairs Minister Marco Hausiku if there had ever been a agreement on compensation for former combatants of the Peoples’ Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan), causing rumblings among the ruling party benches. Another DTA member, McHenry Venaani, asked Defence Minister Erkki Nghimtina whether it was true that the Ministry’s Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik (WMF) factory had sold some of the military vehicles it manufactured to the government of Iraq.Venaani also wants to know the exact number of ‘Werewolf’ armoured vehicles exported.The Minister is expected to reply to these questions on Thursday.Nora Schimming-Chase of the Congress of Democrats (CoD) asked Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to explain why there are no portraits of President Hifikepunye Pohamba “in quite a number of Government offices 18 months after he became Head of State”.Schimming-Chase said in many Government offices only portraits of the former Head of State, Sam Nujoma, were displayed.”This state of affairs will send wrong signals not only to the nation but to foreigners as well,” the CoD member said.”If it is not possible, for reasons unknown to us, to display pictures of President Pohamba in all Government buildings, would it not be better not to display any pictures at all until such time as pictures of the incumbent President are available?” Schimming-Chase asked.The president of the Nudo party, Chief Kuaima Riruako, gave notice that he will table a motion on Thursday asking the National Assembly to discuss the “genocide of 1904 to 1907 against the Ovaherero and to support our reparation demands”.Riruako and 80 other members of the Ovaherero Reparations Corporation filed a US$4 billion lawsuit against the German government and some German companies five years ago.However, Chief Riruako said recently that his people were no longer interested in cash payments, but rather in development projects for their communities.Another member of the Congress of Democrats, Tsudao Gurirab, will table a motion on the “deplorable state of local authorities and village councils”.For his part, the President of the DTA, Katuutire Kaura, wants the House to debate the possibility of providing coffins to impoverished San communities and arranging transport for their dead so that they can be buried in their rural areas.Another DTA member, McHenry Venaani, asked Defence Minister Erkki Nghimtina whether it was true that the Ministry’s Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik (WMF) factory had sold some of the military vehicles it manufactured to the government of Iraq.Venaani also wants to know the exact number of ‘Werewolf’ armoured vehicles exported.The Minister is expected to reply to these questions on Thursday.Nora Schimming-Chase of the Congress of Democrats (CoD) asked Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to explain why there are no portraits of President Hifikepunye Pohamba “in quite a number of Government offices 18 months after he became Head of State”.Schimming-Chase said in many Government offices only portraits of the former Head of State, Sam Nujoma, were displayed.”This state of affairs will send wrong signals not only to the nation but to foreigners as well,” the CoD member said.”If it is not possible, for reasons unknown to us, to display pictures of President Pohamba in all Government buildings, would it not be better not to display any pictures at all until such time as pictures of the incumbent President are available?” Schimming-Chase asked.The president of the Nudo party, Chief Kuaima Riruako, gave notice that he will table a motion on Thursday asking the National Assembly to discuss the “genocide of 1904 to 1907 against the Ovaherero and to support our reparation demands”.Riruako and 80 other members of the Ovaherero Reparations Corporation filed a US$4 billion lawsuit against the German government and some German companies five years ago.However, Chief Riruako said recently that his people were no longer interested in cash payments, but rather in development projects for their communities.Another member of the Congress of Democrats, Tsudao Gurirab, will table a motion on the “deplorable state of local authorities and village councils”.For his part, the President of the DTA, Katuutire Kaura, wants the House to debate the possibility of providing coffins to impoverished San communities and arranging transport for their dead so that they can be buried in their rural areas.