SMSes for Fri 23 Jan 09

* THIS year should be different from 2008, the Namibian people don’t want to hear politicians attack each other – we want to hear how the politicians are going to attack the challenges facing middle-class families of the teachers, nurses, Police officers and soldiers as well as clerks and the poor at the bottom of the ladder.

* THIS year should be different from 2008, the Namibian people don’t want to hear politicians attack each other – we want to hear how the politicians are going to attack the challenges facing middle-class families of the teachers, nurses, Police officers and soldiers as well as clerks and the poor at the bottom of the ladder. People want to know how the Government will provide medical care to all, take education out of the current mess, attract investors and create jobs, provide better housing to all and give hope to all.
– Kashiindule

Food For Thought
* CELLPHONE theft is increasing on a daily basis. MTC and Cell One should work together to set up a tracing unit within the Police so that the culprits be brought to book.

* I’M sure everyone is aware of the economic crisis developed countries globally are facing. I therefore urge economists in Namibia to give the necessary advice to the nation to prevent such a crisis in our country.
– TI Enkono

Salary Debate
* MR President (Hifikepunye Pohamba), before you approved the 24% salary increase for ministers and their deputies, did you check the salaries of your soldiers? Being the Commander in Chief, really Mr President your Government is colonising the soldiers when it comes to the salaries and this leads to many soldiers resigning, leaving the Defence Force to look for green pastures elsewhere. Go to the cash loan (businesses), 99% of those people are soldiers borrowing money to satisfy their needs. Mr President can you tell the nation that why the salaries of the top earners in your Government have been increased by 24% while you have soldiers surviving on cash loans?

* I AM a concerned teacher as ministers are getting a huge salary increase while the Ministry of Finance has started deducting money from us claiming that most teachers were overpaid. What a joke!

* THE Swapo Government decided to increase the salaries of the ministers with 24 per cent forgetting us the civil servants such us teachers who voted you to power. Please our dear leaders don’t lose the trust we have invested in you.
– Full Swapo member

Bouquets And Brickbats
* NATIONAL Youth Service and the GRN must make sure that those people who are helping in GRN hospitals are provided with jobs. They are doing a great job for the nation.

* NBC please can you repeat the report on the Kamholo family. A big thank you to Anna Nikodemus.

* I WOULD like to say thank you to MTC. We were without network for three days from Doreen tower and decided to call about the problem. After two hours we had signals. Well done MTC.

Man Of The Moment
* NELSON Mandela is the first black president of South Africa. Barack Obama you are the first black president of the United States. Mandela overhauled South Africa and it became a peace-loving nation. Obama, we are looking to you to do the same. The world yearns for peace and development. There is no need for wars as wars bring about nothing good but only destruction.
– PK, Oikango, Ongwediva

* YES. (President Barack) Obama is black. Not because of what he did achieve, but because of what his skin colour is. Pre and post Namibia’s independence I have not heard of a half black or half white. Skin colour does not come from within. Lest we forget. Eish!
– Pro Afro

* TO the SMS writer who asked why we refer to Obama as black rather than what he (author) wouldn’t divulge. I take it he insinuated ‘Coloured’. Unfortunately the American ‘race classification’ system unlike the Apartheid one has no such ‘class’. They have Blacks (whom they incidentally call people of colour), Hispanics and Whites. If you are not purely white then you are black – see Collin Powell. It is not us calling him black, it is what they call themselves.

* SWAPO must take a good example from President Obama’s inauguration speech. He didn’t talk about Democratic or Republican Government but about American people. Swapo talk about Namibian people not Swapo Government.

Please Help
* FELLOW Namibians please let’s be very kind and help needy people like Naftali Pontu! Our politicians are blinded by politics I wish one day we will be lead by people with community interests at heart!
– Visuko

Mark Of Respect
* THE family of the late Cde (Moses) //Garoëb should look after his grave. l understand he had two wives and children and they have to be responsible for the upkeep of their father/husband’s grave. lt is not a Damara or Swapo issue as some people want it to be.

* AFTER his contribution to our country and Swapo I think he (Moses //Garoëb) deserves better. Exhume his remains and take them to Heroes’ Acre. He was a hero to us and Namibia as a whole.
– Rhonie Rhuuksie #|#|Garoeb, Mariental

* WHAT Swapo should think of is to erect uniform monuments/tombstones for all fallen heroes who are not buried at Heroes’ Acre. This way the nation can recognise and remember the graves.

General
* GO to church not to be entertained but go to honour God.

* DEAR editor whatever happened to The Weekender, we want to know.
– Honey B
– It appears again today after the holiday break. – News Desk

Politics
* MY fellow Namibians, let’s make ourselves free instead of complaining every day. The ball is in our hands to go for the change in our beautiful Namibia. We have been talking for many years now but because our leaders are selfish they ignore the poor of this country. Our leaders of today don’t care about us and we can stop this by making a change like the Americans are doing. Let us put other leaders in office and see if they perform better. And if they perform like those in office now then we change again and so on. Let’s make a big change before it is too late.

* ‘TELLING it like it is’. When listening to the general public talking about Namibia’s political leaders, be it from left or right, you hear hostile words being spoken. When you read the local print media, you read discrediting phrases. When you tune in to the electronic media (NBC Radio/TV in particular), your hear negative statements being levelled against our political leaders. More so against our Swapo leaders. The question is: Why? Is it because of the achievement they attained so far or is it because most of them are national leaders and or Ministers? Namibians be warned: ‘Don’t trouble trouble until it troubles you’.

* MR (Nangolo) Mbumba is a politician full time and to say he should leave politics to politicians is wrong. For your information all ministers are full time politicians.

* SWAPO campaign strategies in the Government’s Cabinet chamber? This is abuse of power of the highest order. Comrade President (Hifikepunye Pohamba) and your team please differentiate between Government and the party.
– Ndaloloka

* MY humble request goes to President Pohamba, Jerry Ekandjo and other leaders of the Swapo Party and its subsidiaries. When you address the Namibian nation, do not tarnish the image of our town or scare away potential investors. Please get your facts right. The story was on page 7.
– Henry Sabatta

* TAX has always been a sensitive subject. If everyone registered for tax, the liability on each individual would be less as more people contributed to government revenue. To encourage people to register, I suggest that only registered taxpayers be allowed to vote. Let everyone earn their right to vote, equally.

Labour Issues
* MUN and NUNW want the GRN to bail out mines? The call smacks of a lack of knowledge in economics of supply and demand, which doesn’t matter whether you are a union concern or not. I support the part to nationalise mines, not for the benefit of the incompetent and politically charged NUNW and affiliates, but for the benefit of a welfare system, which includes unemployment benefits. Don’t exclude the local
and foreign private sector, they have the skills and the money to take part in such a partnership with. NUNW and affiliates don’t know what they stand for, is it employees’ rights, business or Swapo politics? What happened to union investments that were supposed to assist retrenched mineworkers as they did during Peter Naholo’s reign?

Education
* I TOTALLY support the advice that parents from rural areas should stop sending their children to Katutura schools! They are the poorest in performance in whole country!

* THE Ministry of Education’s ruling that learners within a 5 km radius should not be accommodated in hostels to give space to the learners that come from distant places is not observed here at Haimbili Haufiku SSS because many learners that are occupying hostel places are children of parents with houses in Eenhana town. Can the regional director investigate?

* PLEASE allow me to ask the Examination Department at the Polytechnic of Namibia – why should learners who receive their exam result through the post office be charged extra if they failed to post our results?

Traffic Talk
* CAN someone do something about the speeding municipal buses along Otjomuise Road. Be at the crossing with Beijing Street between 06h30 and 07h30 and see for yourself.

* NO red lights in Windhoek? In three days I have seen more than seven cars go through red lights, some in full view of traffic officials who did not even respond!

* WINDHOEK taxi drivers, please don’t turn right at a robot or stop street when you are in a left lane! City Police, please fine them heavily, they endanger our lives.

* TRAFFIC Department, please do something at the ‘N$5 Taxi Rank’ along Otjomuise road near the junction with Monte Christo road, just before the four-way stop. Thanks.

In And From The Regions
* I’M very concerned about the behaviour of some civil servants. If you enter their offices and greet them you regret you opened your mouth. Here in Otjiwarongo it is a common thing. Please change your behaviour people, you are working for the public!

* SPPED BUMPS please for Westerkim suburb in Karasburg. It is not a racetrack.

* DEAR editor we are the community of Odimbwa Village, Oshimengula location. Can you ask the Minister of Mines and Energy why we are being discriminated against when it comes to electricity supply. They provided Okambebe and jumped us and gave Onheleiwa. Are we not important like others?

* I AM very worried about my water account with Oshikoto Regional Council. lt has been now three months without receiving my bill. When l enquire I am always told that the fault is with the head office at Omuthiya. Who is responsible for the mess as since March there have been many mistakes and delays with our accounts. The governor should look into this issue as we might be unable to pay the accumulated money.

Service Please
* MINISTRY of Home Affairs in the Northern Industrial Area. We students need our full birth certificates in order to get our loans. It has been months now. How long should we wait? Please start doing your job.

* STANDARD Bank, please improve your card division services. If one calls the call is received by an answering machine and tells the caller to hold for the next consultant. The caller is kept holding longer and longer without being attended to by the promised consultant. I called a landline number 061-2942136 which was never answered and it is expensive to cal from a mobile phone apart from being frustrated.

ACC Alert
* I WOULD like to request the ACC to launch an investigation into the financial issues of the Oshikoto Regional Council. There was money stolen last year. Now there are rumours of an account being opened. A senior official wanted to bring in external auditors but the move was blocked.