SMSes for Wed 22 Apr 09

* IT is criminal that nothing has been done to recover the oil from the wrecked Meob Bay trawler. If our environmentalists had been on the ball, our birds would not be fighting for their lives.     
 * THE ACC is doing a great job. Don’t be discouraged ACC, dig them out and bring them to book.

* IT is criminal that nothing has been done to recover the oil from the wrecked Meob Bay trawler. If our environmentalists had been on the ball, our birds would not be fighting for their lives.
* THE ACC is doing a great job. Don’t be discouraged ACC, dig them out and bring them to book. Never did I read or hear of the ACC saying that the arrested person is guilty or not guilty. ACC don’t be moved. – S

Food For Thought
* WHEN a controversial statement is made by a Swapo member, it’s freedom of speech, while by the opposition, it is insulting of the leaders. Who is fooling who now?
* I REALLY think that the Public Service Commission should consider the proposal one reader made in last week’s papers about the working hours being reviewed during winter to allow workers to get home in daylight. Some of us have transport, but others are footing in the dark just to be accosted by some crazy lunatics. – Chacklas

Bouquets And Brickbats
* TO our President: You are a great leader, keep up the good work.
* ALL thanks to NBC for Talk of the Nation [on Monday]. It was quite educative and I would propose that programmes of this nature be organised often and the time be extended, because I think the majority of this nation are interested in affairs of this country, particularly politics. It was self evident that there was a lot of questioning and answering, but I can conclude by saying that most questions were not answered and this means that the programme’s aims and objectives were not met. -Peace watchdog
* THE Namibian team, 1) thank you for your immense heroic contribution to nation building on various areas of information, communication and education but most importantly on your principle of upholding democracy by providing platforms through which we exercise a right of (what you proudly say and do) ‘Telling it like it is’! Your Soccer Cup exposes talent thus unlocking potential from every inch of our vast country. You indeed are heroes! 2) Could you perhaps consider a little space in your newspaper for general short questions and answers (facts)? There are a number of facts we need to get acquainted with or put a cross. Thanks. – Can you please send us an example of what you have in mind, so that we can assess it? Thanks. – News Editor
* I VISITED the water recycling plant up to the last stage. Is it morally right that we the residents of the City of Windhoek are drinking recycled sewage water? Can we really trust these so-called state of the art purifying machines? Are there any long-term side effects? – Technocrats – We have all been drinking it for decades without noticeable side effects after Windhoek became the first city in the world to reclaim domestic sewage for drinking water. The first potable re-use water plant was reported to have been introduced in the late 1950s. – Newsdesk
* WELL done Ugly Creatures! Thanks for regrouping. Stay pure with your original music (instrumentas). See you at W K Rover Hall in future. – Crockett.
* THE Ndeshi & Jakes cartoon on April 20 was in quite poor taste. Why refer to a religious grouping i.e. Jehova’s Witnesses instead of missionaries? Would have served same purpose and prevented bad feelings. – Andrew Meyer – Point well made. Thank you. – News Editor

Politics
* AFTER President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s unifying speech during the Swapo 49th birthday, calling for unity of purpose, praising all heroes and heroines, and that, ‘we should not allow provocative acts that lead to injuries and bloodshed to bring our elections credibility into question’, Armas Amukwiyu, Oshikoto Swapo Party Co-ordinator, grabbed a microphone from Mr Jerry Ekandjo, and sang, ‘Hidipo we have seen you being enticed by America to sell your country away. Nyamu being enticed by Britain…. We believe in Sam, power to Nujoma’. After President Pohamba left, Ekandjo sang, ‘Sam where are you? Raise the Namibian flag! We are now holding Ben Ulenga by the tail. We are removing Hidipo’s tail. We are also holding diminutive Nyamu by the tail.’ These two agents provocateurs have not only rejected the President’s call but spoiled our day. They are anti-democrats! Shame on them.
* DID the Swapo Party pay the City of Windhoek for the use of municipal buses on Sunday, April 19, or is it another traditional affair?
* WHEN Founding President Sam Nujoma addressed a big rally on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of Swapo I had honestly hoped he would echo President Pohamba’s repeated calls for peaceful elections. I was utterly disappointed but not totally surprised. Mr Nujoma remains frozen in the past, still holding ‘the Boers’ responsible for our own failings. For whatever this is worth, I appeal to Mr Nujoma, as a statesman to join in educating the public, particularly Swapo members about the democratic values of tolerance and peaceful contestation of ideas. When Mr Nujoma condemns violence and calls for respect by all of the rule of law, that will be a great day for Namibian democracy.
* BUILDING an office for a retired former president in Oshiwambo can be likened to ‘to tekele efidi yoo oimeno tai fi omutenya’, meaning ‘watering a dry tree stump while seedlings are wilting’. Come on dear Africans in Namibia! Stop these rotten tendencies and remember that true heroes do not celebrate poverty.

Accountability
* HONOURABLE Minister of Justice! It seems you fail to understand the Constitution! Nobody is guilty until proven guilty by a court of law, it’s true. But if a person is being investigated, based on allegations, we the public would like to know who is being investigated and why? I see there is nothing wrong for ACC to publish the name of the accused person! ACC we will salute you!!
* CONGRATULATIONS Ms (Pendukeni) Ithana. Nobody is above the law. Please tell the nation what happened to the old lady’s goats.
* SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Denmark! Why does (Justice Minister Pendukeni) Ithana target the ACC? Is it because almost all the cases under investigation involve Swapo members?

Children Of The Struggle
* NTELAMO, your whole Friday letter makes sense. What about those who stayed and kept the home fires burning? In spite of difficulties learnt a trade or other useful occupation. How were these (struggle) children brought into the country and not registered?

Running The Show
* HON Rosalia Nghidinwa, where are you? Things are going wrong again at Home Affairs. The passports department needs your attention. The waiting period for Namibian passports is now three to four months from 10 days. Green birth certificates are no longer issued instead they now only issue an A4 size simple paper called confirmation of birth, and telephones are not being answered after switchboard transfer. One can call for the whole month before someone picks up the phone. Please Honourable Minister, make a turn at Home Affairs, your people are sleeping again. Do what you do best, like when you introduced a waiting period for both IDs and passports previously. I know you can do it. We are suffering at the hands of your staff. Please intervene. – Concerned Namibian
* WHILE The Namibian SMSers are on the topic of Home Affairs, can anyone investigate why the committee approving Permanent Residence applications has not met for almost two years?
* MY dear madame Finance Minister: Thank you for the salary hike, but I am confused. Are there not categories for the taxpayers? I am supposed to be taxed 27% according to my scale. I usually pay tax of N$708.19, now it jumps to N$1128,58. Please tell me, maybe I am stupid. Will it go down? Please editor, tell me. – Concerned teacher

General
* ARE we all so much blinded by the one-off good deed by City Police because it ended up in the streets (the recent robbery) and everybody could see what they did. What about the so many irregularities that have been going on since the start of the City Police force and, since we the members of public can’t do a thing though we pay their salaries, let the relevant authorities open their eyes.

Labour Issues
* HOPE your newspaper is the newspaper the voiceless. People at (name supplied), Kamanjab area, have been robbed of Social Security Commission benefits for years. They were registered ‘only’ on 18 February 2009, including those already in service from five to 20 years. Please SSC, Labour Office and ACC follow up this matter urgently. – Good Samaritan
* CAN the Ministry of Education please give us payslips that are sealed, because some colleagues are discussing our salaries. It will be highly appreciated. – MOE employee
* AN SMS was published in The Namibian some time ago about management problems at the NQA, whereby the NQA Council was asked to intervene. The Council agreed that a staff climate survey be conducted and the interviews are currently being conducted with the current staff and those who left. However the NQA Council Chairman came yesterday afternoon and threatened that he will use his connections to reveal the identity of those people who are sending those SMSes. He further said that some people at MTC may reveal that. This is not only a threat, but such information will not be permissible in a court of law (as it is immoral) and it can affect the MTC negatively. The meeting we had can pre-empt the outcome of the investigation, therefore we feel the meeting could have waited as the process is still ongoing. Let us all wait for the results and outcome of the investigation. As for privacy and sending SMSes to The Namibian, I am confident that the Constitution protects my rights to privacy and freedom of speech/expression. Let us not forget that the NQA is fully funded by the public.

Service Please
* IUM. I completed my BBA degree last year. Why do some students receive their qualifications while some not? I’m tired of poor service at the exam office. – P Hifile
* AIR Namibia please change your service on time. We were supposed to fly at 11h30. Until 16h00 nothing was going on. Please tell us what’s going on here at Eros airport.
* TRANSNAMIB is becoming worse. The train from Walvis Bay to Windhoek departs much later than the scheduled time. We travel without electricity and water so the toilet stinks. Lastly the locomotive broke 2 km outside the Windhoek station and we had to wait for two hours for another locomotive. The government officials signing deals with the Chinese don’t travel with these locomotives and feel what we feel. Stop with these Chinese deals.

In And From the Regions
* CAN the Kamanjab Village Council please build toilets for us at the service station when passing to Palmwag.
* OUTAPI Town Council, you created a mess by trying to level the streets with a grader. Now all the streets are terribly dusty. How about sprinkling some water? Otherwise this is another shantytown.
* COUNCIL of Okongo please do something about those potholes at the gate of Oshela before it’s too late, or who must do that job? Those potholes can cause accidents any time. – Williez, Ondalulilwa

Sporting
* NFA Presidency, I’m one of those from the regions who is not in good standing with the current NFA president Mr John Muinjo simply because he thinks Namibian football is only about NPL teams. We need someone who can develop from grassroots level the second and first divisions. We also need monthly grants like the NPL teams. I hope the next president will look into this matter. We are tired of being neglected.