SMSes of the Day : Tuesday

* THE parliamentary debates are degenerating. There are too many issues that need leaders of this country to discuss and address rather than making jokes in such an important forum. Can MPs just be more serious and resolve real matters instead of joking around and attacking each other. This nation has real issues that need real answers. – SN

* ACC are you aware how residents in the area of the Ongandjera Traditional Authority are exploited? When it comes to registering our mahangu fields, which in actual fact costs 25 dollars, we end up paying N$77. This charge, we are told, goes towards ink and the stamp the writer uses. Others say it goes to the king’s chairs as well as corrugated iron for his huts again. It seems the traditional authority still colonises the residents. If you are not a friend or relative of one of the headman or you do not have money to bribe them sure that you will not win a case. Food for thought* THE Government of Namibia and Unam stun me. You have a northern campus of Unam at Oshakati and a few kilometres away you find the Faculty of Engineering at Ongwediva. What do you think of the South, its time that the people of the South get rid of these regionalists? How many students of the South can afford to go to the North?* WITH the formation of RDP, Swapo is now opening all the closed communal water points. Does this mean there is money to give water to the poor now or is it just pressure from the RDP?* WHY can’t the case of those who wanted to secede Caprivi be treated as a political issue in a court of law? We are losing our family members while in prison. How many does the Government wish to die before the case is finalised? Should the relatives of those people rotting in jail remain silent in fear? A person is innocent until found guilty by a competent court. Justice delayed is justice denied. May God forgive the wrong party in this case and bless the oppressed. – Caprivi residentPolitics in general* RDP must be welcomed by all progressive and forward-looking Namibians. While the results of RDP’s future contributions still have to be tested, had comrade Hidipo and others not acted, there would have been no future other than another Zimbabwe for the next generation! It is a national shame that a prosperous nation can afford to build a state-of-the-art State House, but allow much-needed health facilities to degenerate to an extend where the PS now acknowledges on national TV that it will be more cost effective to build new health facilities than upgrading the existing ones due to the neglect of the last 17 years!* FELLOW Namibians, 17 years of independence is not a joke. Let us stop only praising returnees because without those who remained home nothing could have been achieved. We all contributed equally to this country’s independence. Thank you!* LET’S forget the song: “When we were in exile….” People in the country are going hungry. We want drastic changes. Teachers, mobilise the learners and vote for your future. We are tired of being treated as second-class citizens, because we don’t possess exile qualifications. Police officers, teachers, and soldiers are neglected by the government of the day. The Veterans Bill now passed by the National Assembly totally nullified reconciliation.* I’M a Unam student who would like to answer another Unam student who SMSed last Friday calling on Unam students to join RDP. We have been helped by this Government in many academic aspects and it is still helping us. What did RDP do for us? How can you believe words rather than action? We will remain with Swapo Party which is striving for success. We don’t want to start all over again rather to strengthen the party.- V. Shigwedha* BEING a Swapo member, I’m advising SPYL’s politically immature and young leaders to have their press comments edited by a mature Swapo politician before making public statements.* I WHOLEHEARTEDLY congratulate RDP’s interim leadership for showing a sign of political maturity and high moral ground at its rally at Independence Arena in Windhoek. It is always challenging to control such strong and jovial crowd of around 3 000 supporters, which is comparable to the 1989 first rally of Swapo. At the Saturday meeting there was no foul language, downing political parties, finger-wagging, threats or intimidation, malicious propaganda and uneasiness. I hope there will be no idolatry in this party. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Make a difference comrades in RDP.* MR HH you were also in Parliament for 17 years, but you didn’t mention the weak education or burning the poverty question- why? Were you sleeping in the Cabinet? If not why didn’t you mention all these, you only came out with them last week. If Swapo has failed you have also failed. Let Swapo to rule because it brought us peace.* Swapo is trying to score cheap political points by badmouthing RDP and its leaders. Viva RDP! Swapo will never get a two-thirds majority again!* HH: CONGRATULATIONS my brother for launching your own party. At least you are a president of your own party. But remember your advice to Ben Ulenga when he left Swapo. Your words were it could be quite lonely outside Swapo. – HTV* WOW, the turnout at the RDP rally! How the youth packed the arena is a clear indication that we are the most affected. We are the ones not allowed to repeat Grade 10. We are the one going to the UK because of unemployment. We are tired. Viva RDP for youth progress.* RDP is not a solution to our problems. They all start off with fake promises. The only solution is for that so-called class of 1990 to retire and give others a chance to rule. – Mamy, Windhoek* CAN Bob Kandetu tell us that if the political trend and future of our country is not of the public interest then what is? Gardener’s Daughter?* BOB Kandetu do you want to tell the nation that only Swapo members are paying for TV licences? Why did you cancel the live broadcast for the RDP launch? Does this tell us that you are a political appointee? * HH, congratulations on the bold move you have made. This decision will go down in the history of Namibian politics as the birth of a true democracy. We as a people share your vision. Well done.* IF the diehard Swapo supporters feel so strongly about RDP being another CoD heading nowhere but to a downfall, why don’t they relax and wait for RDP’s downfall? * IT is time for us Namibians to learn something. Our leaders always don’t want to admit their mistakes or they are unproductive. When they are fired then they opt for change. Why? We must wake up, why do we have to follow losers? You are fired because of incompetence or not showing vision, yet you want to convince people otherwise. You fail to make progress under someone’s supervision what will happen when you are on your own. This group has let loyal Namibians down and will do it again when given a chance. Let’s not support people who are hungry for power. Why didn’t they start a new party when they where in good terms with Swapo? – Hollie, Oshakati* SOME people are asking about the change Hidipo and Nyamu brought while in Swapo. Is it not change they were advocating when they fell victims of a dictatorship?* THE birth of the RDP should serve as a wake-up call for Swapo. It should (Swapo) reflect on, inter alia, the education system, unemployment, water crisis, liquor licences and laws negatively affecting the masses. Unless you shape up your survival will be under threat.* HH: YOU had a turbulent four years under Swapo. Now that you have build your own house, nobody must try to take that away. I only saw your political programme in English – please print in all languages, the masses need to know what the RDP stands for. We the youth are fully behind you till the glorious end. – Osho* Swapo members and supporters let’s unite and stand as one. Nujoma and Pohamba has united us to remain a united nation Let us ignore those who cause division, they are power hungry and most of them are those who pretend to bring about changes. What changes are they going to bring they are just after power. Swapo will remain firm. – Matondo ya Matupa* HH: YES he was part of the Government as JTJ says in his SMS, but he failed in his research to point out who the author of the National Anthem is, the Information Policy, thousands of Namibians working at Ramatex today, the National Broadcaster etc. Let’s concentrate on building our country and let’s give credit to HH for what he did. NB I’m not a member of RPD.* THE Swapo MPs are behaving childishly in Parliament. What example are they setting for the youth – please grow up. The Swapo members are saying they are not threatened by RDP but their actions are contradicting that. Why do they care about the list of names if they have got nothing to worry about?* LET’S hope that RDP will not only be for a certain group of Namibians like Swapo. We want to see all Namibians represented!* VIVA NPP we are ready to vote for you. Our region Kavango is neglected by Swapo.From the regions* NORED is giving a pathetic and lacklustre service to its customers in Oshikango, Omafo, Engela, Ohangwena and Onhuno. Every time it rains we experience frequent power failures and this trend has been continuing for many years now. This issue had been raised many times with the authorities, but there seems to be no solution in sight. Seemingly our cry always fall on deaf ears, we want the CEO of Nored to be pro-active, business minded, improve and to take customer service seriously without delay. As consumers paying for the services we demand that old and overloaded electrical equipment be replaced with new. For your information we have heaps of electrical appliances junk like damaged TVs, DVDs, decoders, hi-fis, tills etc. due to unannounced or sudden power failures. Lastly Nored must urgently take drastic steps to improve its response time on emergency power failures, as the power often is off for many hours before being restored. – Disgruntled residents, Helao Nafidi* WE the residents of Onkumbla in Okankolo constituency would like the Government to provide us with the long-awaited electricity. The Government should provide Onkumbulu clinic with an ambulance, which should be on permanent stand-by, instead of calling Onandjokwe hospital to come pick up patients. This will prevent deaths, because Onandjokwe is very far from Onkumbula. We need also a gravel road that will be from Onkumbula passing all villages going into Okongo. We are tired to foot in the sand walking long distances when going to school, clinics or pension payout points. Our Councillor does not care about the plight of his people. Mr Joseph Imbili, please work hard and care about the voters.* CAN someone please help us we are dying of thirst at Oshali village in Omulonga constituency in the Ohangwena Region. Ms KUFU open the pipeline.Education* DOES the Ministry of Education inspect schools to ensure that children in primary school are indeed learning anything? Children in Grade 1 to 7 in the north cannot read or write English and this is the reason why the performance at higher levels is poor. – NP, Omuntele* WHY is the Ministry of Education employing people with Grade 12 as teachers, while at the same time rejecting teachers who underwent training in Zimbabwe? We are still on the streets, why can’t the Ministry just deploy us?* WE teacher graduates from Zimbabwe are always called to interviews but are not appointed. We have the suspicion that the vacancies for which we are interviewed are reserved only for the relatives of those in management.* THE Namibian Government is to build a primary school in Lubango in Angola, while teachers in Namibia are expected to make miracles by using one textbook for forty learners.* A FOUR-year Bachelor Degree holder in Accounting or HR field employed by this Government of ours earns N$3 796 basic salary, while a BETD teacher gets an entry salary of N$5 055. Does it make sense? Don’t even talk about a B-Ed teacher, they earn N$7 420 per month. The Government must reconsider the salaries of their accountants and human resources practitioners, otherwise this will promote corruption.* RUNDU College of Education is full of corruption. I’m a third-year student who is a day student. RCE does not want to refund us our money for the hostel, and we are almost closing. I would be surprised if day students do not get their refunds. They have been doing this for many years now.* I’M infuriated with the ministry of Basic Education, because the Grade 12 exams were very difficult. It seems like they wanted to prove that they are better than Cambridge. Namibian syllabus is too tough!* LET me comment on the Grade 10 Nov/Dec exam this year which was set up in our country. To me it was not an exam. It resembled more a Grade 7 test. You people are cheating on our future generation with your so-called new system. If you look at the subjects like English and social science subjects such as geography and commerce, they were nothing else but spoonfeeding the learners. We need exams that can make our kids think, not this one of no quality.General* CAN the public service please rescue the qualified Public Servants from the man in uniform in the Ministry of Defence. The Public Service Commission recently regraded their structures i.e, Personnel Officer to HR Practitioner, but the uniform members in this Ministry are just placed in those positions regardless of their qualifications and in this case many are not qualified. There are many soldiers with the same qualifications as required, but they are just there at the Units deprived to go up the ladder, because of envy by the seniors. Yes it is true there is competition in the market but please do the right thing, let them eat the fruit of their efforts. The former and current Presidents are encouraging the young people to study hard, but only to be discouraged later. This issue was also raised to the top management but was ignored.* MANAGEMENT in the public services stop enriching yourself by travelling too much, claiming unnecessary S & T and treat the lower paid as fools by given them too much work and less salary without an promotion. Stop milking us and do something better for us. Comrade Prime Minister you are so quiet, do something life is very expensive these days.* NO wonder the Police and army are so useless, they cannot even stay within their budget. A sorry state of affairs.* THANKS TO Mr Gertze of CoD AND Mr Tjiriange FOR addressing the tax on pension payouts. 16% is too much. I also agree with the proposal about the loans to be granted from pension savings.Food for thought * THE Government of Namibia and Unam stun me. You have a northern campus of Unam at Oshakati and a few kilometres away you find the Faculty of Engineering at Ongwediva. What do you think of the South, its time that the people of the South get rid of these regionalists? How many students of the South can afford to go to the North? * WITH the formation of RDP, Swapo is now opening all the closed communal water points. Does this mean there is money to give water to the poor now or is it just pressure from the RDP? * WHY can’t the case of those who wanted to secede Caprivi be treated as a political issue in a court of law? We are losing our family members while in prison. How many does the Government wish to die before the case is finalised? Should the relatives of those people rotting in jail remain silent in fear? A person is innocent until found guilty by a competent court. Justice delayed is justice denied. May God forgive the wrong party in this case and bless the oppressed. – Caprivi resident Politics in general * RDP must be welcomed by all progressive and forward-looking Namibians. While the results of RDP’s future contributions still have to be tested, had comrade Hidipo and others not acted, there would have been no future other than another Zimbabwe for the next generation! It is a national shame that a prosperous nation can afford to build a state-of-the-art State House, but allow much-needed health facilities to degenerate to an extend where the PS now acknowledges on national TV that it will be more cost effective to build new health facilities than upgrading the existing ones due to the neglect of the last 17 years! * FELLOW Namibians, 17 years of independence is not a joke. Let us stop only praising returnees because without those who remained home nothing could have been achieved. We all contributed equally to this country’s independence. Thank you! * LET’S forget the song: “When we were in exile….” People in the country are going hungry. We want drastic changes. Teachers, mobilise the learners and vote for your future. We are tired of being treated as second-class citizens, because we don’t possess exile qualifications. Police officers, teachers, and soldiers are neglected by the government of the day. The Veterans Bill now passed by the National Assembly totally nullified reconciliation.* I’M a Unam student who would like to answer another Unam student who SMSed last Friday calling on Unam students to join RDP. We have been helped by this Government in many academic aspects and it is still helping us. What did RDP do for us? How can you believe words rather than action? We will remain with Swapo Party which is striving for success. We don’t want to start all over again rather to strengthen the party.- V. Shigwedha * BEING a Swapo member, I’m advising SPYL’s politically immature and young leaders to have their press comments edited by a mature Swapo politician before making public statements.* I WHOLEHEARTEDLY congratulate RDP’s interim leadership for showing a sign of political maturity and high moral ground at its rally at Independence Arena in Windhoek. It is always challenging to control such strong and jovial crowd of around 3 000 supporters, which is comparable to the 1989 first rally of Swapo. At the Saturday meeting there was no foul language, downing political parties, finger-wagging, threats or intimidation, malicious propaganda and uneasiness. I hope there will be no idolatry in this party. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Make a difference comrades in RDP.* MR HH you were also in Parliament for 17 years, but you didn’t mention the weak education or burning the poverty question- why? Were you sleeping in the Cabinet? If not why didn’t you mention all these, you only came out with them last week. If Swapo has failed you have also failed. Let Swapo to rule because it brought us peace.* Swapo is trying to score cheap political points by badmouthing RDP and its leaders. Viva RDP! Swapo will never get a two-thirds majority again! * HH: CONGRATULATIONS my brother for launching your own party. At least you are a president of your own party. But remember your advice to Ben Ulenga when he left Swapo. Your words were it could be quite lonely outside Swapo. – HTV * WOW, the turnout at the RDP rally! How the youth packed the arena is a clear indication that we are the most affected. We are the ones not allowed to repeat Grade 10. We are the one going to the UK because of unemployment. We are tired. Viva RDP for youth progress.* RDP is not a solution to our problems. They all start off with fake promises. The only solution is for that so-called class of 1990 to retire and give others a chance to rule. – Mamy, Windhoek * CAN Bob Kandetu tell us that if the political trend and future of our country is not of the public interest then what is? Gardener’s Daughter? * BOB Kandetu do you want to tell the nation that only Swapo members are paying for TV licences? Why did you cancel the live broadcast for the RDP launch? Does this tell us that you are a political appointee? * HH, congratulations on the bold move you have made. This decision will go down in the history of Namibian politics as the birth of a true democracy. We as a people share your vision. Well done.* IF the diehard Swapo supporters feel so strongly about RDP being another CoD heading nowhere but to a downfall, why don’t they relax and wait for RDP’s downfall? * IT is time for us Namibians to learn something. Our leaders always don’t want to admit their mistakes or they are unproductive. When they are fired then they opt for change. Why? We must wake up, why do we have to follow losers? You are fired because of incompetence or not showing vision, yet you want to convince people otherwise. You fail to make progress under someone’s supervision what will happen when you are on your own. This group has let loyal Namibians down and will do it again when given a chance. Let’s not support people who are hungry for power. Why didn’t they start a new party when they where in good terms with Swapo? – Hollie, Oshakati * SOME people are asking about the change Hidipo and Nyamu brought while in Swapo. Is it not change they were advocating when they fell victims of a dictatorship? * THE birth of the RDP should serve as a wake-up call for Swapo. It should (Swapo) reflect on, inter alia, the education system, unemployment, water crisis, liquor licences and laws negatively affecting the masses. Unless you shape up your survival will be under threat.* HH: YOU had a turbulent four years under Swapo. Now that you have build your own house, nobody must try to take that away. I only saw your political programme in English – please print in all languages, the masses need to know what the RDP stands for. We the youth are fully behind you till the glorious end. – Osho * Swapo members and supporters let’s unite and stand as one. Nujoma and Pohamba has united us to remain a united nation Let us ignore those who cause division, they are power hungry and most of them are those who pretend to bring about changes. What changes are they going to bring they are just after power. Swapo will remain firm. – Matondo ya Matupa * HH: YES he was part of the Government as JTJ says in his SMS, but he failed in his research to point out who the author of the National Anthem is, the Information Policy, thousands of Namibians working at Ramatex today, the National Broadcaster etc. Let’s concentrate on building our country and let’s give credit to HH for what he did. NB I’m not a member of RPD.* THE Swapo MPs are behaving childishly in Parliament. What example are they setting for the youth – please grow up. The Swapo members are saying they are not threatened by RDP but their actions are contradicting that. Why do they care about the list of names if they have got nothing to worry about? * LET’S hope that RDP will not only be for a certain group of Namibians like Swapo. We want to see all Namibians represented! * VIVA NPP we are ready to vote for you. Our region Kavango is neglected by Swapo.From the regions * NORED is giving a pathetic and lacklustre service to its customers in Oshikango, Omafo, Engela, Ohangwena and Onhuno. Every time it rains we experience frequent power failures and this trend has been continuing for many years now. This issue had been raised many times with the authorities, but there seems to be no solution in sight. Seemingly our cry always fall on deaf ears, we want the CEO of Nored to be pro-active, business minded, improve and to take customer service seriously without delay. As consumers paying for the services we demand that old and overloaded electrical equipment be replaced with new. For your information we have heaps of electrical appliances junk like damaged TVs, DVDs, decoders, hi-fis, tills etc. due to unannounced or sudden power failures. Lastly Nored must urgently take drastic steps to improve its response time on emergency power failures, as the power often is off for many hours before being restored. – Disgruntled residents, Helao Nafidi * WE the residents of Onkumbla in Okankolo constituency would like the Government to provide us with the long-awaited electricity. The Government should provide Onkumbulu clinic with an ambulance, which should be on permanent stand-by, instead of calling Onandjokwe hospital to come pick up patients. This will prevent deaths, because Onandjokwe is very far from Onkumbula. We need also a gravel road that will be from Onkumbula passing all villages going into Okongo. We are tired to foot in the sand walking long distances when going to school, clinics or pension payout points. Our Councillor does not care about the plight of his people. Mr Joseph Imbili, please work hard and care about the voters.* CAN someone please help us we are dying of thirst at Oshali village in Omulonga constituency in the Ohangwena Region. Ms KUFU open the pipeline.Education * DOES the Ministry of Education inspect schools to ensure that children in primary school are indeed learning anything? Children in Grade 1 to 7 in the north cannot read or write English and this is the reason why the performance at higher levels is poor. – NP, Omuntele * WHY is the Ministry of Education employing people with Grade 12 as teachers, while at the same time rejecting teachers who underwent training in Zimbabwe? We are still on the streets, why can’t the Ministry just deploy us? * WE teacher graduates from Zimbabwe are always called to interviews but are not appointed. We have the suspicion that the vacancies for which we are interviewed are reserved only for the relatives of those in management.* THE Namibian Government is to build a primary school in Lubango in Angola, while teachers in Namibia are expected to make miracles by using one textbook for forty learners.* A FOUR-year Bachelor Degree holder in Accounting or HR field employed by this Government of ours earns N$3 796 basic salary, while a BETD teacher gets an entry salary of N$5 055. Does it make sense? Don’t even talk about a B-Ed teacher, they earn N$7 420 per month. The Government must reconsider the salaries of their accountants and human resources practitioners, otherwise this will promote corruption.* RUNDU College of Education is full of corruption. I’m a third-year student who is a day student. RCE does not want to refund us our money for the hostel, and we are almost closing. I would be surprised if day students do not get their refunds. They have been doing this for many years now.* I’M infuriated with the ministry of Basic Education, because the Grade 12 exams were very difficult. It seems like they wanted to prove that they are better than Cambridge. Namibian syllabus is too tough! * LET me comment on the Grade 10 Nov/Dec exam this year which was set up in our country. To me it was not an exam. It resembled more a Grade 7 test. You people are cheating on our future generation with your so-called new system. If you look at the subjects like English and social science subjects such as geography and commerce, they were nothing else but spoonfeeding the learners. We need exams that can make our kids think, not this one of no quality.General * CAN the public service please rescue the qualified Public Servants from the man in uniform in the Ministry of Defence. The Public Service Commission recently regraded their structures i.e, Personnel Officer to HR Practitioner, but the uniform members in this Ministry are just placed in those positions regardless of their qualifications and in this case many are not qualified. There are many soldiers with the same qualifications as required, but they are just there at the Units deprived to go up the ladder, because of envy by the seniors. Yes it is true there is competition in the market but please do the right thing, let them eat the fruit of their efforts. The former and current Presidents are encouraging the young people to study hard, but only to be discouraged later. This issue was also raised to the top management but was ignored.* MANAGEMENT in the public services stop enriching yourself by travelling too much, claiming unnecessary S & T and treat the lower paid as fools by given them too much work and less salary without an promotion. Stop milking us and do something better for us. Comrade Prime Minister you are so quiet, do something life is very expensive these days.* NO wonder the Police and army are so useless, they cannot even stay within their budget. A sorry state of affairs.* THANKS TO Mr Gertze of CoD AND Mr Tjiriange FOR addressing the tax on pension payouts. 16% is too much. I also agree with the proposal about the loans to be granted from pension savings.