The Type of Namibian We Want to See

Nico who? In the grand scheme of life, Nico Sibolile is an unknown. In fact, what he did recently to make news headlines should be normal. Alas, but not in this Namibia where moral decay has set in and the theft of public resources is perpetrated at the uppermost echelons of the country’s ruling elite.

In case you missed it: The Namibian published a gem-quality scoop that taxi driver Sibolile two weeks ago returned a handbag containing N$8 000 in cash and several valuables to a customer who forgot it in his cab.

“Katrina Aboas started crying when she saw the young man holding the handbag she had left in his taxi less than two hours earlier,” writes journalist Sophie Tendani in the introduction.

Aboas, aged 67, thought she had lost precious savings she’d just withdrawn from the bank that morning for the burial of a beloved child.

But the 29-year-old is of such character that even if the money was about twice the N$4 000 to N$5 000 he makes a month as a taxi driver of nearly 10 years, he made sure Aboas’s day would not get worse than it already was.

Said Aboas: “I said oh Lord, can you please bless my son… We counted the money and not even a dollar was missing.”

Sibolile said when he heard two passengers at the back asking one another about a handbag, he promptly took control of it and set about locating the owner despite how difficult it might prove for a township taxi that picks up and drops off customers anywhere and everywhere.

Aboas said she could tell from the moment she got into Siboilile’s taxi that he was of kind and considerate stock.

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