Making A Better World - Milton Louw

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine April 2013) In many areas of business today, the term Intellectual Property (IP) is being used to justify the higher price of a product or service – and the prevention of competing businesses being able to provide the same product or service. This means a competing business may not sell the product or service at all – even if it would mean a cheaper cost to the consumer. However, it is important that intellectual property rights protection be encouraged in society to ensure that better inventions, products or services are being created. Wikipedia defines IP as: Intellectual property (IP) rights are the legally recognized exclusive rights to creations of the mind. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property ...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine April 2013) “Debt is like a disease that can enable us from living a happy and normal life by taking control over our lives. Most of us don't even know how we end up in the situation we are in. Buying everything we own with credit has become our culture. But don't let debt control your life any more. You can take over your life again. Imagine life without debt!” Is it true? Can a person do things in life without using getting into a debt trap? YES. The problem is not about using debt or cash, but rather about financial management and making sure you keep yourself out of trouble and ensure you don’t worry too much about the level of credit you have or are using. Remember the following are tips only – you must find the ones that work best for your and apply them to your life. 1. Don’t get into debt Use cash wherever you can and do not take out any debt except for a motor vehicle or a house. 2. Spend less money th...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine April 2013) On 12 April 2010, the Bank of Namibia announced that “..As part the Namibian payment system reform initiative of which the implementation of the local card switch, NAMSWITCH, has been one of the milestones, the Namibian banking industry resolved to discontinue petrol cards in Namibia in the near future. The public will instead be allowed to purchase fuel with internationally accepted debit and credit cards. The Payment Association of Namibia (PAN) wishes to inform the public that they can use their debit and credit cards to purchase fuel at Filling Stations. These developments are good steps in the right direction for consumers, for fuel retailers, and for the country as a whole. The use of broader range of payment instruments at Fuel Stations provide consumers with choices of which payment instrument to use and as such eliminate cash based transactions in favour of a more convenient, secure and cost-effective method of...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine April 2013) Consumers International (CI), the global federation of 250 consumer groups, published its Consumer Agenda for Fair Mobile Services ahead of World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) on Saturday 15 March 2014. In the run up to 15 March, consumer groups from around the world made a call on mobile phone service providers to demand better services for the 7 billion mobile users across the globe. Mobile rip offs are commonplace – from holidaymakers being stung by four figure roaming bills abroad, to customers tricked into paying to receive text messages. With smartphones set to function as a remote control for more and more aspects of our lives, consumer groups believe now is the time to ensure big mobile companies are held to account for unfair, substandard services. In consultation with consumer groups around the world, CI drew up a Consumer Agenda for Fair Mobile Services, which outlines what the consumer rights movement wa...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine March 2013) The Bank Windhoek group of companies has been supporting entrepreneurial development among children of school going age through the Bank Windhoek BizzKids competition. Last year, the winners were Keanu da Silva (13) and Keyat da Silva (11) trading as “Team D” from Eldorado Secondary School and M H Greeff Primary School. The business product they created was the “ My Do and Get Book ”. In basic terms, the two brothers sold work plans for children to do household chores to teach them to be responsible and at the same time earn pocket money for household chores done. Wikipedia explains “pocket money” as follows: An allowance is an amount of money given or allotted usually at regular intervals for a specific purpose. In the context of children, parents may provide an allowance (British English: pocket money) to their child for their miscellaneous personal spending. The person providing the allowance is usually trying t...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine March 2013) World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was established on 15 March 1983 to promote consumer rights around the world. For WCRD in 2014, consumer organisations around the world are highlighting the consumer issues that are undermining and frustrating the success of mobile phone services. The international consumer body, Consumers International (CI) will be launching a new Consumer Agenda for Fair Mobile Services. The agenda sets out the issues that most effect consumers including the need for access to a reliable service, the security of their data and fair contracts and billing. CI will submit the Agenda to the World Telecommunications Development Conference, held by the International Telecommunications Union, where they will be calling on phone regulators and companies to take action to stop these issues undermining the success of this new technology. Consumer Agenda for Fair Mobile Services addresses the issues tha...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine March 2013) I have been plagued in the past few weeks with the bad level of service I received from companies around Namibia. It has gone from a restaurant which brought the starters (oysters) twenty minutes after the main course had arrived, (the main course was a medium-done steak and should have taken much longer than shelling oysters), to a telephone call to a bank to request their latest home loan rates and I was informed that the person dealing with that type of enquiry is not answering their phone. This led me to look again at what service is, and more importantly how do we go about creating a “service culture” in the country. Allow me to first define the words Service and Culture. For me the word SERVICE is “performing work for someone else”. Culture is defined as the “total inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge, which constitute the shared bases of social action.” Looking at these meanings we look a...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine January 2013) When was the last time you read the product description or spent time understanding the labeling of a product you have purchased? How many times have you accepted that the product meets your needs without actually understanding what the product is composed of? Unless you have a specific allergy or irritation that is caused by a product, most of us would purchase without taking time to look at the specific ingredients of the product. Recently, I was advised to take an energy supplement as I am working up till 10 hours a day, seven days a week. A friend gave me an energy supplement of Bioplus and swore that this would “energise” me and provide that needed boost. (It should be noted that the Bioplus sachets can be bought at most supermarkets, small shop or even a service station shop and are displayed quite prominently.) After about two weeks of taking these energisers on an almost daily basis, I went on Christmas lea...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine January 2013) Namibia is facing one of the worst droughts in the past three decades.  The Office of the Prime Minister, in March 2013, budgeted to assist about 331 000 people in communal areas that are classified as food insecure. In the meantime that amount has ballooned to almost 560 000 by December of the same year. The areas affected by the drought were mainly communal (rural) areas and resettled farms. Through the Office of the Prime Minister’s relief programme the government has distributed maize, beans, tinned fish as well as game meat. During this period, most of the development partners have focused on poverty or food security, but very few have emphasized the need for food safety. Consumer organisations (in Namibia and abroad), also emphasize food safety when discussing food security, as this is the assurance that eating something will not damage your health .  This is an absolutely fundamental requirement, a...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine October 2013) Proposed amendments to the High Court Act that have been tabled in the National Assembly should pave the way for the introduction of a new electronic documents filing system in the High Court. The High Court Amendment Bill, which was motivated by the Minister of Justice, Utoni Nujoma, contains several proposed changes to the High Court Act of 1990 that would also give the Judge President of the High Court wider powers to make rules that would determine the way the court functions. The main change highlighted in Parliament was that the provisions tabled would enable the Judge President to make rules that require legal documents to be filed with the court. The object of introducing the electronic court filing system, commonly referred to as e-justice, is to eliminate as far as possible the filing of court documents in hard copy. With the introduction of e-justice the aim is to achieve the quick and fair disposal of ...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine October 2013) I once played a Cape Coloured man, Davey Galant, in the Adam Small play Joanie Galant-hulle. The play deals with the eviction of people of colour from their houses due to the South African government’s policy of Apartheid. The play deals with the difficulties in a family after the forced removal and the steady degeneration of Davey into drinking and other “typical” coloured behavior. The version of the play I acted in was called “Eviction” and reworked by Namibian playwright Frederick B. Philander to find an echo with the forced removal of the “Ou Lokasie” residents in Windhoek on 10 December 1959. This character seems to have become my alter ego, in terms of being “my second self, or a trusted friend. The recent evictions of poor members of society by the municipalities or town councils in Namibia have brought out this “trusted friend” who uses the line “ huis, paleis, pondok… malhuis ’ or in English, “hous...

(First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine October 2013) The Windhoek Municipality, has recently installed over 70 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in and around the town.  These are to be found in the city centre as well as at the four roadblocks at Brakwater, Heroes Acre and Daan Viljoen and one at the road block on the way to Hosea Kutako International Airport. According to City Police Senior Superintendent Gerry Shikesho the issue of privacy was discussed and it was found not to be a serious hindrance. “Who would want to do private matters in public places,” he asked during an interview with New Era, adding that the cameras are there to safeguard everybody’s safety. The cameras have varying purposes, which include informing municipal staff of faulty streetlights, crime and fire prevention and detection, traffic management, ensuring quick responses to medical emergencies and detecting infringement of by-laws. As consumers we have to ask if this is reall...

((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine October 2013) Recently the Economist newspaper also weighed in on the issue of fluctuating milk prices. “Milk prices on Namibian supermarket shelves are baffling local consumers. It used to be that there was a minor price difference between imported South African dairy products and the local brands, but this was usually in the order of one dollar or less.” This issue has also been covered by the Namibia Consumer Protection Group (NCPG) when they proposed the 2013 Consumer Day be named “Namibia Milk Price Day”. The idea was for any Namibian consumer to buy a litre of milk and then inform the NCPG of the type of milk, the price they paid and where they bought their litre of milk. The Consumer Action explained This year 2013, the Namibia Consumer Protection Group (a lobby group and supporter of consumer activism) is asking people around the country to buy on 15 March 2013 a litre milk everywhere in Namibia, and then please post...

((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine October 2013) The Namibia Competition Commission (NaCC) held a workshop in Windhoek on 24 September 2013 to discuss the regulation of various economic sectors in Namibia. The issue of regulation is important from and political, economic, social and technical point of view. Through the efforts of various ministries and institutions, laws and regulations have been passed and has unintentionally created overlap in some areas while leaving blank areas where regulation might be needed. There is a growing realisation that there is need for a strategy towards better regulatory design and oversight within a framework of coordination. This will lead to better regulatory governance in terms of transparency, consultation and access to information by the public. The workshop organised by NaCC aimed at deliberating existing issues in regulation with reference to other existing regulatory bodies in the country. These regulatory bodies include: ...

((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine September 2013) The dictionary defines the word oxymoron as “a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms” for example “ground pilot”, “living dead” and “dark light”. This month I wish to add “Good Namibian Customer Service” as a term which is contradictory. Normally I am an optimistic person to see the positive outcomes of any situation. But this past month has given me a very trying situation to deal with. Let me explain: A friend of mine has applied for a work permit from the Ministry of Home Affairs since 2010. He applied via our Embassy in London and was told it could take three to six months. In the meanwhile, he received a standard tourism visa to visit the country to explore the options for doing his study research for his Doctorates thesis. The work he would be involved in is assisting on the farms where the research is being done. The work itself is voluntary in nature and he would receive a volunteers’ all...

((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine September 2013) Recently a reader contacted the Consumer News Namibia magazine to complain about the housing. Various consumers have complained about the high cost of housing, the skyrocketing of rents and generally the lack or shortage of housing. This consumer had a very different complaint and led to some in-depth investigation to understand the issues involved. The reader states “ I have recently moved into a complex that was built within the last four to five years. The previous tenants were students and therefore I accepted there were some shortcomings on the property and the landlord and I agreed to deduct the costs of renovations or replacements to the building that I may incur. Once I moved in I started realizing there were problems that were not made by tenants, but rather structural problems in the way the property was built. To name just a few: ·          The geyser outlet p...

The Bank of Namibia (BoN) announced on 29 August 2013 that the proposed draft regulations to regulate credit bureaus in Namibia are now open for public consultation. The BoN states “There has been recent speculation in the media around whether or not credit bureaus are illegal in Namibia. The Bank of Namibia’s view is that the existing credit bureaus in Namibia are legal entities registered in accordance with the relevant laws by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. That means they are not illegal. What is missing in our legal system at the moment is a specific law regulating how these entities should manage the information under their care, and there is no centralized credit information system that allows banks and other lenders to know the total exposure per client and their credit history so as to avoid overextending of consumers.” What is a credit bureau? A credit bureau (sometimes called consumer reporting agency or credit reference agency) is a company that collects i...

((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine September 2013) Many consumer around the world were not surprised to find out that governments all around the world have been spying on the people who use the Internet services provided by international companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter to mention but a few.  Many of us believe that these requests were from governments in developed countries such as the United States of America or Britain. Consumer News Namibia Magazine decided to investigate these requests and see if there are any requests to the popular Facebook social site from within the SADC region. International Awareness Privacy is a fundamental human right, and is central to the maintenance of democratic societies. It is essential to human dignity and it reinforces other rights, such as freedom of expression and information, and freedom of association, and is recognised under international human rights law. Activities that restrict the right to privacy, includin...