Making A Better World - Milton Louw

The past few weeks (and years) there has been a debate in Namibia about the freedom of the press and more specifically the government's stated intention to regulate the media. The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) has also circulated a broadcasting policy which indicates certain regulations which will be imposed by government. I wish to dissect this matter for those of us who are not in the media business who would like to have our media free from suppression, BUT, would also like to ensure that the media are held accountable for what they publish. In addition, most citizens are aware that we need to evolve new methods of management of social media posts. What is Freedom of the Press? Freedom of the press refers to the right circulating opinion in the media without censorship from the government. What is critical is that freedom of the press allows opinions (normally about leaders) to be circulated for comment among the general public. The Namibian Constit...

Reading a very enlightening article about the "gift economy". The most common example is the donating of blood for free. That is not part of the "market economy". In African terms this also refers to our caring for our relatives by paying for their studies, giving them room and board, etc. We have a more neighbourly approach to our community in which we share or give to others when they do not have. It does not mean giving when I do not have, but rather haring when I have surplus. "When a parent cooks for their family that is just as productive as a chef cooking for customers in a restaurant, but no cash changes hands in payment."  In economic terms, when we give to our friends and neighbours it reduces GDP (Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period) In today's world we need to rethink the measurement of our nationals wealth by only using GDP. "We should ...

The Law Reform and Development Commission had a consultative meeting in Windhoek on 4th August 2016. This is my contribution: I am a previously disadvantaged pe rson (PDP) as proposed under the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework in the current from of a draft bill. I qualify as such because I was defined as non-white by the apartheid regime. This was not a name I gave to myself. Some white business leaders act as if this legislation is not needed because after 26 years there is no more discrimination. I say to you that white owned business had 26 years to address the imbalances themselves, BUT, because they have not done so, Government is forced to make laws to address these economic imbalances created by our apartheid past. We cannot expect the new law to be voluntary. That has been the case for 26 years and look where that got us. We must make mandatory provisions for, - a. 25% PDP ownership; and b. 50% PDP Management for all business having more than 25 employe...

First posted in New Era - 29 June 2016 Imagine waking up one morning and finding out that a relative left you some money you did not know about? Have you had that dream? The insurance industry in Namibia is estimated to have over 2 billion dollars’ worth of unclaimed monies due to dependants of deceased persons. No accurate figures have been compiled, but industry experts predict that this relates to over 40,000 people who have money that belongs to them, but they do not know about it. The financial industry refers to these “unfound people” as dependants and make efforts, such as newspaper adverts, to find them. However, the longer the period of time has passed since the fund contributor died, the harder it gets to find a dependant. Namibia has no home delivery postal service and there exists no national database of residential property and their occupants to enable NamPost to do door-to-door deliveries. This lack of residential information has also led to expensive exercises to r...

Let us be blunt. White male privilege was how things were. In 1780, less than 3% of the population (all male) were allowed to vote. By 1832, only one in seven white males had the right to vote. This was because the law stipulated you had to owned land worth ore than ten pounds. Woman older than 30 only got the vote in 1918. This same fight for universal suffrage has continued in Namibia (and South Africa) with non-white males and females only getting the vote at Independence. Now I hear white males complaining that they are now being discriminated against. REALLY? The fight for equal rights and equal opportunities while the skewed allocation of the past still exists is something we as a nation have to work towards. Acting the injured party does not help - the fight has been won and you need to join the rest of us working towards equitable sharing of our resources - even if this means government intervention must be used.

MTC has introduced Differential Data Pricing without consulting the regulator or consumers. Recently the telecommunications industry have seen the mushrooming of over the top (OTT) content providers as a threat to their business model. OTT refers to delivery of audio, video, and other media over the Internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator in the control or distribution of the content - in other words the consumer chooses a data service not provided by the telco service provider. In South Africa the dominant service providers, (Vodacom and MTN), have instigated a parliamentary debate and are doing their best to introduce hurdles to customers using services such as WhatsApp and Facebook arguing that these services do not pay tax or contribute to the actual infrastructure that customers use. This debate is however not about services being offered - but rather the threat of losing revenue from voice and SMS. One of the options being put forward is th...

PUBLIC COMMENTS IN RESPECT OF MTC’S NEW NETMAN PRODUCTS (NETMAN TURBOBOOST) TARIFFS AS PUBLISHED ON 24 DECEMBER 2015 IN THE GOVERNMENT GAZETTE NO. 5908 GENERAL NOTICE 568 Allow me to first state that it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to be involved in the process of tariff determinations and other matters before CRAN as there are no consumer organization receiving funds to assist them in doing work on behalf of the consumer. Most consumer activists are doing the work on behalf of consumers only when the time allows and thus we will find that big corporations will increasingly get away with unfair business practices. Perhaps CRAN should consider the idea of using funds from the Universal Service Fund to assist consumer organisations with their activities. The Namibia Consumer Protection Group (NCPG) requests CRAN to have public hearings on MTC’S new NETMAN products (NETMAN Turboboost) tariffs as published on 24 December 2015 in the Government Gazette NO. 5908 ...