Making A Better World - Milton Louw

Your bank manager looks at your credit report – Not at You. This is one list you never want to be on – the Credit Blacklist. A bad credit rating can put your life on hold for many years as it makes getting credit impossible. More and more Namibians are getting caught out, sometime unfairly, and the Namibia Consumer Protection Group felt more information must be circulated to consumers about the issue. A credit default is a black mark against your name that doesn't wash away and the three Credit Bureaus, (Transunion ITC, Compuscan and Credit Information Bureau Namibia) currently list over 50 000 Namibians that are branded as credit lepers. I have found that mostly young Namibians are prone to having problems with credit. The advertising makes it sound so easy, “Buy Now, Pay Later”. Unfortunately, when it comes time to pay, these items are not always first on their list. This then causes problems as they start falling in arrears and eventual find themselves blacklisted. Often...

The company Credit Information Bureau Namibia has developed a consumer and business database of Namibia. The complete database comprises of approximately 1 million individuals and 10,000 businesses. CRIB provides mailing and telemarketing lists to clients in the financial and personal services industry. The company has filtered this database to create a "Professionals Database" made up of over 15,000 mobile numbers of high-net worth professionals throughout Namibia. HOW LIST RENTAL WORKS Most of the lists we have available are offered on a list rental basis, ie they are supplied for once off use only at a rate quoted as a cost per 500 individual consumers or company executives. For example - the cost to rent 1,000 professionals from the Namibian Professionals Database will be 1,000 x N$ 3.50 per 1000 for once off telephone, mailing and fax usage = N$ 3,500.00 excluding VAT. A processing charge of N$ 500.00 is also charged for any order. We will supply you with counts an...

Namibia’s regulatory position is like stepping back ten years if you’re more used to the competitive rough and tumble in Africa’s more developed markets. The historic incumbent Telecom Namibia still has some monopoly privileges and the new incumbent, Government-owned mobile operator MTC is in danger of behaving in much the same way. Sadly the country has closed its regulator with a view to opening a new one. However, this has meant all things regulatory have gone into a holding pattern. Russell Southwood looks at the key market barriers that are holding things back. Historic incumbent Telecom Namibia has an infrastructure monopoly and although the power utility NamPower has fibre assets, it has only recently tendered them: MTC (which may build a link to South Africa), Telecom Namibia and some ISPs are all interested in the capacity. Telecom Namibia invested in what was then Africa’s only real international cable, SAT3 but didn’t invest enough to get a landing station. This is someth...

Background The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an on-going dispute between the Jewish and Arab peoples living in Palestine under Ottoman or British rule. There are numerous issues to resolve before a lasting peace can be reached, including strong emotions relating to the conflict on both sides; Palestinian concerns over Israeli settlements and land; status of Jerusalem; Israeli security concerns over terrorism, safe borders, incitements, violence and Palestinian refugee issues. These are encapsulated as the six core issues: • Jerusalem • Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war • Israeli settlements in the West Bank • Israeli security concerns • International status • Water resources Peace proposals Generally speaking, the peace process is driven by the US and Israel’s Arab neighbours, most prominently Egypt. The proposals are for either: a. Two-state solution This would entail the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside an independent Jewish state. b. One-s...

PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY September 2010 BY Chief Ankama, SWAPO MP & Deputy Minister: MWT Comrade Speaker Fellow MPs The Bill on the floor of this eminent House in my view is long overdue. Almost two years ago for three consecutive sessions of parliament I tabled here a motion on unemployed Namibians both professional trained and those without. When I motivated the said motion for the first time, the idea was to get a prompt reaction from the floor of this august house across the political spectrum represented here. Sadly the debate was shoddy and it had to tabled for the second time in hope for improved contributions. Even for the second motivation many of us in this house did not take the motion on unemployed Namibians as serious shown by the poor debate and therefore the motion was re-tabled for the third consecutive time. Comrade Speaker Honourable Members The Employment Service Bill squarely responds to motion on unemployed Namibian...