The following was received from a member of the public

I hereby wish to lodge a formal complaint against Reliance Motors cc for poor after sales service delivered to us. I also want to put forward a serious vote of no confidence in this dealer.

Reliance Motors cc is not as trustworthy as their name implies, maybe their cars but definitely not their service. The truth is that they are very reluctant to deliver good after sales service. We had a mechanical breakdown with our car on the 3rd of November 2010 and took it to them on the 4th of November for repairs.

The staff of Reliance Motors is simply not concerned about time, the inconvenience and humiliation we suffered throughout this ordeal. Client service is not a priority for them. They did not even have the decency to inform us once about their progress. We were the ones to phone and enquire on daily basis and even offer our help to speed up things, but to no avail. They simply have no sense of urgency to get the work done or simply do not care.

We are commuting daily to work and need our car desperately and are tired of their excuses, unprofessional and incompetent behaviour. We write this letter out pure frustration, unhappiness and helplessness with our predicament.

Is there any regulation body out there where one can report these arrogant car dealers?

The argument for rent control in Namibia

The Namibian newspaper has requested that the Namibia Consumer Protection Group to express themselves on the escalating rental prices being charged in the country. The price increase in rentals of property have increased drastically and people cannot afford these prices as their salaries have not increased accordingly.

What is Rent Control?
Rent control refers to laws or regulations that set price controls on the renting of residential housing. It functions as a price ceiling. Rent control exists in approximately 40 countries around the world.

Generally the laws dictate the frequency and degree of rent increases and are limited to less than the rate of inflation.

Arguments for rent control
First, on the economic front, such a law gives the tenant the ability to insist on certain improvements being done a minimum standard, without allowing the landlord to retaliate with higher rental fees.

Secondly, the social dynamics of rent control, or to use the correct term, rent stabilisation, is an important one for consumer protection. Without rent stabilisation, landlords can demand any increase and tenants must either pay or move. These regulations provide some assurance that the consumer can maintain stability in their housing situation.

Third, the moral argument is that housing is a human right that is more important than the property rights of the landlord. With this argument, the landlord's income is restricted to a formula, for example no more than 20% higher than the monthly installment on a bond for a house of this value.

Arguments against rent control
The main argument against is the putting a cap (highets price) on rent reduces the quantity and quality of housing available.

Introducing rent control reduces the number of investors willing to purchase housing for the purpose of renting to receive an income. Thus rent control can lead to creation of less housing, raises prices and increases urban decay in certain areas of a town.

If rent control should be introduced in Namibia, this will reduce the resale value of affected properties. Thus, banks and other mortgage holders would find the values they estimated to be higher than the true resale value if they need to foreclose. In addition, municipal valuations would have to be reduced in line with the value reductions.

What is causing the problem?
Rather than just accept Rent Control as the only solution, we need to look closer at the problem and find the causes of rental increases.

In essence, a free market economy such as ours allows all interested would-be tenants equal opportunity to offer a rental amount for the space. In conditions of monetary inflation and housing shortages rents rise as landlords have tenants willing to meet their asking price. In other words, the landlords would reduce rents if no-one was willing to pay the rental fee.

Conclusion
 Rent Control can be used as an interim measure to attempt to keep rental affordable, but this is not a solution that will solve the problem of the housing shortage in urban areas. Municipalities have to increase the number of erven available for building of lower income housing and the prices should stabalise once the supply and demand equation is more balanced. The costs of land-use regulation are also extremely unfair to the development low cost housing units and this is something that can be changed fairly quickly by local authorities.


The increase of rent in Namibia has led to high-cost to income ratio. Thus the families affected by high or unaffordable rentals means they are now unable to afford non-housing necessities such as food and medicines. The Namibia Consumer Protection Group (NCPG) believes the answer to the problem of high cost to income ratio is to directly increase the income of low-income households. The Government should look at a policy programme that provides food stamps, health insurance, national pension plans, etc that make non-housing expenses more affordable.


Namibia needs to find sustainable solutions which improve health, safety and comfort for all its citizens, and more specifically reduce the costs incurred by low-income families for the use of water, energy and housing.

I am a Citizen Informaticist

I have found an all encompassing title for my purpose in life. I am a citizen informaticist. This is the belief that the best way to improve the lives of citizens is to improve the flow of information.

This includes:

* information about government services; and 

* information about the citizen and their specific needs

My vision is that citizens throughout the world will share information to ensure ethical leadership. 

In this regard, I define ethics as being the code of values that guide a person's choices and actions — the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of their life.

The vision being clear, I can better understand my mission:

“Develop the tools and systems to assist the management of countries (government, civil society and private sector) in providing access to services and technologies to allow maximum quality of life to all who live there.”

Once the vision and mission are clear, I have to develop SMART objectives that ensure that vision is met. Looking back at the past ten years of my life, I realise that most of my actions (projects) have been guided by my choice to be a Country Informaticist.

These include:

1. Future Namibia - a book identifying that discrimination is not based only on race, culture, gender, or geographical location, but more importantly in access to services (and technology).
2. Milton Louw blogs - This blog has been used to share my ideas - and led to articles in newspapers and interviews on television to further share the ideas of an empowered citizenry.
3. Government of Namibia Blog - A Directory of the Government of Namibia. That includes

• Contact details of Ministers through to Directors of each Ministry 
• Vision, Mission and Objectives
• Strategic plans 
• Description of focus areas
• Explanation of work processes
• Recent press releases
• Press articles about the Ministry

My next project is co-authoring a book "THE ETHICAL WAY TO WIN ELECTIONS: The Essential Guide to Building a Successful Value-based Campaign".

Would you join me in being a citizen informaticist in your country?

I am an pan African

Citizenship of a country is like being a member of a certain club. It allows you access to certain services, participation in social and economic programmes as well as the rewards.

Let's put Namibia on the forefront of technology

I am a social entrepreneur that has been developing a central register of data for Namibia since 1993. As a student of computer science and statistics I was interested in developing an economic modelling system to assist my country through the first years after Independence in 1990. At present, this personal data register includes over 1 million records, or over half the population. This comes from public information such as electoral rolls, land registers, etc.

In 1999, I started a partnership with Creditreform Düsseldorf Frormann KG to develop a proposal for an integrated central register of personal and business data that would assist Government and the financial services industry provide better services to the people and businesses. The collection of data has continued over the 12 year period and we have met with various government officials to explain the benefits. However, the understanding of how to implement the technology has been lacking.

The World Economic Forum (WEF), has started discussing personal data as a new asset class and in its most recent report: "Rethinking Personal Data: Strengthening Trust" they suggest four main steps to be taken, namely:

1. Engage in a structured, robust dialogue to restore trust in the personal data ecosystem. The debate needs to focus on achieving consensus on some of the key tensions, including securing and protecting data, developing accountability systems, and agreeing on rules for the trusted and permissioned flow of data for different contexts. Central to this dialogue is the inclusion of individuals, who play an increasingly important role as both data subjects and as data creators.
2. Develop and agree on principles to encourage the trusted flow of personal data. The simple slogan of “think globally, act locally” can help frame these principles (i.e. shared principles can help all the actors aim towards the same outcomes, even if their approaches for how to get there differ).
3. Develop new models of governance for collective action. Regulators, organizations and individuals can play complementary roles in establishing accountability systems, enforcement mechanisms, rights and permissions.
4. Establish “living labs”. Given the complex social, commercial, technical and regulatory uncertainties and interdependencies, an environment which can provide stakeholders with the ability to test and learn in real time (and at scale) needs to be established. These labs can provide a safe context for more fully understanding the system dynamics and collectively identifying shared opportunities, risks and the means for effective collaboration.

I would like to offer my databases and experiences in Namibia to a research organisation or team, to use in establishing a "living lab" on a country-wide scale.

Please fell free to contact me on any of the communication methods listed below.

Mobile: +264 81 688 1368
Email: miltonlouw@gmail.com
Blog: http://milton-louw.blogspot.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/miltonlouw