Home is where the heart is

(First appeared in New Era 15 April 2015)

The heading of todays’ column is a quote from Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23 – August 25, AD 79), a Roman better known as Pliny the Elder. He was amongst others an author, naturalist, and philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire. He is also well-known for the quote, “There is always something new out of Africa.” (Source: Wikipedia)

As a newlywed couple, my wife and I have started looking at a house to purchase as the present place we call home is a rental and is not putting any long-term value on our balance sheet. The cost of housing is already well-known and most of us have heard the cry of “Affirmative Repositioning” which seems to imply that land for housing must be made available for all Namibians. However, regardless of whether you purchase an existing house, or get a serviced erf from the local authority, you must still be aware of the hidden costs in the purchase of a property.
Most buyers are not aware of these hidden costs which include costs to transfer the title deed onto your name, registration of the bond, service connection costs to your property and most importantly your loan repayment that could increase due to interest hikes. As part of our homework into purchasing our ideal home, I have tried to define these hidden costs. To provide an indication of what these costs can be, I have used a house purchased for N$ 1 million in the example and placed the estimated hidden cost in brackets where possible.
(a) Transfer Costs – this is the legal cost of having the house registered in your own name and includes deeds office fees (N$ 300); Stamp Duty (N$ 4,000); Transfer Duty calculated as a percentage of the property value (N$ 4,000); Transfer Fee (N$ 10,000); Admin fees (N$ 400) and VAT at 15% (1,560). Total Transfer Cost = N$20,260.
(b) Bank Charges – most commercial lenders charge a bond initiation fee as well as a bank administration fee. These are charged up front and added to your account. Once the property is registered in your name, (and this might happen even before you move in), your monthly repayment will start.
(c) Service connection costs – most local authorities and other suppliers of water, electricity and telephone expect a deposit before the connection is made and then charge monthly according to usage. Usage can fluctuate and be unexpectedly high during periods of personal problems and cannot always be accurately reflected on a statement due to “usage guessing”.
(d) Property Rates – this is a monthly fee charged by the local authority based on the municipality estimated market value of the property. This rate tends to increase by 8% per year and is presently N$ 0.000914 times the site value and N$ 0.000471 times the improvement value in Windhoek. Thus a property with erf valued at N$ 300,000 and improvement value of N$ 700,000 would have a monthly rate of N$ 603.90 or N$ 7,246.80 per year. (NOTE: Before buying a property, ensure that all previous service charges on the property are paid in full.)
(e) Monthly levies – these are only applicable if you are buying in a complex (sectional title). You will need to pay a monthly levy for shared services in the complex and these can be costly.
(f) Maintenance of your home – there are always thing that break and need to be fixed. Even if you rent out your property, remember that certain items are still your responsibility to maintain.
(g) Insurance – you will need homeowners insurance that will cover any unforeseen circumstance such as your house burning down, etc. In addition, the bank will probably also require you to take out life insurance that will cover the rest of your bond owed in the event of your death.
If you can budget properly and identify all these hidden costs to ensure no surprise, you will enjoy your home for many years.
As for my wife and I, we have decided to go back to the drawing board and find an additional form of income to increase our ability to own a home.

Nothing can be said to be certain, except Death and Taxes

(First appeared in New Era 8 April 2015)

This weeks’ column heading comes from a letter written by Benjamin Franklin, to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789. The full quote is “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Last week I read with great joy that the pensioners would from now on be receiving an amount of N$ 1,000 per month. This news was provided by our President and confirmed by the Minister of Finance. If you remember dear reader, I wrote in the Consumer column of 28 January 2015, “.. would it also not be a sign of a mature country to provide sufficiently for our elderly with a state pension of at least N$ 1,200 per month? If we give this a little thought, perhaps we too can honour our mothers and fathers that our days on earth might be long.” It appears our political leaders have heard the voices of the masses and have shown their respect too for our elderly.
The 31st of March typically indicates the end of the financial year for government for government and the start of a new contract period for people like myself who work on an annual basis with a government department or institution. This brought me to the payment of personal taxes as I have to receive my Pay As You Earn (PAYE) slips and submit to the Ministry of Finance. This personal tax is after all the money that the Government earns and allows them to provide for bigger pension pay-outs for our elderly.
As consumers and taxpayers not all of us have the ability and expertise to always fill in our tax forms to the best possible advantage and thus receive the “tax breaks” enjoyed by some. For some taxpayers there even periods of time that they were unemployed and did not perhaps fill inn their tax returns.
I would like to propose to the newly appointed Minister of Finance that the government introduces a tax amnesty. A tax amnesty is a limited time opportunity for taxpayers (or a specified group of taxpayers) to pay a defined amount in exchange for which they receive forgiveness of a tax liability relating to a previous tax period without fear of criminal prosecution. In terms of an amnesty, I propose that the Minister give ALL Namibians an amnesty for all previous years that tax returns have not been submitted on condition that all outstanding returns are completed – especially for the period ending 28 February 2015 – before a set date. For example in this year, amnesty could be given until 30 June 2015.
An amnesty will allow the government to collect as much tax revenue as possible in a very short period of time. Typically all taxpayers should submit their returns before the amnesty closing date and in return the government can reduce penalties or even waive all penalties completely. This will allow taxpayers an opportunity to pay any outstanding taxes with fewer penalties (or no penalties) than might otherwise apply. For a taxpayer to qualify for the amnesty, they must pay the entire amount of taxes due by the program’s deadline.
Having spoken to many consumers, especially in the lower income brackets, it was noted that many did not have a lot of knowledge of taxes and simply accepted that the tax deducted by the employer (if they have a job) is done correctly. In quite a few cases it was found that taxpayers have not done the necessary paperwork and submitted their tax returns as expected.
Thus an amnesty must go hand-in-hand with a taxpayer education programme to assist in ensuring they too can benefit from the process. Taxpayers not only benefit through the services such as roads, etc. that the government provide, but can also benefit through tax returns if they qualify and know how to go about filling in the forms correctly.

Mother knows Breast

(First appeared in New Era 1 April 2015)

The past week has seen me working in Swakopmund again. As luck would have it, my wife and son could also join me at the coast so that we could spend some of the weekend – especially Easter weekend - together. After all, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. This proverb means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring.
One night we visited the Tug Restaurant near to the jetty for dinner. The place was reasonably busy and my wife and I enjoyed the excellent food that was served by a gracious waitress that timed each of our three courses perfectly. At one point my four month old son needed his “meal” and informed us in a rather melodious cry that he would wait no further. The restaurant had no problem with my wife sitting in our corner and breastfeeding him under a cover. None of the other patrons seemed disturbed either and I felt pleased that he was able to complete his meal without any disturbance.
This is definitely the type of service we expect from restaurants and I am glad to see that the breastfeeding was a “non-issue”.
Namibia as a country has a very positive culture towards breastfeeding and our health professionals are encouraging mothers to breastfeed until at least six months of age. For the first three months it is suggested the child only gets breast milk and even water is discouraged. Only if a mother has a medical condition will the state clinics make available baby formula (for free).  At first, this sounds like a cost saving measure but after careful investigation it also turns out to have very solid science behind the advice.
“Breast milk is best for your baby, and the benefits of breastfeeding extend well beyond basic nutrition. In addition to containing all the vitamins and nutrients your baby needs in the first six months of life, breast milk is packed with disease-fighting substances that protect your baby from illness.”
During my first marriage, the wife and I were very “career-orientated”. This meant that we took the children off the breast early to allow the mother to return to work as soon as possible. Looking back, it seems we could have done a little bit more to ensure the long-term health (both physical and mental) of our children. In the recent past, researchers have found a correlation between children’s susceptibility to diseases, their ability to deal with vaccines and the foods that they start eating before six months of age.
Doing a little bit of research I came across the following universally accepted advice: 1) If you can, breastfeed for at least a year.  2) Minimise sugar and junk food as sugar weakens the immune system. 3) Minimise chemical exposures from the food your child eats. Eating organic fruits vegetables, etc, means a good way to help insure a healthier body and brain. 4) Use Omega-3 oil supplements (which breast milk is full of).  5) Make sure your infant gets enough Vitamin A as this can limit vaccine reactions.
As consumers (and all busy with the rat race), we have very little awareness of what we actually put into our mouths to ensure a healthy body and brain. More often than not, we get side-tracked in the importance of earning a living that we forget to invest in living a life rather than just earning.
That is why it is important for the consumer movement to stay vigilant on the foods that we buy – whether raw or processed – to ensure the long-term health of each of us. Wherever business puts in additives or genetically modifies or foodstuffs, keep in mind that it is being done for a profit motive – not necessarily to ensure the longevity of their consumers.

In Flagrante Delicto

(First appeared in New Era 25 March 2015)

This week’s column heading comes from the Medieval Latin word “In flagrante delicto” meaning “while the crime is burning”. This refers to being caught in the very act of wrongdoing. Today it most often refers to being caught in an act of sexual misconduct.
The past few months have seen a large number of celebrities, as well as a few local ladies, find themselves in hot water as their ex-lovers have posted nude pictures or other sexually explicit material over the social networks. This type of behaviour is referred to as “revenge porn” and even has websites where such material is welcomed. Namibia also joined this distasteful practice when a tertiary student posted a video of his ex-girlfriend recently online.
I have five daughters who grown up around me and had to from time to time remind them that certain behaviour is not “lady-like”. Being in the field of information technology and having access to many of the ICT tools early on, led me to seek a better understanding of how these tools will impact on our lives and more practically, how we should protect our privacy in this new world. One of the first “accidents” to happen with me and digital cameras was when one of my daughters took a picture of one of the other daughters doing their hair with rollers.. It was not any worse than seeing a picture of your daughter in a bikini, but seeing them take pictures with rollers in their hair was shocking. You see, in my Cape Coloured culture, it is considered extremely impolite to be seen with rollers in your hair on the street.
Now this picture had been taken during some foolish playing around and they did not realise that digital cameras automatically upload pictures on the camera roll to a PC when plugged in. This meant they probably were charging their camera in my PC and thus inadvertently sent me a picture of them with rollers in the hair. I immediately made an effort to speak to each of them on the dangers of the digital world, and even more harshly about having anything on film that would make their father blush. Hopefully they have taken this to heart because once you have made those naughty pictures or videos there is unfortunately no way you can “unboil the egg”.
It is thus for me doubly disturbing to see revenge porn become part of the culture of our land of the brave.  First, it is disturbing because this is a gross violation of privacy and shaming of a woman’s sexuality and secondly, because this could happen to me and my family as well. Revenge porn has become a new crime which still needs the legal framework to criminalise it. This can take several years, and in the meantime you can lay charges using existing laws regarding privacy, but they still leave much to be desired – and the pictures will be out there anyway.
So while we wait for consumer protection legislation, data privacy laws and criminalising of revenge porn, here is what you can do to protect yourself from becoming a victim. If you still feel the need to send sexy or nude pictures or even make a sex video, protect yourself by taking the following steps: 1) Keep your face hidden from the camera. The pictures are for special person and they do not need to see your face as they know who it is. Maybe even put on a mask if need be. Remember, if your better half actually does leak your pictures, it will be hard to prove that it was you in the pictures; 2) Use smartphone applications such as Snapchat. These photo-sharing apps allow users to set up a time limit for how long their pictures can be viewed before they are deleted from the receiver’s device and the apps servers. (The time can be set for between 1 to 10 seconds.); and 3) make sure your pictures do not have anything identifying features such as a birthmark, a tattoo, self-made clothes or unique features in your home that will give away your identity.
Smile of the Week
The organisers of Independence Day celebrations for making sure there were tents over all the seating areas of the arena to protect the citizens from the rain.
Frown of the Week
Taxi drivers who are choosy and picky when it is raining. If it was not that I was so happy for the rain, I would boycott you when the sun is shining.

Consumer Protection Law is on the table

(First appeared in New Era 18 March 2015)

Two weeks ago I was contacted by a consumer complaining about a freezer that they purchased a freezer and it is already broken after a few weeks. The customer was very upset as the store wished to come and fix the broken freezer and not replace it. Unfortunately for the client there is no consumer act in place and the store has the right to fix the freezer rather than replace it. The problem for this consumers was the misunderstanding between the term “warranty” and “guarantee”.  Most of us would expect that when we purchase a product, the warranty – or the written guarantee - issued by the manufacturer of a product will include a provision to replace the product within a specified period of time. The problem comes when we do not read the fine print when doing the purchase. In this consumers case the warranty issued by the manufacturer promised to repair or replace it if necessary within a specified period of time. The store was thus correct in first offering to have the freezer repaired and only if that did not fix the problem, will they replace the freezer. Unfortunately the Consumer Court cannot do anything to assist the consumer and she will have to accept that the “new freezer” is now a “fixed freezer”.

The good news is that consumers in Namibia will soon have recourse through a Consumer Protection Bureau that will be established under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In addition, a Consumer Advisory Board will be established with “at least half of the members to be individuals with recognised experience or expertise in advocating for consumers, studying issues related to consumer protection, or with demonstrated commitment to regulation of marketplace activity in the interests of consumers”. The draft law has been shared with consumer advocates, business associations and other regulatory organisations for their inputs at a two day workshop.

The law also goes hand in hand with a National Consumer Policy which has six objectives, namely 1) to create market transactions that strive to obtain a fair balance of power between sellers and consumers; 2) protect vulnerable consumers from marketplace conduct that takes advantage of unsophisticated, less educated or infirm consumers; 3) provide an incentive for honesty and fair dealing by all sellers; 4) promote efficiency and transparency in the Namibian economy and marketplace, thus increasing economic development; 5) ensure accessible, transparent and efficient redress for consumers; and 6) promote consumer participation in decision-making processes concerning the regulation of the marketplace in the interests of consumers. The law is based on “UDAAP”, meaning prohibition against unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices.

By “unfairness”, it refers to when an unfair balance occurs between the rights of the consumer and the rights of the seller. It also will allow for more control of the transaction by the consumer. The “deceptive” refers to sellers who are misleading consumers about the actual price of goods or the actual discount amount, advertising products not intending to be sold as advertised, representing that goods are of a certain origin or brand when they are not, and similar conduct are all considered deceptive sales practices. “Abusive acts or practices” are based on the seller taking unreasonable advantage of a consumers’ ignorance, vulnerability or dependence on the seller.

All these ideas laid out in the policy and draft law are to be welcomed in assisting Namibian consumers to be protected in the marketplace. I just hope that the Ministry and then the Parliament will act in good speed in getting the law into practice.