Namibia's Call for Consumer Protection - 24 years later

I have made a short list of the main issues I believe should be included in the Consumer Protection legislation for Namibia:

  1. Consumers have the right to cancel a reservation or pre-booking for any goods or services and to cancel any order for any goods or services.
  2. Consumers may cancel a fixed-term agreement (of any term) at any time.
  3. Suppliers must provide a quote or estimate prior to working on any goods.
  4. The rendering of services or the goods required to perform any service must be in a manner and of a quality that persons are generally entitled to expect and be free of any defect.
  5. The CPA must impose strict liability on producers, importers, distributors or retailers to supply safe goods and imposes strict liability in respect of product failure, defective and hazardous goods.
  6. A mandatory three-month warranty period must be imposed on service providers who install any new or reconditioned part during repair or maintenance work.
  7. A consumer is entitled to return unsafe or defective goods, including goods that are not of a good qualit
  8. A consumer is entitled to return unsafe or defective goods, including goods that are not of a good quality.
  9. A consumer who is the recipient of unsolicited goods or services is not obliged to pay for such goods or services
  10. Consumer must have the right to cancel a transaction or agreement emanating from Direct Marketing.
  11. Goods or services must not be promoted in a misleading, fraudulent or deceptive manner.
  12. The CPA should also create a “Small Claims Court” for matter under N $ 50,000.00.

Lastly, and most importantly, the legislation should create and support national consumer organisations to promote and provide consumer literacy education.



Popular posts from this blog

Marginalization of Coloureds must end

29.12.2009 Marson Sharpley writes: WELL done people of Namibia, my fellow countrymen and women! We have to be proud of the manner in which we voted and behaved during the voting period. It is this that makes one proud to be Namibian! Having said that, I want to advance an argument that I hope will become part of the future debates of our population as we strive to find the best-suited leadership in the political, economic and social sectors of our society. I believe that we need to examine and interrogate the demarcations we have accepted in terms of the roles that people are supposed to be filling in our society. The Oxford dictionary describes or at least defines politics as the art and science of government or activities concerned with the acquisition or exercise of authority or government. The first point I would like to make and attempt to clarify is the fact that when we speak about “church”, “politics” and/or “society”, we tend to refer to these entities in the third per...
Read more

"I go my way" by Max Ehrmann

All round is haste, confusion, noise. For power and wealth men stretch the day From dawn till dusk. But quietly I go my way. For glitter, show, to taunt the crowd, Desire-tossed in wild dismay, Men sell their souls. But quietly I go my way. The green of all the fields is mine; The stars, the night, the wind at play, A peaceful heart, while quietly I go my way.
Read more

Hermanus van Wyk: The ‘Biblical Moses’ of the Rehoboth Baster Community - by Shampapi Shiremo

New Era article To many Namibians, the name Rehoboth sound too familiar because it is a well-known small town located about 90 Km south of Windhoek.   However, a closer look at the history of Rehoboth and the Baster Community who have settled in that area since around 1870, one would find that Rehoboth is a biblical name meaning ‘the promised land.’ Since ‘the promised land’ is what the Israelis who were moving out of Egyptian captivity wandered in desert for many years in order to get there, it is therefore likely that the history of Namibia’s Rehoboth have a similar narrative with the biblical Israelis whom Moses led.   However, unlike the biblical Moses who himself did not reach the ‘promised land’, Hermanus van Wyk did reach his after leading his people from the Cape Colony bondage. In the 1983 publication entitled the ‘History Makers’, by Lester Venter, the biography of Kaptein Hermanus van Wyk was presented. Related to the Griqua of the Historical Adam Kok of the...
Read more