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Independent Namib
Like a newspaper, only better!
Tel: 064 200497
Diamond Arrow Winner Best Community Newspaper 2014
Issue 165 - Thurs, 10 Sept 2015 to Wed, 16 Sept 2015
"Contribution towards this recycling movement is one step closer to protecting our environment and keeping our towns clean."
But from the private sector’s point of view, employment can only be created through business expansion and growth.
Swakopmund Mayor Cllr Nehemiah Salamon, at the the official launch of the Rent-A-Drum recycling and sorting plant. See Page 2
Heinrich Hafenini (Chairperson NCCI Swakopmund Branch) at the SWAITEX Gala dinner last Saturday. See Page 9
Inaugural Husab marathon was a huge success
Walvis oil economy takes dip Niel Terblanche As the industrial engine of Walvis Bay grinds to a halt because of low oil prices on international markets, hundreds of skilled workers are facing a bleak future of unemployment. Tens of thousands of oil and related industry workers have already lost their jobs in oil producing regions of the world because of the continued downward spiral of the commodity’s price, this has brought a stained and uncertain future closer to local shores. Although Namibia is not an oil producing country, oil companies operating in the Cabinda enclave of Angola have become a lucrative
customer base for Walvis Bay based companies specialising in rendering services and technical support to many aspects of the neighbouring country’s oil producing industry. Creating ever more and bigger dry docking facilities in the port has seen investment running into the hundreds of millions of dollars from companies like Elgin Brown and Hamer and smaller engineering and specialised companies which have mushroomed over the past three years. This trend also drove up demand for more industrial erven to support operations in the port facilities and led to the subsequent creation of a new industrial park to the east of Walvis Bay. On Monday, the Africa Desk of
the Mail and Guardian reported that Namibia’s northern neighbour risks losing investment from foreign oil companies as ever more stringent and costly government regulations and low worldwide market prices make the country less attractive to operate in. According to the M&G report, JeanMichel Lavergne, General Manager for the country’s biggest driller Total E&P Angola, said a series of measures introduced by Angola’s government in recent years has pushed production costs up to as much as US$500 million annually. He said oil companies want talks with the Angolan government to press home the threat posed by Continued on Page 3
See Page 8
AR fires shots across the bow of the good ship Walvis Bay Niel Terblanche
The Municipality of Walvis Bay came under fire by the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) Movement for a lack of transparency and bureaucratising the process of land distribution under the Massive Urban Land Servicing Project (MULSP). This statement was made by Job Amupanda, the leader of the AR movement during a meeting to update his followers. He said that September is the third month since an agreement was concluded with government on the need for a policy shift to address the land question. “Walvis Bay remains problematic for a number of reasons. The implementation committee is currently looking at what is to be
done for Walvis Bay. Although there is significant and considerable progress, we are not happy with the pace of the program. We feel there exists a lack of clarity and have encountered attempts to bureaucratise the program. We are now devising plans for countering these clear stumbling blocks,” Amupanda said. At the same meeting Amupanda proposed that Windhoek must get 50 000 serviced erven, the highest number of plots from the 200 000 to be availed under the land clearing exercise. He also proposed that Walvis should clear and service 15 000 plots while Swakopmund is earmarked for 10 000 serviced plots. “The land clearing activities Continued on Page 3