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NamPower donation towards education

Namibia’s power utility, NamPower will again pay bursaries for 16 new students, bringing the total number of students sponsored by NamPower to 146. AS a reault, the bursary budget will increase by N$640 000, considering that on average N$40 000 is spent annually per student. NamPower’s total bursary budget is N$ 5,8 million for 2005, according to Dr Leake Hangala, MD of the company.

The students will study Electrical Engineering (3 students), Mechanical Engineering (2),Civil Engineering (3), Electronic Engineering (1), Information Technology (1), Actuarial Science (3) and Psychology (2),

At the same occasion on Wednesday, NamPower donated 16 computers and 3 fax machines to a number of schools selected from various regions in Namibia.

Hangala also handed over cheques totalling N$23 000 to 7 beneficiaries, including 6 schools, mainly form remote rural areas.

A cheque of N$120 000 was received by the Namibian Mathematics and Science Teachers Association (NAMSTA). All in all the total sum of donations declared on Wednesday came to just above N$ 800 000.

Work at Windhoek dual Road delayed

The fairly late decision of the Windhoek municipality to opt for a traffic circle on the conjunction of Robert Mugabe Road extension at the entry to the northern industrial area will delay the project by 9 months. The N$115million project is to relieve traffic problems at the Simon De Wit bridge section and will only end in November 2005.

Windhoek City’s communications and marketing manager Ndangi Katoma on Tuesday said work on the new traffic circle will last until the beginning of April and the rest of the works will then completed afterwards.
The northern section of Independence Avenue needs to be closed between the Fire Brigade entrance and the intersection with Hosea Kutako Drive for roughly 4 months. According to Katoma the delay however was caused by "extraordinary rains experienced in the capital during the months of October and November 2004.

The city’s management, according to Katoma, is therefore apologizing for any inconveniences caused to motorists and general members of the public during the course of the construction activities but we however trust that we all share a common understanding of the noble objective of this project.

Farm Workers donate for Tsunami victims

Eight farm workers from Farm Hohenau some 60 kms west of Windhoek donated N$130 to the Namibia Tsunami Relief Fund. In a fax to the Red Cross this week the group said they will deposit the money into the account on Friday. "We felt pity for the suffering people in the Tsunami stricken countries and that is why we decided to contribute," according to Julius Abraham one of the workers, and his wife, Hileni. Anke Halenke, the farm owner said she was amazed when the workers got their January salary, told her to keep amounts raging from N10 to N$20 each for the Tsunami victims. They told her that they learnt through the media that people can donate as little as ten Namibia dollars.

Court stops new Koeberg Nuclear Plant

The Cape Town High Court on Wednesday overruled the ministry of environmental affairs’ decision to allow the construction of a multi-billion rand pebble bed modular reactor (PBMC) at Koeberg near Cape Town. Judge Ben Griesel ordered that environment affairs director-general Chippy Oliver allow Earthlife Africa and other interested parties "an opportunity of addressing further written submissions to him".

Griesel ruled Oliver should consider those submissions before making a new decision on the mini-reactor. Earthlife Africa had argued that the environmental impact report on which Olver made his decision contained a substantial number of documents that were not previously available to the public. These included extracts from a safety analysis report.

Griesel ordered that Oliver and giant power utility Eskom, the second respondent, pay Earthlife’s costs. Earthlife’s spokesperson Liz McDaid said Earthlife was "very happy. It’s a big victory."

Earthlife Africa has been fighting the pebble bed atomic reactor for 5 years. All the info that was kept secret could now be exposed and checked, McDaid told reporters in Cape Town. "They haven’t finished the design so how can they claim it’s safe?" she asked. Germany some 40 years ago stopped experimenting with the construction of pebble bed atomic reactors, which are smaller than existing large reactors to supply electricity from nuclear fuel, coming from processed uranium. The reasinw as allegedly that it was a redundant method.

Otjiku farm workers allegedly dumped

The plight of farmworkers at affirmative action transactions has one more been highlighted with labourers locked out by the new owner after Mr Uwe Hoenck allegedly sold the farm to a Damara-spekaing Namibian, Mr Hermann Awaseb. According to the NBC television news of this week, the problem started when the previous farm owner, Hoenck, sold the farm to Herman Awaseb allegeldy without informing the workers beforehand.
The new farm owner locked the workers and their families out last week, disconnected their water supply and removed a roof of a house where the workers lived so far. It appeared that Awaseb does not need the farm workers from the previous owner. The goivernemntn has however set in place an interim anti-eviction policy in 2004 to put a stop to the dumping of farm workers. At appears that Awaseb is not aware of this. Otjiku Farm lies between Okahandja and Otjiwarongo Meanwhile, Alfred Angula, secretary general of the tiny Namibia Farmworkers’ Union (NAFWU), said his union woueld investigate the matter.
Angula told reporters that the previous and new farm owners should have agreed on some procedures what to do with the farmworkers.