Slaughtering of cattle from producers in the northern communal areas has again been delayed due to a faulty boiler at the Meatco abattoir at Oshakati last month, according to Meatco. The northern abattoir was closed for maintenance in February. Repairing the boiler will take until the end of March and slaughtering will start on 4 April 2005.

The faulty boiler was discovered during the annual maintenance check. Jannie Breytenbach, acting senior manager for the northern communal slaughtering areas said final testing on the boiler will be done on 30 and 31 March after which the abattoir will start slaughtering the following Monday. Over 200 cattle are currently in quarantine camps of the Oshakati abattoir. Meatco expects that a further 300 cattle to enter quarantine camps until the end of March. The Oshakati abattoir estimates a slaughtering figure of over 7000 for 2005, which is a 50% increase on the figures for 2004, Meatco said.

Namibia Breweries has appointed Olusegun Adebanji as new Managing Director of the company effective from Friday, 18 March 2005. Adebanji, who has served on the NBL board as a non-executive director until recently, has many years experience at senior management level, acquired through Heineken International and Unilever Plc throughout Africa and in the United Kingdom. A chartered accountant by profession, Adebandji was previously employed as financial manager with Heineken in Amsterdam, responsible for the financial operations of Heineken in sub-Saharan Africa. Before this appointment, he was MD of Ghana Breweries, which was a subsidiary of Heineken International before merging with Guinness Ghana in December 2004. In accepting his appointment, Adebanji said he looked forward to serving "this great company" Namibia Breweries, and was very excited to give his best to the new challenge.