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Brewery makes new Pilsener beer

Namibia Breweries has introduced a new ’old’ beer this week, the Hansa Pilsener. A beer of the same name was available until 1983, when it was discontinued. Now the Hansa Pilsener is back, but with a 5 % alcohol content, cold filtered and extra matured tom give a distinctive taste of smooth bitterness and rounded full bodied taste. The beer is only sold in Namibia and it is of course brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot (purity law) of 1516. Equally, the beer with the same name of brewed by SABMiller, the largest brewery on the world and based in South Africa,

May not be imported to Namibia, as per mutual agreement, according to Sven Thieme, MD and board chairman of Ohlthaver & List, the mother company of Namibia Breweries. The new Hansa Pilsener marks the 85th anniversary of Namibia Breweries, which started back in 1920. The beer comes in a handy quart (750 ml) refundable bottle – a consideration for the environment - and in smart green aluminium cans.

Start of new Uranium Mine Delayed

The Langer Heinrich Uranium (LHU) company has not started construction at the site in the Namib Desert, which was planned for 1 June 2005 as it is still waiting to be issued with a mining licence. The company is a subsidiary of Paladin Resources in Australia. Paladin submitted an environmental impact assessment and an application for a mining licence the Namibian ministry of mines and energy at the end of April 2005. At the same time, Paladin announced it would start with construction this month behind the Blutkuppe in the Namibia Naukluft Park. The first uranium would be produced after 15 months in September 2006. This period is not feasible, an official of LHU told PLUS from Swakopmund this week, because it was still waiting for the granting of the licence.

Walvis Municipality helps Unemployed

The Walvis Bay municipality undertook a laudable step recently when it offered casual work to people in townships who were in arrears with school fees for their children. The water, waste and environmental management department of the town approached the Tutaleni primary school to identify parents struggling to pay the fees. Twenty unemployed parents were hired to clean up the dunes near the landfill site. Old tyres, plastic bags and waste paper, the latter strewn by the wind, are collected. According to the municipality’s newsletter Bay News, all partners benefit form the arrangement: the area gets cleaned, a portion of the earnings got to the payment of school fees, the parents earn money and the Tutaleni school can remove 20 names from the arrears list. This coming weekend the Walvis Bay municipality organises clean up campaigns at Langstrand for schools to be continued each day at various other spots in town until June 10.