While the Namibian Police could scale down and even terminate its services because of a lack of finances, and while half of the President’s Budget (N$ 90 million of the N$ 186 million) will go towards the construction of the new State House, rumours have it that after the combined publishing of the "Southern Times", taxpayers might have to cough up for another Zimbabwe-Namibian project: a joint TV and radio station.

During this week the Minister for Broadcasting and Information defended an amount of some N$ 94 million, which is earmarked for the NBC, Nampa and New Era. The national broadcaster NBC will receive N$ 84,4 million, the news agency NAMPA gets N$ 5,6 million and the New Era another N$ 4 million.

Of the NBC‘s N$ 84,4 million, some N$ 25,1 million are earmarked for investments and the rest for operating costs (mainly salaries).

Defending her budget, the Minister claimed that it was a national plight to inform, entertain and build the nation.

The New Era is published daily - and moved into a new editorial building, which ladt year cost some N$ 6 million.

A problem seems to be the advertising contents of the „Southern Times", but trhe Minister did not mention the efforts which are undertaken jointly with Zimbabwe.

At the time of establishing the weekly, it was aimed at rectifying the „distorted picture about SADC states".