Former government employees receiving a pension from the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) since 1989 will start an association under the auspices of the GIPF, they decided on Tuesday. The GIPF had invited some 50 GIPF pensioners to Windhoek to discuss the plans. Only about 30 were present, mostly white pensioners. However, GIPF boss Primus Hango put them at ease, saying they had served in a different era and they could speak Afrikaans if they wanted to. Hango said the GIPF could draw from their experience and wisdom and that they were " a different generation, that earned respect". Some 11 000 retired government officials are beneficiaries of the GIPF plus 9000 spouses and orphans of deceased government officials. Hango said the aim of the association was to set up branches in all 13 regions so that networking and communication could take place among pensioners and with the GIPF. Often enough letters to beneficiaries did not reach them, as well as their pension due to changed address and lack of communication. Administrative problems relating to documents like the annual certificate of life would be minimised by setting up the association, according to Hango. "Problems, investigations and social plights can be solved quicker through this body", the GIPF boss said. The idea was taken up with great enthusiasm by those present and branches will be established in due course.

The powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has started an initiative together with other pressure groups in Cape Town this week to fight poverty. According to South African media reports, this action is seen as a challenge to the ANC government. The new coalition includes the South African Council of Churches and the AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).

Cosatu’s Western Cape secretary, Tony Ehrenreich said the drive was aimed at mobilising support for Cosatu’s strike action against job losses, scheduled for next month. In the last year about 12,000 jobs were lost in the clothing and textile manufacturing sector; 1,500 in the metal industry, and at least 7,000 in the public sector following the restructuring of the local and provincial governments in the Western Cape, according to Ehrenreich. The campaign is expected to be launched in other provinces over the next few weeks. Unemployment in South Africa has risen from around 16 % in 1994 to about 26 % at present

Records of the Administrator-General (AG) for Namibia, 1979-1989;

Bantu Affairs Commissioner Eastern Caprivi 1930-1971;

records of the Commissioner-General Oshakati 1957-1977;

birth, marriage and death registers 1904-1921 of Grootfontein and Bethanien, which were already taken to South Africa during the First World War!
The return of these archives was completed in three separate
consignments between 2000-2005, after they were microfilmed in South
Africa. The microfilm will remain with the South African National
Archives in Pretoria. Another re-transfer of Magistrate and Town Clerk files of Walvis Bay is in preparation. The library material further consists of books, newspapers and periodicals, which had been delivered by Namibian publishers to South African libraries under South African legal deposit law. They will now be accommodated in the National Library of Namibia. All these records and publications constitute extremely valuable research material on Namibian history. The files of the AG between 1979 and 1989 are a massive resource of 780 archival boxes, covering about 80 metres of shelving. Under the Namibian Archives Act, which prescribes a 30-year closed period, these files are still not generally open to the public. However, files can be made available for scientific research upon individual application. Negotiations about the return of military and police files, which had been unsuccessful in the past, will be resumed, according to Hillebrecht.