The managing director of Nedbank Namibia, Martin Shipanga will quit his post by 31 December 2005. He was appointed only 2 years ago. Board chairman Theo Frank said in a statement Shipanga would take up a post with a technology company, but the name of the firm was not disclosed. Although not a banker by profession, Shipanga was well respected during his time at Nedbank and he was instrumental in transforming the bank, which was previously known as Commercial Bank.

An average economic growth of 4.4 percent was recorded from 2000 to 2004, the governor of the Bank of Namibia (BoN) said. The year 2004 in particular saw a robust performance of the Namibian economy with a respectable growth of 6%, Tom Alweendo said during his annual address at the end of last week. "This was the second highest growth rate recorded over the last 5 years, the highest - 6.7% recorded in 2002", the governor stated at the gala event. The strong economic performance was mainly due to increased production of zinc, textiles, and diamonds. However, the economic growth for 2005 is forecast at around 3.2% only, mainly attributed to the slowdown in both diamond and uranium production as well as contraction of the fishing sector of minus 8%. High oil prices and the strong local currency were the main causes for the fishing industry woes, Alweendo said.

Although President Pohamba called on all concerned parties on Monday to settle the grazing dispute among Oukwanyama cattle herders and the Kwangali traditional authorities peacefully, tensions are rising. Last Saturday police issued eviction orders to 40 cattle herders, using grazing without the permission of Kwangali Chief Sitendu Mpasi. The must withdraw their livestock by this Saturday, 26 November. However, they refused saying illegal fences set up by wealthy Oukwanyama and Ondonga business people along the border to the Western Okavango Region should be removed. Some Kwangalis have reportedly taken over some 20 wells dug by Oukwanyama herdsman who allegedly "chase away" the Oukwanyamas. This weekend further protest meetings are planned. Last month, the government told all illegal herders to get out by the end of October, only a few did so.

The recent events where money invested got lost have generated widespread debate over the role of the Bank of Namibia (BoN) and Namfisa – the 2 regulators of financial institutions in Namibia. Questions were raised by the public on the role of these 2 institutions in investment management. To put things in proper perspective, let me start with explaining the general roles of these two institutions. At the risk of stating the obvious, the Bank of Namibia regulates and supervises to promote a sound and stable banking system. On the other hand,

Namfisa regulates and oversees the operations of the non-banking financial institutions and the services they provide. It will be an omission if I do not add that no matter how good the regulations are, they cannot themselves detect or prevent fraud. "The effective tool against mismanagement of investments lies in robust internal controls, ethics, due diligence, and entrusting the management of funds in the hands of those that have skills and knowledge to accomplish the aims of the investment mandate given", Alweendo said. Further, the introduction and enactment of the Financial Intelligence Centre Bill will also contribute to the combating of economic and financial crime in general – hence the speedy enactment of the bill is of essence.

A young and well-respected government lawyer, Job Kozonguizi has died from sudden heart failure a few days ago, aged only 37, the ministry of justice announced. The nephew of Namibia’s first ombudsman, Fanuel Kozonguizi, will be buried at Aminuis this weekend. Although unmarried, he is survived by 3 children. Last year, Job Kozonguizi was promoted to deputy prosecutor general and he was instrumental in leading evidence against over 120 Caprivi secession suspects, when the first court sessions started at Grootfontein 5 years ago.

The National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) called on the Namibia Employers Federation (NEF) to "stop stalling" the implementation of the new labour law, which is set to come into force early next year. Claims that the increased leave days for employees as stipulated in the new law would cost N$ 167 million in production losses as claimed by a study done for the NEF, were dismissed by Evaristus Kaaronda, deputy secretary general of the NUNW. "The new law left out tenure rights on farms for farm labourers and it does not outlaw labour hire", Kaaronda told reporters on Wednesday. However, the NEF last week claimed at a business meeting that the Bill was changed without consultations by the government when introduced to Parliament in 2004 and that the Labour Advisory Council was unaware of the last minute changes.

Telecom Namibia today signed a contract with Huawei company for the piloting of a rural wireless local loop telecommunications system, popularly known as
CDMA2000, the company announced this week. Under the contract, Huawei Technologies will provide Telecom Namibia with CDMA network equipment for pilot implementation in Otjiwarongo over three months. The Telecom Namibia MD Frans Ndoroma and Mr. Sky Peng, general manager of Huawei Telecommunication Technologies Namibia, in Windhoek, signed the agreement. CDMA2000 1x technology represents one step above current second generation (2G) CDMA and is generally referred to as a 2.5G technology. It allows data transmission at speeds up to 153K bps (bits per second) and is backwards-compatible with earlier CDMA technology, making it easy to upgrade for both carriers and consumers. According to Mr. Jason Lin, product manager of Huawei in Southern Africa, the CDMA equipment will arrive in Namibia by the end of December. Huawei’s CDMA products have been deployed in over 50 countries, including Portugal and the USA, serving 17 million users across the globe.