Ohlthaver & List, through its subsidiary Consortium Fisheries has acquired the remaining 40% share in Hangana Seafood. This follows the termination of a shareholder agreement with Kuiseb Holdings (Irvin & Johnson and Naras Investment) on 16 April 2004 in Walvis Bay. Consortium Fisheries now holds 100%, O&L announced on Wednesday. The new agreement terminates all previous arrangements with I&J excluding the cancellable agency- and distribution agreement.

Mr Sven Thieme, Chairman/CEO of O&L confirmed the transaction, saying Hangana Seafood was now a fully Namibian-owned-company. No details of the transaction costs were disclosed. Hangana Seafood is a leading Namibian producer of fish-products, mainly white fish. The company was launched as a joint venture between Consortium Fisheries and Kuiseb Holdings in 1997. Hangana, which was riddled with labour problems earlier this year, engages in the catching, processing and export of white fish to Europe, the US and Australia.

President Sam Nujoma will launch the Omahenene Aquaculture Centre in the Omusati region on Friday. The development of the Omahenene Aquaculture Centre was set up in 2003 after the government of the Xunta de Galacia province in Spain donated funds and sent two experts for assistance.

The breeding of tilapia (bream) and catfish has already started.
The project will serve as a breeding and training centre for fish farming and will also supply fingerlings to the Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, Kunene and Ohangwena regions. The Spanish provincial fisheries minister will also be present at the inauguration. Only last week Nujoma visited the Eco Fish Farm near the Hardap dam outside Mariental.

The government’s newly introduced e-fuel system, aimed at curbing fuel theft and reducing fuel costs will be launched next Monday.

The replaces the order books system currently used by the government Garage when official vehicles are filled at authorised private service stations. The new computerised system will reduce government fuel cost currently around N$ 24 million. The government looses around 5% petrol consumption due to theft. The e-fuel system will make theft virtually impossible as the fuel pump, identity code of the vehicle and the service stations are linked through a computer system.

Telecom Namibia informed of a telephone and mobile service outage on Friday, 23rd April 2004, that will affect thousands of fixed-line and mobile phone users in the majority of Windhoek-South areas. The customers that will be affected are those connected to transmission switches at Klein Windhoek, Olympia, Cimbebasia, the Earth Station, Avis, Luiperdsvallei and Maerua Park. Cellular phone customers dialling through the Olympia transmission switches will also be affected. The outage will occur as a result of a software upgrade of the Windhoek-South telecommunications equipment in order to improve the reliability of services. The affected customers will not be able to make or receive calls on Friday, 23rd April, as from 23h00 to 6h00 the Saturday morning. Any complaints or problems that these customers might experience after the software upgrade should be reported to our Customer Service Centre at 1155.