Namibian media were informed literally minutes before Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab met Prince Alweed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday afternoon to discuss business deals. Even the book launch of one of the kingpins in the Namibian independence process, UNTAG manager Cedric Thornberry, had to be postponed at the last minute. According to a media statement issued on Wednesday, Gurirab said the Prince was interested to buy into the financially weak Windhoek Country Club, a legacy of a Swapo and later government alliance with the dubious company Stocks & Stocks RSA. According to Gurirab, who was criticised this week by human rights activist Phil ya Nangoloh for using an official trip to the Caprivi for electioneering, Saudi Arabia was also interested in aquaculture or fish farming. Prince Alweed apparently, one of the four richest people in the world, also offered to help with helicopters, boats and trucks to help Caprivi flood victims.

After taking over the liquidated Namco diamond mining company in Namibia, the Israeli Lev Leviev Group will start a joint venture with the Namibian arm of Diamond Field International (DFI), based in Vancouver. Canada. Samicor Mining Services, as the LL diamond-mining venture in Namibia is called, will mine the offshore licence block ML 1111 near Lüderitz harbour from June 2004. The 3 300 tonne vessel of Samicor, mv Kovambo, which formerly belonged to Namco, will be used. It is equipped with a third generation seabed crawler and fully integrated diamond processing plant, developed for a total of US$ 30 million in Cape Town. The vessel will be ready by June. The seabed crawler is a 160 tonne remote controlled tracked mining vehicle with high production capacity. "We believe the joint venture with Diamond Fields will prove to be a powerful alliance with one of the world’s largest diamond conglomerates," said Gregg Sedun, president and chief executive officer of DFI, announcing the joint venture in a media statement this week. "We look forward to a significant increase in the level of diamond production from ML1111, resulting in enhanced cash flow for the Company," he added.

The holding defence industry company of the Ministry of Defence, August 26 Holding Pty Ltd, announced a change in management. Founding CEO, Lt. General Raonga Andima who was seconded by the NDF to start the company in 1998, has retired last month, although he only turned 55 on March 2 this year. According to the announcement, which was made this week, Colonel Leonard Nambahu, who retired from the NDF to take up this post, followed Andima. Subsidiaries of August 26 Holding are August 26-Congo, which looks after a diamond mine in the DRC, received as present for Namibia’s involvement in the DRC and Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik (WMF), which constructs the Wer’wolf Mk II combat vehicle. A few years ago, August 26 was in the headlines because of the dubious diamond interests in the DRC and a 20% stake in a joint venture with island Finance belonging to an Israeli investor Gershon Ben-Tovim and Virgo Mining, belonging to Russian national Kirill Choubski. August 26 was to buy 3 mining vessels for offshore diamond mining and they would be chartered by Namdeb at a rate of US$ 21 000 and 22 000 a day. The estranged wife of Mr Ben-Tovim, Sara, revealed this in court papers in 2001.