Namibia Embassy Berlin -
Regierungsmitteilungen
Anti-Corruption Commission publishes Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2016 - 2019
The Government of the Republic of Namibia signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on the 9th of December 2003 and ratified it on the 3rd of August 2004. Article 5 of the UNCAC requires State Parties to develop and implement a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
The said article reads as follows: “Article 5: Preventive anti-corruption policies and practices 1. Each State Party shall, in accordance with the fundamental principles of its legal system, develop and implement or maintain effective, coordinated anti-corruption policies that promote the participation of society and reflect the principles of the rule of law, proper management of public affairs and public property, integrity, transparency and accountability.”
In Namibia, this process had started as early as 1996 with the appointment of a Technical Committee on the Promotion of Ethics and Combating of Corruption by the Office of the Prime Minister, which made wide-ranging recommendations for a National Integrity Strategy for Namibia based on the inputs of many local stakeholders and international experts. These recommendations ultimately led to the enactment of the Anti-Corruption Act, 2003 (Act No. 8 of 2003) and the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
In 2013, the Anti-Corruption Commission appointed a technical working committee to oversee the development of a specific National Anti-Corruption Strategy through an extensive consultative process. Consultative public hearings to discuss issues to be included in the National Anti-Corruption Strategy were conducted throughout Namibia by the Anti-Corruption Commission and the technical working committee. Consultations also included discussions with specific stakeholders, experts and academics, an investigation into international best practices, a literature study as well as a study of all relevant national laws and international treaties and conventions signed and/or ratified by the Government of the Republic of Namibia. Personal submissions were also received. This National Anti-Corruption Strategy is the result of these extensive consultative processes and studies.
MPs talk climate change
New Era, November 30, 2016, by Elvis Muraranganda
photo: Werner Niebel, reweni; please click on the photo to enlarge the picture
Namibian members of parliament have pledged to join the rest of the global village to ensure that the country maximizes her sustainable resource management measures in order to protect mother earth. This pledge was made during a meeting between the Namibia Conservation Parliamentary Caucus (NACOPAC) with local stakeholders in the conservation field.
It was the first-ever stakeholder engagement forum on wildlife management and was sponsored by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF).
“As legislators, we are very sensitive towards the sustainable management of our resources in such a way that they can benefit both our current and future generations,” said NACOPAC chairperson and Swapo MP Bernadette Jagger. She said Namibia will join the global fight on climate change “because the degradation of our planet is at the peril of mankind”. “Namibia like many other countries has not been spared the wrath of global warming and its consequential externalities of climate change,” she said. Jagger told the meeting that currently the country has faced an over two-year prolonged drought, which is threatening to deplete potable water sources. To make matters worse, most of Namibia is a semi-arid/arid country, implying that it is a landscape which is “highly susceptible to degradation and thus intricately fragile”. “To aggravate this challenge, like the rest of the region, we have been infiltrated by international environmental crime syndicates, which have recruited both internationally and locally and are trespassing in our conservation areas to poach our rhinos and elephants.”
Read more...Geingob woos French investors
New Era, November 30, 2016, by Staff Reporters
Namibia has a world-class financial system, modern shopping malls and top hotels and lodges that provide a high standard of living for investors who would want to invest and live in Namibia.
This was the message of President Hage Geingob at the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) business event held in Paris yesterday morning.
“Namibia’s institutions are strong. Our judiciary is independent and the rule of law prevails,” Geingob told potential French investors. He said currently Namibia is working hard to continuously strengthen the country’s governance architecture.
“We believe accountability and transparency are important to increase trust levels between all stakeholders in a democratic society and in the world,” he said. “As potential investors we would like to assure that you can put your trust in Namibia’s institutions and political system,” he added. He said Namibia has a conducive environment for doing business, while its physical infrastructure is on par with that of the developed world. “Medical services and recreational facilities are available,” he noted. On the continent, he said, Namibia sets the pace when it comes to macro-economic architecture. He cited its well contained debt in relation to GDP, with an internal default rating by Fitch of BBB-; robust economic growth, although there is a slight slowdown in economic activity this year; huge contractual savings in search of local investment opportunities, and a sound banking system that is rated 22nd in the world by the World Economic Forum, as some of the key indicators that attest to the strength of its macro-economic architecture.
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STANDING BY COMRADES ... Former Presidents Hifikepunye Pohamba (left) and Sam Nujoma are in Cuba to attend the memorial service of Fidel Castro; please click on the photo to enlarge image.
FORMER Namibian heads of state Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba left for Cuba yesterday to attend the memorial service of former Cuban president Fidel Castro. They departed from the Hosea Kutako International Airport at around 11h00. Castro died on Friday at the age of 90 and a memorial service will be held in his honour in Havana today.
The two former presidents will join President Hage Geingob for the memorial service. Geingob is currently in France for an official visit. President Geingob was scheduled to meet with France's president François Hollande yesterday before flying to Cuba. He will then travel to the UK, where he is amongst others expected to have an audience with Queen Elizabeth II.
In an earlier interview with Nampa, Nujoma described Castro as a legendary, revolutionary leader who has earned his place in modern history through his strong stance against imperialism and exceptional resilience against colonialism. Nujoma last saw Castro when he paid him a visit on 29 September during an official visit to Cuba.
The Cuban government has declared nine days of mourning starting Saturday. Castro's remains were cremated on Saturday and the mourning period will include a tour of his ashes throughout Cuba. A State funeral will then be held on 4 December 2016. Castro's rescue operation during the attack on the Namibian refugee camp in Cassinga, Angola, by South African troops in 1978, and the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, are some of his memorable contributions to Namibia's liberation struggle.
After the Cassinga attacks in 1978, a group of survivors went to Cuba in 1979. Most of them grew up in Cuba, where they continued with their studies. Today, many of them are doctors, nurses, teachers and journalists.
Under Castro's leadership, Cuba not only contributed to the lives of Namibians, but also Africans at large. Between 1987 and 1988, Cuban troops aided Angolan troops as they encountered South African forces along the Namibian border, which eventually led to Namibia's independence. – Nampa
November 28, 2016, by Kuzeeko Tjitemisa
President Hage Geingob this week remembered the late Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, by reflecting on the Cubans’ role in the historic Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola, widely regarded as the hammer blow that broke the back of South African military aggression and forced the apartheid regime to the negotiation table.The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1989 turned the tide against the invading South African army and proved to be their Waterloo.
Geingob said Cuban internationalist forces combined with Angolan forces and Swapo’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan), stood united and together defeated the forces of apartheid.
“The 1989 battle was as much about ideology as it was about the survival of all the parties involved, as South Africa represented a retrogressive ideology,” recalled Geingob, who was among tens of thousands of Namibian exiles in those years. He said it was a watershed moment in the southern African liberation struggle and in the fight for Namibian independence, as it led to the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 435, which paved the way for Namibia’s independence in 1990. In short, he said the unwavering commitment of Fidel Castro, who died on Friday aged 90, to Namibia’s freedom greatly advanced the destruction of apartheid in Namibia. “True to his revolutionary heart, Castro had no interest other than the liberation of the oppressed,” President Geingob noted.
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