Apartheid-era laws in firing line
KEETMANSHOOP – Discriminatory and apartheid-era laws need to be amended as a matter of urgency, says Yolandé Engelbrecht, a paralegal for the gender research and advocacy project at the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC).
Engelbrecht said this during a training session for professionals on the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA), which forms part of family laws in Namibia in Keetmanshoop last week.
She explained that understanding this new CCPA that came into effect in 2019 is one part of it, but implementing it correctly is quite challenging.
“Hence the objective of this training by the LAC is to discuss this Act in order to become user friendly,’’ Engelbrecht emphasized, citing marriages in accordance with the ‘red line’ customary law as one of the previous apartheid laws, she raised the concern that it affects partners negatively when it comes to them divorcing at some stage of their marriage.
“This law does not allow for couples to enter into matrimony in community of property, thus resulting in many conflicts when it comes to the distribution of assets and finances should one partner dies,’’ she said.
The paralegal added since this Act only applies to areas in the country north of Oshivelo, traditional values are always in conflict with this.
She also said that in some instances white people married off black persons in this area, not aware of the laws applicable when they are getting divorced, thus disadvantaging them at the end of the day.
Another example of these laws, according to her, is the law pertaining to sodomy.
“If two men are found having sex, it is described as sodomy, which is a criminal act, but in the case of two women found to be having sex, the law is silent, which is highly discriminatory,’’ she then argued.
Engelbrecht went on that this apartheid law should be amended or scrapped since it infringes a person’s human right to equality when it comes to application of the law.
While elaborating on marriages between Namibians and foreigners in terms of Namibian law, she regarded this in some instances as a comfortable ‘business transaction’.
“When these people got married, current legislation determines that, if they get divorced after a period of two years the foreign partner is allowed to stay in Namibia as a permanent resident,’’ the paralegal explained.
Engelbrecht also said some foreigners have exploited this loophole before, disappearing to their place of origin after marriage, only to return just before the two-year period lapsed in order to qualify for staying in Namibia.
Dear ministers of basic and higher education, I am writing to you on behalf of hundreds of concerned TVET instructors who are currently teaching prevocational subjects in our primary and junior secondary schools across Namibia. I wish to draw your attention to two unique situations: one, Namibia has a vibrant vocational education and training system, which trains artisans with up to NQF level 6 exit qualifications. Most such artisans teach in our public and private TVET centres countrywide. Many of these artisans are unqualified instructors with NQF level 4-6 teaching qualifications obtained from recognised local or international universities.
The Namibia Training Authority (NTA), the custodian of TVET in the country can attest to the veracity of the financial and personal details of all the current qualified TVET graduates countrywide.
Two, the newly revised curriculum for basic education, which comprises pre-vocational subjects, requires graduates with trade-related qualifications. You will agree that most professionally qualified teachers in basic education do not have traderelated qualifications. Indeed, they are qualified in other fields, but can you imagine what happens if we risk implementing a pre-vocational integrated curriculum without teachers with relevant technical expertise. I can already hear you saying, ‘it will be catastrophic.’ And you are right. Why? Because naturally, it is a good practice worldwide to employ highly qualified teachers at lower phases to avoid the situation of a ‘blind leading the blind.’
Evidence shows that recently, many schools have begun hiring teachers with both technical knowhow and teaching qualifications. In my opinion, such schools should be commended for their intentions to raise the quality of teaching and learning in Namibia. I am convinced that children in such schools will learn better than their counterparts in schools without technically sound teachers.
Strictly speaking, the decision to integrate pre-vocational subjects in the revised school curriculum was three-fold: first, to develop children’s skills in various areas of their social life, second, to teach socially desirable values among children, and third, to prepare children to develop a positive mindset towards the world of work. What many people do not know is that the ‘quality of learning depends on the quality of its teachers.’ As career educators yourselves, you will agree that employing qualified and technically skilled teachers leads to improve learning outcomes across the school system. Also, I am sure we all agree that motivated teachers lead to inspired learners, which in turn improves learners’ desire to learn and achieve better results. Generally, we all agree that inferior education and bad teaching negatively affect children’s current and future lives. You and I can appreciate and celebrate our current political and educational achievements, but none of us can be proud of the inferior Bantu Education system that we went through. You are I are lucky to have survived the system and none of us can wish our children to experience the education system of yesteryear. Bantu Education turned thousands of our unfortunate age mates into ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water.’ We are in Namibia’s 21st century and our children deserve a better learning environment. Article 20 of our constitution despises inferior teaching of any shape. Today, learner school dropouts continue unabated. We can only imagine how many Grade 7 learners from this year’s intake will pass, let alone reach Grade 11, at best. How many Grade 1 children enrolled in 2021 will make it to university in 2038. Imagine!
This letter has two dimensions that require your immediate attention and action. The first dimension submits that while some schools in Namibia have and continue to hire artisan graduates with teaching qualifications, such individuals are branded ‘unqualified teachers’. The question is: ‘why does the vocational training system classify these teachers as qualified but basic education labels them unqualified? In the Namibian context, the term ‘unqualified teachers’ denotes those educators who hold an academic or trade qualification without a professional teacher training certificate. Are the artisans currently teaching at basic education schools with a professional qualification from a recognised university unqualified? And why?
The second dimension submits that basic education appoints artisans who are qualified to teach at vocational centres as temporary teachers. Evidence shows that some of these artisans have been teaching for more than five years as temporary teachers. There are several questions to unscramble this situation: How many years must they teach before they become permanent teachers? What are the criteria for appointing temporary teachers? Why does Namibia continue to implement an inconsistent dual teacher placement policy regime for what appears to be a seamless pre-vocational-cum-vocational national curriculum? What are the policy provisions regarding the appointment and management of temporary teachers, including their professional development? As ministers of the two ministries of education, I urge you to take immediate action to:
• investigate the accuracy of the information about the current appointment and temporary teachers’ policies of the ministry of basic education, and
• harmonise and restructure the policy instruments of the two ministries of education to respond to the curriculum needs of the Namibian people.
The labour ministry issued a statement late last week confirming that payments to security service providers are up-to-date. The Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation (MLIREC) stated this is contrary to a New Era report that it delayed payments, but at the same time admitted a slight delay with the January 2021 payment “due to invoice verification”.
The Namibia Security Guards and Watchmen’s Union (NASGWU) in an article titled “Security union decries ‘late’ payments”, published in New Era on 4 March 2021, claimed the labour ministry was among other government ministries continuously making delayed payments.
“This is totally inaccurate. It should also be made known that NASGWU is one of the defaulting trade unions for many years hence unaccountable to their members and acting contrary to their registration obligations. Such allegations made by the NASGWU are unfounded and irrational. It appears that such claims were made by the union without first establishing facts. The ministry had an outstanding invoice as stated above for a certain security company that has already been settled at this stage. However, the delay emanated from an unexplained pay rate per hour that is not in line with the tender as awarded to that company in question,” read a statement from labour ministry executive director, Bro-Matthew Shinguadja.
The ED added that the ministry regularly honours its financial obligations to its service providers including those in the security industry, emphasising that all invoices for the security service providers have been settled, except for service rendered in February 2021, which he said is currently being processed. Shinguadja continued that an SMS in The Namibian, also on 4 March 2021, claimed that security guards in Tsumkwe have not been paid for three months. “This ministry would like to set the record straight that it does not have an office in Tsumkwe. The author of the SMS is therefore advised to directly contact the ministry to provide factual information so that the ministry makes possible investigations if needed,” said Shinguadja. He further advised the public to first verify with the ministry if payments to service providers have been made or not.
Letshego Holdings Namibia financial results for the financial year ending 31 December 2020 indicate an after-tax profit of N$341 million. Apart from this solid performance amidst reduced economic activity from a recession and the pandemic, Letshego’s business model continues to expand its banking solutions to several of its access points across the country.
Amidst challenging economic conditions experienced in 2019 and which continue to pervade the 2020 financial year, economic activity remained subdued across the key economic sectors and the Covid-19 pandemic added to the headwinds facing the domestic and global economies. Letshego Namibia, however, faced these challenges head on as it made significant progress in its transformational journey and remained focused on achieving its strategic agenda.
Apart from the challenges faced due to the pandemic, 2020 was a transformative year for Letshego Namibia, with digital transformation at the centre of activities to support business continuity and ensure that its customers and people’s safety and well-being are prioritised. The transformation was underpinned by the implementation of digital channels and supported by call centre with staff working remotely. As a result of the effort, digital adoption increased to 64% in Namibia in December 2020.
Chairperson of the board of directors of Letshego Holdings Namibia Maryvonne Palanduz commented: “We take pride in our consistent delivery in terms of our service and product offering, which are now geared towards the digitisation of all our service and product channels. Our shareholders remain an integral part of our growth path and we remain optimistic to continue delivering despite economic challenges”.
Highlights from Letshego Namibia’s financial results include advances to customers, which grew by 24% in comparison to 2019; customer deposit mobilisation kicked off in 2020 with a growth from N$43 million at end 2019 to N$187 million at the end of 2020, representing a substantial growth of a N$144 million.
With such results, CEO Ester Kali made remarked on the performance: “We have seen positive results in the performance of our digital channels during 2020 with growth in our mobile banking transactions values almost four-fold from N$41 million in 2019 to N$140 million by the end of 2020. We were able to successfully rollout digital customer onboarding and alternative channels solutions to avert the impact of Covid-19 on customer volumes”.
An interesting observation despite the push for card-less transactions, card transaction values more than doubled to N$379 million comparing to the 2019 amount of N$154 million. Apart from these notable figures, the key drivers to this transformation included adopting enterprise-wide agility, the conversion of traditional direct sales agents (DSAs) into digital eagles to re-educate customers to transition from traditional channels to remote digital alternatives.
“Letshego Namibia remains focused on improving the lives of its customers and communities through financial literacy initiatives aimed at promoting productive lending, encouraging a culture of savings as well as rewarding longstanding customer relationships,” Kali concluded.