Month: May 2020

Finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi yesterday tabled a N$72.8 billion national budget, largely aimed at restarting a Namibian economy that – just as the rest of the world – has been brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic.  

A five-month-old baby slept outside in a tent for the past two nights with its mother after their shack was razed to the ground on Sunday. 
They will spend more frigid nights outside, as the mother, employed as a cleaner, is unable to immediately rebuild the shack from her meagre income. Two other children of 40-year-old Rosalia Andjelu are temporarily accommodated by their neighbours.  

While economic analysts conceded that yesterday’s budget by finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi is aimed at reinvigorating a domestic economy ravaged by Covid-19, they emphasised the necessity to look beyond the financial and social effects of the pandemic and stressed the need to put more money into productive areas.  This is despite the fact that the prevalence of Covid-19 has brought about considerable uncertainty on the domestic economic outlook and has induced a significant downturn on economic activities and public revenue, with elevated public debt as a consequence.  

One of the men accused of conspiring with those implicated in the fisheries bribery scandal to divert N$75.6 million from the State-owned National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) for their benefit has approached the court for bail consideration. 

WALVIS BAY - Several Walvis Bay residents have been ordered to self-quarantine after a new case of coronavirus was recorded at the town, bringing the total of active Covid-19 cases in the Erongo region to two. 

WALVIS BAY – Transport companies or truck owners operating on cross-border routes will no longer be allowed to quarantine their drivers at truck ports, health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula announced yesterday.