Some 150 Angolan refugees in Namibia are expected to return home next week in the first phase of a voluntary repatriation programme, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last Friday.

The Namibian Government has teamed up with a local company to produce cheap AIDS drugs, Health Minister Dr Libertina Amathila announced. Speaking during a discussion between visiting UN Special Envoy on AIDS Stephen Lewis and a group of Ministers, Amathila said Cabinet last week gave approval for an Ondangwa-based company to produce generic HIV-AIDS drugs that will be affordable to Namibians infected and affected by the disease.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it is running "dangerously low" on rations for Angolan refugees in Namibia. "A corn-soya blend pipeline break is expected in June and breaks for virtually all other commodities in the food basket, including the staple maize meal, in July. Donations are urgently needed for the WFP emergency refugee operation, which is expected to feed about 16,000 refugees in Osire camp and support the planned repatriation programme over the next 12 months," WFP said in its latest situation report.

The recent 2002 report of Transparency International, which gave Namibia reasonably good ratings on the corruption index has probably led to a false sense of complacency and may inadvertently serve to indicate to government and the public at large that Namibia is not a worst-case scenario and that therefore there is little reason to worry.

Namibia's president Sam Nujoma has again said he won't be standing in the 2004 elections for a fourth term, The Namibian newspaper reported last Friday. Speaking at his farm earlier this week, Nujoma said he would stick to the constitutional limits of only two five-year terms, and was only serving his current third term due to a "unanimous" request from the Namibian population.

South Africa and Nigeria were the main architects, protagonists and stakeholders in the process resulting in NEPAD and advocating it as the blue print for Africa's development. Their combined economic and political relevance gave weight to their initiative, which was actively supported by Algeria, Egypt and Senegal as other core countries in the initiative. Critical observers question if this is once again old wine in new bottles. And indeed, its catalogue of socio-economic proposals offers hardly any new conceptual approach. It is largely reflecting in a rather uncritical way the dominant neo-liberal paradigm and discourse of the international financial institutions (World Bank and International Monetary Fund). It hence offers no alternatives to the current trends of economic globalisation but instead adheres to the underlying concept of liberalised trade regimes and the dogma of the private economy.

Red Cross officials have described the situation in eastern Caprivi as "very serious" after floods from the raging Zambezi River submerged settlements and schools. "The floods have so far claimed two lives," they said. The Emergency Management Unit dispatched a team to assess the floods. Humanitarian agents from the Namibia Red Cross Society, assisted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from Botswana, are also in the area assessing the situation.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Mocks Shivute, has told managers at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation to improve their coverage of rural areas.

More than 2 000 needy people have benefited from 70 food-for-work projects across the country, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting says. Some 835 women and 1 230 men have received food in return for labour. The Ministry said in a press statement that Government and NGOs have given 114,4 million Namibia dollars towards the Comprehensive Drought Aid Scheme. Another 24, 8 million Namibia dollars is needed to "fully implement the (drought) scheme".

Cancer in Namibia and the rest of the world is set to increase at an alarming rate, according to the latest World Cancer Report released by the World Health Organisation. It said cancer rates could increase by 50 percent by the year 2020.

Concern is mounting in Namibia over continued low rainfall and its impact on the country's subsistence farmers and agro-industry. "In all the regions the rainfall has been below average and there seems to be a drought looming. According to the weather bureau, the forecast is not promising for the next season," says Sakkie Coetzee, executive manager of the Namibia Agriculture Union.

Many important services are still not accessible to people with disabilities in Namibia, says a released report. The study found that only about 25 per cent of Namibian schools are accessible to disabled children while around 38, 6 per cent of disabled children older than five years have never attended school.

Some members of Namibia's white population have begun a drive to improve race relations in the country and will start with a public apology for apartheid crimes. This emerged after representatives of the churches, trade unions, business and a "reconciliation broker" briefed President Sam Nujoma on the campaign.

Sweden on Friday announced it was giving nearly N$3 million to the Forum For the Future (FFF), a non-governmental organisation.

The Namibia Economic Policy Research Unit has become the latest economic think-tank to criticise the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). In a report, the unit said the recovery plan had "little to offer Namibia". Namibia could benefit, however, from a "neighbourhood effect". If most countries in Africa were stable, peaceful places, trade within Africa would increase and more investment would be attracted. But the think-tank said it was unlikely that Nepad alone could do this.

This Discussion Paper offers a revised lecture by Reinhart Kössler, which was originally presented to a Research Forum organised by The Nordic Africa Institute jointly with the Seminar for Development Studies of Uppsala University. It deals with aspects of rebuilding societies from below firstly in a general development studies discourse on a more theoretical level, considering aspects of the current debate on globalisation. This is followed by a concrete case study from southern Namibia. It illustrates local responses by the Witbooi-Nama in Gibeon to (re-)define identity within the context of a (nation-)state in a post-apartheid society. The paper is commented upon by two discussants (Per Strand and Henning Melber).

The millions of dollars pumped into the training of teachers and the construction of schools could be rendered null and void by HIV-AIDS. Education authorities have released a report which predicts that around 3 360 people, or 20 per cent of Namibia's total teaching staff of 18 000 countrywide, could be lost due to AIDS-related illnesses in the next seven years.

Hundreds of teachers refusing to be re-deployed to other schools in formerly disadvantaged areas of the country face being kicked out of the civil service as Government moves to bridge the teacher-pupil ratio.

Minorities in Independent Namibia by James Suzman considers the extent to which SWAPO’s attempts at nation-building have favoured some communities over others. In a balanced study, the author documents the constitutional and legal safeguards for minorities in Namibia, and discusses the government's human rights record. The report covers many of Namibia's ethnic minority communities and topical concerns, including: the crackdown on secessionists in Caprivi, the potential impact on the Himba of a proposed dam on the Kunene River, the extreme marginality of the San, the role of traditional authorities and leaders, and women's equality.

Women with disabilities are experiencing double discrimination and have been cut out of programmes generally aimed at empowering women, the Swapo Party Women's Council says. Disabled women are also being excluded from drought relief food because they are not registered to receive food.