“Corruption is obtaining services or goods via a back door manner via bribes or favors and alarming how high corruption is in Namibia. The youth are growing up with a mentality of it is who you know and not what you know feeding corruptions and it practices more and more,” says Lovisa Haipumbu, who is busy cutting herself a niche in the cut-throat business of catering.
The beautiful, hardworking and driven business woman has a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management and has not even made use of it yet. Born in Lubango in Angola before Namibia’s independence where her parents where seeking refuge at the time, shortly after her birth her parents moved to Namibia and settled in Rundu. Lovisa Haipumbu’s father was a police inspector at the time and was posted in Rundu and it is where she completed her first three grades of primary school before losing her father in a tragic car accident in 1995.”Growing up I was very quiet, shy and kept to myself and at Oshakati Primary School where I played hockey and I was very good at it.”
“I believe the way to fight corruption is at home instilling sounds principles in our children whom are tomorrow’s leaders,” says she. After her primary schooling she furthered her schooling at Oshikoto High School in Tsumeb boarding the hostel. There she was part of the Agriculture and History clubs. In her 11th grade she was elected the schools deputy head girl and the hostels head girl. She finished her Grade 12 in 2006 and moved to Windhoek in 2007 where she registered with the International University of Management (IUM) where she completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources.
Lovisa got a job with a Legal Practitioner’s office as a legal secretary and worked there from 2009 till 2010 resigning before her graduation but soon after graduating she found employment as a Tour Consultant at Leading Lodges before the company closed down earlier this year. “I always had a passion for cooking and at the age of nine my mother taught me how to cook and ever since I have been cooking up a storm in the kitchen.”
Lovisa turned her passion into a business in her third year at IUM, when her friends would visit her at her flat and she was more than eager to prepare them a hearty meal. They would go on to advise her to start up her own company and Lovisa soon took the advice and registered her company in 2009. She started off by cooking lunch packs and selling them at work places and small functions.
Lovisa first registered a company called Eskos Catering, named after her late father, before she started trading as Epata Catering. Lovisa went into a joint venture with a business partner and opened up a small restaurant in Eveline Street specialising in traditional foods. The business went on well with Lovisa knocking off from work at five and joining her partner at the restaurant.
Business went well for a while before her partner had to pull out. Not being able to run the restaurant by herself she sold it off. After losing her job earlier this year she decided to register her company called Delicacy where she started off by doing lunch packs but has steadily grown into catering for weddings, birthdays and other small functions.
‘I have always been strong and very independent and going back into business tested me but through perseverance and working towards my vision I have grown from strength to strength, and my customers keep coming back and recommend me to their friends and family through my good cooking and quality service.”
Lovisa advises to the youth is to be courageous and to fight for what they want and believe in. “It is never easy but no one will make your dreams come true but yourself. She does not think the Anti-Corruption Commission of is doing enough or preventing corrupt practices. “ I don’t think so as you seldom hear of a case which is hyped up in the media but we never see the result of these pending or cases that have been opened.”
By Kevin Kamati