2015-07-22Staff Report 2 Windhoek No nation is immune to acts of terror, fraud or breaches of cyber security, said the Otjozondjupa Regional Governor Otto Ipinge on Monday. Ipinge said cognizance must be taken of what is happening in Nigeria where Boko Haram abducted over 276 schoolgirls in April 2014, and the volatile situation in Syria where over 150 000 people have died and half of the population displaced by the raging conflict that started in 2011. Ipinge also referred to the war in Libya where rival militias are locked in a bloody power struggle following the killing in 2011 of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi, and the senseless slaughter of Namibia’s elephants and rhinos by organized poachers. In Namibia, statistics availed by Environment Ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda showed that last year a total of 24 white and black rhinos were poached. Muyunda said 65 rhinos were poached this year, 78 elephants were poached last year and 23 this year. The governor made the remarks during a consultative workshop of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security in Otjiwarongo, which ends on Friday. The five-day workshop is being attended by MPs, senior government officials from the Ministry of Safety and Security and the secretariat of parliament. The theme of the workshop is “Understanding the policies and? legislative mandate of the line ministries, government offices and agencies.” Ipinge noted that in some countries young people do not know peace and interpret freedoms and meaning of human rights in a different way. “New generations of young people will not understand nor remember the struggle for the independence of this country, or the good deeds of this government to maintain a stable nation,” Ipinge further remarked. Ipinge further said that it is very important to stress they were given the mandate by the electorate to serve them by enacting laws that will enhance the well-being of people, approve budgets and also to oversee the implementation of those budgets, for the next five years. He said the objective of the workshop is to brief newly elected MPs on operations, financial management, progress on capital projects, successes, challenges and policy or programmes’ implementation in the regions as per approved budgets. 2015-07-22Staff Report 2
