* TODAY: PAY HIKE FOR CIVIL SERVAN]S * MAY DAY - WHAT HAPP.ENED? * ALL THE FUN q.r :THE FAIR * ..I i I l Bringing Africa South R1.00 (GST Inc.) Friday May 8 1992 I • I President 'Part of French aid package ... '· :;I I that this will stem the con­ MBATJIUA NGAVIRUE troversy. Many will still argue that l AFfER weeks of speculation confIrmation came the French aid money could yesterday that the Government is to acquire a have been put to better use I R80 million luxury personal jet airliner for through, for example, build­ ing low cost housing or President Sam Nujoma. IS IT A MAN, IS IT A BntD, NO IT'S ... the sleek lines of a Falcon 900B similar to supporting the Development the one President Sam Nujoma will soon be flying in. The super comfortable jetliner, . The aircraft that has been the President - mainly be­ Brigades. with a range of 4 000 nautical miles, is powered by thrt'e Garrett AirResearch I chosen for Pt<>...sident Nujoma cause of the high cost in­ The most worrying a&-pect turbofans and can easily cruise at 4S 000 feet. For a reader's views on the President's is the Dassault Falcon 900B volved is that, as everyone knows, new acquisition see letters, page 27. twelve-seater intercontinen­ A wide sector of the pub­ aid is never without strings. tal executive business jet. lic has questioned whether It has already been sug­ The R80 million jet is one Namibia can in fact afford gested that although the of the few executive airlin­ . such a luxury and whether Presidential plane might be INSIDE ers that can fly non-stop from the money could not be better free, it gives the French a Namibia to Europe without spent alleviating poverty. valuable foot in the door for * 'Gang of terror' refuelling. According to NBC reports selling Namibia expensive There ate orily . 10 ex­ yesterday, Namibia is ac­ military aircraft. amples of the plane in Af­ quiring the Falcon 900B as . This could include any­ * 'love' murder rica, but it is ideally suited part of a French aid pack­ thing from Mirage fighter to African conditions as it age. planes, Puma helicopter and * Business blues can even land on a gravel At this stage it is however Dauphin maritime recon­ landing strip. not clear whether the French naissance helicopters. * Readers Letters A great deal of contro­ will carry the full cost of the The consensus among versy has surrounded the purchase or only a portion. knowledgable experts seems Government's plans to pur­ Even if the French pay * Full TV guides chase an official aircraft for the full cost it is doubtful continued on page 2 Rossing's record attacked ACTIVISTS main­ study of conditions at the GRAHAM HOPWOOD tained their allegations mine. One source at the meet­ against Rossing Ura­ meeting that the allegations at bottom of article). He said ing said that one of the au­ nium's health and saf­ in the recent report 'Past the statement refuting the thors of 'Past Exposure', tey record, particularly Exposure' had been fully allegations was available to Grreg Dropkin, challenged in the early 1980s, at the ansWered According to The shareholders. the RTZ chairperson to dis­ Guardian he refused to re­ Birkin also reportedly told Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) close to the worldorce and spond to repeated calls from the meeting that at the same ' shareholders' Annual Namibian public the com­ ~the . floor to confirm com­ time as he was speaking General Meeting in pany data on workers' ex­ pany authorship of the leaked Namibian President Sam London on Wednesday. posure to radiation and dust, Radiation Report from 1982 Nujoma was visiting Rossing water quality, and environ­ According to The Guard­ and other documents, .on with Nigerian President mental control going back ian newspaper in the UK, which the controversial 'Past Ibra.'llm Babangida to dem­ to 1976. Sir Derek Birkin, the re­ Exposure' report had been onstrate his great pride and Activists also called on cently appointed chairper­ based faith in the mining opera­ the company to negotiate a son of the international Birkin apparently told the tion. health and saftey agreement mining giant, was Challenged shareholders that 'Past Referring to 'Past Expo­ with the Mineworkers' over a number of environ­ Exposure' contained numer­ sure', Birkin claimed that Union of Namibia at the mental issues at RTZ' op­ ous distortions and factual the report had caused un­ mine, as has been done at erations in Canada, Austra­ errors and that The N amib­ necessary alarm. He added, the mine owned by RTZ lia, and Britain during the ian had published a retrac­ however, that after its pub­ subsidiary Rio Algam in meeting but was most se­ tion of its article based on lication the Government and Canada. According to one verely tested over Namibia's the. report in the form of a Rossing had agreed to bring report, Birkin said the' Rossing mine. detailed statement disprov­ forward the International Birkin maintained in the ing the allegations (see note Atomic Energy Authority <;ontinued on page 2 I I l .... rather a lease. drought and salary incerases "We are still looking at for the public service. the best lease arrangement General Secretary of the we can get, with the most Namibia Public Workers to be that ilie people of this favourable tenns," he said. Union (Napwu), Petrus countr-y need Mirages like According to Dierks, the llonga, however welcomed they need a hole in the head. Government was also con­ the purchase and described Confinnation that Presi­ sidering other instances that PSUN's attitude as "com­ dent Nujoma is to become could share the cost of ac­ plete hyp,ocrisy". , the proud owner of a Falcon quiring and maintaining the llonga said PSUN only 900B came after a day of Presidential plane. objected because the plane conflicting, and often con­ He suggested that in­ was being bought for a Presi­ fusing, statements from the stances such as Air Namibia dent it had never wanted to Government. or another parastatal could see in power in tre first place. In its initial report tre NBC help share the costs. quoted deputy minister of Dierks was, however, left Works, Transport . and with egg on his face when Communication as having the NBC later reported that confinned the purchase of French ambassador Alain Other committee members the aircraft. Dementhon had confinned told The Namibian that the When contacted Dierks that President Nujoma would loudspeakers were the respon­ emphatically denied that the berecievingaFalcon900B. sibility of the Ondangwa and Government had entered irito The confusion suggests Oshakati Commissioner's any agreement regarding the that either State House or offices and that they had failed. acquisition of a plane for the ~e Minister's Office Old people who spoke to the President: cut their own deal with the The N amibian asked why the He said nothing had been French without telling the "young people are so lazy ;.. concluded yet, and that the Ministry of Transport. why can't they do their work Government was still analy­ Secretary General of the properly". sing different options - in­ Public Service Union of No apology was given to cluding the Falcon 900B. Namibia (pSUN), Sammy people at the stadium, but later "We are trying to negoti­ Lawrence, later yesterday .an apology was broadcast over ate the best deal possible. slammed the purchase of the . the radio. This means we are trYing to R80 million plane. However, people who spoke minimise costs and get the Lawrence said the expen­ to The Namibian said they did not want to accept tb,e THE clothes that 14-year­ her arm. According to In­ most ideal plane," he said diture on the plane could be JOSEF MOTlNGA Dierks categorically stated better applied in the crea­ apology. They said the whole old Tonya Barrett-Smit was spector Geyser, the police incident had been · "a scan­ 'that the Government was tion of labour intensive wearing when she was found presume she was offered a dal" and those responsible not considering an outright projects for the unemployed, critically injured in De Jager Tooya was wearing a white lift in a car and was either needed to be disciplinetl. purchase of a plane, but alleviating the current Street on Monday afternoon T-shirt with yellow-deco­ pushed or jumped out of the were shown to the press rations on the front, blue vehicle. yesterday by the police in jeans and white canvas shoes. It was not known at this an appeal for infonnation She had a red and blue kitbag stage whether she had been about her assailants. containing a mini tape re­ sexually assaulted corder and a video cassette. The police are appealing PoliCe Inspector Sean Detective Warrant Offi- to anyone who might have Geyser said the girl was cer Faan Bester, in charge seen Tonya to come for­ "presumably pushed out of of investigations into the ward with infonnation. a car, or jumped out after case, said the police did not Detective Warrant Officer she got a lift on Monday, know what exactly had SHOWHOUSE Bester can be contacted on May 4 between 16hOO and happened to the young girl telephone numbers 31381/ SOLE AGENCY 17h30." · after she left Video-Rama 225881 or radio page Time: Friday 8 May from 14hOO to Saturday 9 May Her body was found at with a video and stopped to 522122. 14hOO, Sunday 10 May from 10hOO the intersection of Gorges buy a bottle of Coca-Cola. and De Jager streets in Klein The bottle was was found I\ddress: 20 Flaminkstreet Hochland Park Windhoek at about 17h30 broken at the site where her the same day.