Features

“Reviewing the story of the ANC, it would seem that all times they were more concerned with non-violence against whites than against their own people.” Prof. Edward Feit (The Journal of African Modern Studies Volume 8 Number One 1970)

As in many African countries, Chinese traders have established businesses in Namibia. The early Chinese traders in Namibia were originally from Taiwan and were involved in the textile industry around Southern Africa.

Many a man has been known to take any and every chance to get out of prison, by hook or crook. Hardly has it ever happened that a person is offered an opportunity to get out of prison and they refuse to walk out.

An International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) investigation, in collaboration with The Namibian, found that Australian mining companies have been implicated in instances of death, disfigurement, and the displacement of people across Africa.

With scores in attendance under white tents pitched on dusty sands on September 7, 2012, President Ian Khama officially launched the first of many mines on Botswana’s section of the 800-kilometre-long Kalahari Copperbelt.

He will curse until he has had enough for the day. There is now complete silence where, just a few months back, it used to be a beehive of activities at those structures that made up Boseto Mine.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) worked with 13 reporters from 13 countries in Africa.

Most of its Australian shareholders call it Golden Pride Mine but to many Nzega District residents, they call it Golden Shame Mine.

The cold numbers are arresting: in the decade leading up to 2014, 387 people died in mines across Africa owned by Australian-listed giants, including Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and AngloGold Ashanti. The vast majority of these deaths, 244, were in SA.

Namibia is an attractive destination for small companies that want to expand their mineral portfolios and recent transactions paint a picture of rife speculative deals.