Latest news with #Namibian
The Star
5 hours ago
- General
- The Star
Namibia strives for integration of refugees on World Refugee Day
WINDHOEK, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Namibia seeks to integrate refugees into its broader social and economic systems, a government official said Friday, as the country commemorated World Refugee Day. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security marked the day under the global theme "Solidarity with Refugees" at the Osire Refugee Settlement in the Otjozondjupa Region. Namibia currently hosts 6,582 refugees and asylum seekers, with the majority residing at the Osire Refugee Settlement, located approximately 225 km from the capital, Windhoek. "This number may vary over time due to factors such as new arrivals, voluntary repatriation, and changes in legal status," Etienne Maritz, executive director of the ministry, said in a public notice. He added that most of these individuals originate from African nations, notably the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda, with others arriving from countries like South Sudan, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. "Namibia follows a welcoming and inclusive refugee policy, offering access to essential services such as education, healthcare, and employment," he said, reiterating that the nation aims to integrate refugees into its broader social and economic systems. Through the Osire Refugee Settlement, the Namibian government, in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other partners, continues to provide vital support to displaced persons seeking refuge within the country, he highlighted. Observed globally on June 20, World Refugee Day honors the courage and perseverance of millions of refugees worldwide.
Daily Maverick
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
V is for VUUR: A fiery bro-fest redefines what a restaurant can be
After a tour of a fine foods business that grew out of a car boot, fire rained down on a sunny, lazy day on a Stellenbosch farm. If fire could make waves, this was it. She ate an oyster for the first time in all the 26 years of her life so far, right in front of me. She had her android device on video, trained at her face, while she focused, smiled, and let the sweet Saldanha Bay oyster slide into her mouth. Three or four chews and down it went. 'That was nice. Quite nice. Hmmmm,' she said, laughing the kind of laughter that you laugh when you're pretty pleased with yourself but not sure why you did that. Then she ate a Namibian oyster from Lüderitz, even bigger, but more metallic than sweet, and less salty than the West Coast mollusc. I was not at all surprised. Naomi Campbell had already shown herself, over the preceding two days, to be brimful of questions. And curiosity is one of the best attributes of a journalist. You just want to know, need to know, have to know. So now Naomi Campbell knows what it's like to eat an oyster. A live oyster. Uh-oh. I had not thought to mention that part. We were at the Wild Peacock factory and shop that has its origins in 1992 when Sue Baker imported a load of live oysters, collected them at the old Cape Town airport, then called the chefs she knew and said, I have oysters, I can bring them directly to you, how many would you like? And Wild Peacock was born, out of the boot of her little old car. Soon afterwards, she called me and offered to bring me some. I was editor of Top of the Times back then and writing weekly food columns for the Cape Times. She arrived at my Tamboerskloof front door and I poached them lightly in champagne and served them to Anette and Jeremy Cowley-Nel for dinner that night. They still talk about them. Must have been good oysters Sue Baker was getting. Andrew, her husband, invited me for a tour of the facility while I was in Stellenbosch last week. Now it is run by their son Ross Baker, MD of Wild Peacock Fine Food Merchants. We're shown from room to room, some icy, some damn cold, others not quite so cold. Oysters of various sizes from near and far, kept alive and sprightly in endlessly filtrated water tanks. Abalone too. Trucks pull up in front and drive off again to take them to restaurants all over where clever chefs do their work on them before plating them up prettily, scattered with microherbs, also from Wild Peacock. But oysters are a small shellfish in the Wild Peacock pond. Imported Loch Duart salmon and other grand species. Tiny tins of caviar to please every discerning palate. Herring pearls. Most intriguing are shelves of large round containers of mysteries. The brand is Sosa and they're filled with the magical goodies that molecular gastronomers use to make geegaws and whizzbang food. Emulsifiers and aerators. Leavening and fizzing agents. Enzymatic fruit peelers and gelling agents. Fabulous imported and local cured meats and massive boxes of free range eggs. Bee pollen and dried black garlic. And they carry some of our best cheeses, from Dalewood and Klein Rivier to Langbaken and Belnori. Ciao Ciao burrata and Zanetti grana padano. Back in the front shop, Ross opens Saldanha Bay and Lüderitz oysters and wafts black winter truffles past our nostrils, which are now wide awake and ready for anything. A spread of cheeses and cured meats is the final act of generosity before our happy crew have to fade off into our respective days. For Naomi and I, this means we're heading to lunch at VUUR where Ian Downie, friend and gourmand, is to meet us. Naomi and I (and no, she's not related to that Naomi Campbell) were at VUUR when I mentioned in passing that oysters are still alive when we eat them. It hadn't occurred to me to mention this earlier, when she was eating one. She was duly horrified, wide-eyed, but after many Oh-my-Gaaahds and Are-you-seriouses she was still smiling, which she does a lot. She's a stellar student at Syracuse University in upstate New York, and I have the honour of mentoring her until mid-August, a task I am relishing now that I've met and come to know this super-bright, engaging human being. I can't wait to observe her career from a distance. At some point in the next few weeks she will be in Soweto, and more stories will come out of that for my colleagues at Maverick Citizen, but for now — this being last Friday — the task at hand was to review not one, but two restaurants in Stellenbosch. With something like six or seven courses each — at a certain point you stop counting, or are unable to count, or both. But let's start with the first and come to the second next week. It didn't seem like such a big deal when I first accepted an invitation to have lunch at VUUR, and later another to have dinner at Dusk. Lunch is … lunch, right? You start at 12.30, by 2pm you're done, and you have five hours or more to be ready for dinner. Yes? No. Lunch at VUUR was at one. Then ensued one of the most exciting, vibrant eating experiences I can remember and it was 5.30pm when we finally left. Around 4pm I called ahead: 'Can we change our booking to 8pm please? This gave me a space for a brief nap, refreshing shower, and to find the resolve to start all over again. What impressed me was that Naomi took this all in her stride. 'Sure,' she said when asked if she could handle another seven-course meal. Without oysters. At VUUR, chef-owner Shaun Scrooby hosted us in person, at the smallest of their two waterside venues, ably assisted by his super-slick crew of chef bros. This restaurant is refreshingly different. And I felt a kinship with this man, because the fireside is his natural domain, and also because he is self-taught. As am I. But boy is there a lot I can learn from this man. Oh yes: As well as Naomi, I had invited fellow gastronaut Ian Downie to join me, knowing he would be excited by this fiery experience. And he and I duly found our way several times to the open fire where we peered over Shaun's shoulder and quizzed him while watching his flaming wizardry. He and the guys all wear heavy aprons like medieval armour, strange implements stuck in leather pockets, bellies and forearms protected from the scorching Hellpit. But no chainmail as yet; maybe that's on order. Brows are sweaty, arm hair may well be singed. Banter is welcome, so there's a lot of cheeky back-and-forth. It's a bit of a bro-fest, and I climb right in, happy to be a part of it. A massive iron grate far to the rear of the open indoor braai is decorated with a sturdy iron V for VUUR. To the foreground is a grid over red-hot coals over which meat is cooked, just like at my home braai but with more Guy Stuff. Like the implements they've crafted themselves which look like frying pans but with holes in them, like braai grids fashioned into round baskets with long handles. (Or just use a sturdy sieve?) Note to self: buy more Guy Braai Stuff. Vegetables are thrown in a basket and a brave leather-clad arm shoves it into the flames at the back. Something is sprayed on them and whoosh goes the fire. Exciting! Ian and I catch one another's eyes and they're ablaze, like the eyes of little boys playing games they shouldn't. With fire. Outside there's a long table where five of us are sitting. The other two are from Bloubergstrand, an Afrikaner man and his Spanish wife. Temporary friendships form. Signs of Guy Food show themselves early. There's a bone marrow sourdough roll, with rooibos-salted black garlic butter to smear on it, Flippin' naais, as we would say in Cradock. The fish (Cape Point yellowtail) that follows is aged. For 14 days. (Please don't try this at home.) 'It condenses the moisture to the centre of the fish,' Shaun tells us. Yeah. So. If you want to achieve this yourself at your own braai, remember that this guy is not like you and me. He's a master of flame, we are ordinary guys who like to braai. There's braised cabbage and a light mustard sauce, and the cabbage too has been given the flame. Anything not put to the flames here would be sobbing its heart out in a corner somewhere, wailing, 'But what about me, Fire-Daddy!?' There is wine along the way, and an earnest young sommelier called Leroy who, on his first day in a new job, finds himself having to acquit himself right alongside Fire-Daddy who is watching closely but silently. And what does Leroy do? He kills it, absolutely nails it. This wine is a chenin called Honeybunch and is from the farm we're on, which is Remhoogte not far from Stellenbosch, and though it's dry, oddly it has some botrytis in it. Is it a wine at odds with itself? It's a tad unsettling, but the fact that we're thinking about it makes it interesting. And it goes pretty well with the 14-day-aged fish, and maybe that was the point of this pairing. (Nearly all decent wine goes pretty well with nearly all decent food, only some goes better than others, though nobody ever tells you this.) We're served a gin and tonic — an African dry gin from Muizenberg — and the fruit for this is braaied too: naartjies and strawberries. A sweetly shy pastry chef brings out a palate cleanser. It's lemon sorbet in a pool of darkly intriguing syrupy naartjie peels, madly delicious. The next course is Shaun's braaibroodjie, but it's nothing like that one your uncle makes. A supremely crunchy log of bread is topped with beef tartare and tallow. You pick it up, open very, very wide, and hope for the best. There's some on your chin, possibly some on the table and floor, and what you're able to get down is stupidly delicious, especially the tartare. Oh and we're back to wine: Vantage bush vines pinotage to remind me of Beyers Truter and how he made our own red varietal world famous. And now the real meat comes out. Tweetand loin, from that beast at its optimal age for flavour, though sheep farmers will argue for and against this deep into their brandies and Cokes. The meat is divinely tender and so full of lamby flavour that the tweetand wins the argument, hooves down. A yummy gastrique serves as pan juices, slightly acidic, a tad sweet, and meaty; I presume it's a deglaze; it sure tastes like one. Naomi is pescatarian, so she has been given all sorts of lovely not-meaty things, and now she is presented with a gorgeous plate of beans of many colours. 'It's a play on curry beans.' Remhoogte cabernet sauvignon comes out for the next meat course of Wagyu prime rib and sirloin alongside which was a sort of 'African chermoula' that will enchant me forever. It was made of various Things Green including spring onions and nasturtium leaves that had been dipped in fire. Something vinegary in a good way too. But just when I thought this was the best part of it, other than the madly delicious wagyu, I had a taste of wedges of potatoes that had 'been at the back of the fire all day'. Oh and bokkom butter. (Shaun is an ironic Weskus surfer boy whose natural element is not fire, but water.) And what does he do next? He ends this fiery repast with a slice of Basque cheesecake which, if the sweetly shy girl made this too, will have her poached by all and sundry. Beyond sublime. And then, two hours after I thought I would be in my guest house for a nap, a gentle drive back to Bonne Esperance Boutique Guest House, a world-class small hotel in a Victorian villa with a pointy roof, smart elegance in every part of it. I stay in a lot of fancy guest houses, and I'd struggle to think of one that was better than this. Classy yet unfussy. That's the perfect mix for me. And it could not have been better situated for the places I needed to go and people I needed to see in Stellenbosch. I'd forgotten how lovely this old town is — one of the four oldest in the country, along with Cape Town, Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet. I intend to spend a lot more time in this classy, beautiful town. Then the alarm woke me up and, after a quick shower, and I know you're shaking your head now, I was off to meet Naomi again, this time at Dusk, which happily is within walking distance of the guest house. But I need a week's rest before I tell you about that. DM VUUR and VUUR Goose Island, Remhoogte | 083 600 4050 | | The experience at VUUR consists of a seven-course tasting menu that is paired with six Remhoogte Wine Estate wines at R2,450 per person.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Players very eager to go to Namibia, says Assam men's team coach Saikia
Kolkata: It's not often in India that domestic sides embark on overseas tours to gain international exposure. Even if they do, it's mostly local teams that they play against on those tours outside the country. So, when Assam leave for their Namibia tour on Wednesday — to take on Namibia men's national side for five one-day games as part of their pre-season training — it will be one of the rarest of overseas tours for any team in India. For Assam it's first-ever, as on their previous and only foreign tour in August 2018, they played against Sri Lankan club sides. The 15-member squad, under the tutelage of Assam U19 coach Subhrajit Saikia, will be captained by young batter Denish Das on this African sojourn and was made battle ready with a six-day camp held at ACA Stadium in Barsapara, Guwahati, from June 11-16. "We have been playing those exposure matches within the country so far and now we're going to another country to play against a national team. It will be a big experience for the boys to gain confidence ahead of the domestic season. They're very eager to go to Namibia," Saikia told TOI from Guwahati on Tuesday, a rest day before they depart for the tour. "In the camp we had 24 boys, and we focused on the 15 selected for the tour. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Ayushman Malakar is a young prospect, a U19 fast bowling all-rounder, who has been promoted to the senior side for this tour. Apart from him all the boys played domestic matches last season, so we have a pretty good squad. We did match simulation and played 40-over games during the preparatory camp since it's been pretty hot in Guwahati for the last few days," added the former first-class cricketer from Assam. Expecting different conditions in the Namibian capital Windhoek, Saikia said his side has all bases covered. "It's winter in Namibia now. So we are expecting the ball to move a bit there. We have four fast bowlers and three spinners. But whatever the conditions, we have the resources to overcome different situations," Saikia sounded confident of his wards. Captain Das, meanwhile, will be one of the players to look forward to on this tour. He was the Ranji Trophy skipper last season in the absence of the most famous son of the soil Riyan Parag and the 23-year-old has led by example. Wicketkeeper-batter Sumit Ghadigaonkar will be his deputy in Namibia. "Denish (Das) came up with great knocks and I think he has a good prospect to become a very good player. But we always miss Riyan. We want him to be with us, but he is in the national set-up now. Actually, it's very good that without Riyan they are coming up with good performances for Assam and they think that they can be the next big name, like Riyan," said Saikia. On a personal front, though Saikia is elated to coach the senior side on the tour, he will be happy to nurture the U19 boys again, once he comes back home. "I went to Bangladesh with the U19 team last year. So now going with a senior team to a different country, it will be a great learning experience for me. I hope I can learn many good things from this tour which I can apply with the youngsters and help them get to the next level," Saikia signed off with a promise to impart that knowledge to the age-group cricketers. The schedule: Jun 21: 1st one-day match; Jun 23: 2nd one-day; Jun 25: 3rd one-day; Jun 27: 4th one-day; Jun 29: 5th one-day (all matches in Windhoek)
West Australian
4 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Noronex, South32 JV tackles new Botswana exploration ground
Noronex Limited and its large joint venture partner South32 have extended their strategic alliance, with South32 jumping on the opportunity to earn in to new prospective exploration ground in Botswana. Earlier this year, Noronex lodged two new applications with the Department of Mines through a fully owned subsidiary company to increase its holdings in Botswana by almost 1500 square kilometres, adjacent to its promising Damara copper project on the Namibian side of the border. South32, through a subsidiary company, is currently bankrolling exploration at the Humpback-Damara project in Namibia, under an existing earn-in and joint venture agreement. The existing agreement requires the large, globally diversified mining and metals company to spend $3 million per year for five years, with the minimum $15M spend providing it with a 60 per cent interest in the Namibian project, which Noronex manages. With the addition of the two recently acquired Botswana tenements into the strategic alliance under the same financial terms, South32 will now up the joint-venture ante and contribute a further $1M per year for five years. The additional contribution will lift South32's annual funding obligation to the strategic alliance to $4M per annum, or a minimum $20M over five years, to earn a 60 per cent stake in the agreed projects and tenement ground. Noronex will receive the annual $4M payment in $1M instalments paid at the beginning of each quarter to cover the expected management, drilling and exploration costs incurred under its watch. With the junior resources industry known for always needing to raise new cash to fund its exploration plans, the expanded JV places Noronex in an enviable position among its small-cap cohort. The company has received assays from a seven-hole assault with the drill bit on its Damara ground. Management says the initial scout drilling for 1610 metres provided important geological information on the underexplored Damara terrane and the newly granted exploration areas. It says anomalous results have provided the company with the impetus to conduct further exploration across the region. New targets are being assessed for drill testing later this year. Results from the drill campaign returned several 1m intervals grading from 700 parts per million (ppm) to 800ppm copper, with one 3m intersection kicking up 710ppm from a depth of 64m. Rajasooriar said the company's geology team has interpreted the results and, after applying the Central African copper belt's basement deposit models on the terrane, have identified exciting targets to follow up. Representatives from both firms visited the Botswana tenement ground to carry out due diligence and explore its potential for the discovery of minerals. After reviewing available geological data, drilling results from the recent program and the geology at the site, South32's election to include the area within the strategic alliance is a huge vote of confidence in its potential. The vast new Botswana ground sits in the northern section of the Kalahari Copper Belt and brings Noronex's total landholdings within the belt to nearly 10,000 square kilometres. Noronex also has a diamond drilling program, funded by South32 under the alliance, underway targeting its Fiesta project, in the west of the company's Humpback ground. Two holes have been completed with a further two holes planned in the immediate area. Weather delays, rig breakdowns and water losses have contributed to slower than expected progress at the site. Recent drilling at Fiesta to extend the known mineralisation at the western lens of the project ground unearthed a significant intercept of 33m grading 0.8 per cent copper and 31 grams per tonne (g/t) silver for 1.1 per cent copper equivalent from a depth of 265m. The thick interval included a 4m slice going 2pc copper and 83g/t silver for 2.8 per cent copper equivalent from 265m and a 4m chunk at 2.3 per cent copper and 87g/t silver for a 3.1 per cent copper equivalent hit from 277m. The hole ended in mineralisation at the rig's depth capacity of about 300m. The Fiesta project lies on the western closure of a structure at the prospective NPF-D'Kar contact. The company believes the multiple intercepts at Fiesta across an increasingly bigger mineralised area potentially provide for thicker zones suitable for open-pit mining, which could dramatically increase the site's economic tonnes. Management believes several anomalous intercepts from the latest drilling campaign at Fiesta exhibit similarities to mineralised deposits in Botswana, 400km east, including Chinese miner MMG's ground-breaking Khoemacau copper project, containing 370 million tonnes at a stellar copper-equivalent grade of 1.7 per cent. Noronex also holds a 95 per cent interest in the Witvlei project in Namibia, containing a 10Mt at 1.3 per cent copper resource. Having a joint venture partner with the financial firepower and muscle of South32 can only be a good thing for Noronex, as the two firms lock their sights on southwest African mineral riches. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
IOL News
4 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Court denies couple's bid for legal funds in illegal coal mining case
Jacobus and Elza Jordaan, who are facing multiple charges involving alleged illegal coal mining, lost their legal bid to have preserved funds released for living and legal expenses. Image: Supplied A couple said to be part of a Mpumalanga illegal coal mining case and who earlier had multi-millions in assets frozen by the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU), launched a failed legal bid for the release of R6.2 million of these funds for their legal costs as well as R149,000 a month for their living expenses. Jabobus and Elsa Jordaan turned to the Mpumalanga High Court, sitting in Mbombela, as they claimed they urgently need this money to survive and to be able to pay for their defence in their criminal trial. The Jordaans, together with thirteen others, were allegedly part of a syndicate charged with multiple serious offences of illegal coal mining and theft of coal from the State. Their assets were earlier preserved in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. The Jordaans hold dual citizenship in both South Africa and Namibia. They are also directors of various companies, including GNJ Mining. The AFU in Mpumalanga, in collaboration with South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre, the Namibian Financial Intelligence Centre, and the Namibian Prosecutor-General's office, at the end of last year seized money in eight Namibian bank accounts to the value of about R52.5 million allegedly linked to the Jordaans. According to the authorities, this amount represents the proceeds of massive illegal coal mining in the Carolina area in Mpumalanga. The Jordaans now told the court applicants contend that the effect of these preservation orders is that they currently have no access to any funds or any unrestrained realisable property, whether movable, immovable, or cash. The National Prosecuting Authority, in opposing the application, said the Jordaans are not being frank with the court. It was argued that the applicants have on several occasions failed to or refused to disclose assets and to repatriate R50 million which was transferred to Namibia shortly before the granting of the preservation orders. It was also said that the couple failed to disclose all property interests and submit a sworn and full statement of all their assets and liabilities, which include assets held in trusts. The applicants, however, stated that they never made or received any income without disclosing it to the curator who was appointed to manage their preserved assets. But the curator said this is incorrect, as live game was removed by the couple and income to the value of R524,752,50, generated therefrom, was not disclosed and remains unaccounted for. The applicants, meanwhile, failed to give an explanation regarding this sum of money to the court. The prosecuting authority also pointed out to the court that the couple last year in another application asked that R3 million be released for their legal costs, as well as R293,349 per month for their living expenses. They had subsequently withdrawn that application. It questioned how the applicants' historical and future legal expenses have increased by R1.2 million and their living expenses have been reduced by R144,582 per month.
