Kalimbo Iipumbu, vice president of NAMIBIA Economic Freedom Fighters, says the party has received replies from various stakeholders that they petitioned in May about the sale counterfeit goods at China Town.
Iipumbu stated Tuesday that the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade, Namibia Revenue Agency (Namra), and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security had responded to their letters of demands.
However, Stina Wu, a shopowner in China Town, has not responded to his request.
Wu referred all correspondence related to the issue her legal representative Sisa Namanje.
Namandje said Tuesday that he could only provide a response by yesterday, but not immediately.
This was after protests that the NEFF held when trade ministry decried an increasing trend in aggression towards some sections the business community, especially foreign-owned businesses, and urged all Namibians not to accept such behaviour.
Iipumbu claimed that the trade ministry gave the party a positive response.
“They . . . said there is a bill or law that is being processed to make sure there will be control of the retail process – not to allow just anybody to go out and sell,” he said.
One of the demands made by NEFF was for the closing of all Chinese retailers. They should only be allowed trade as wholesalers.
They demanded that retail businesses be kept for domestic and local markets.
Iipumbu stated that the party wasn’t satisfied with Namra’s response.
“They said the goods they have burnt are apparently not for Namibians, but we have individuals who have suffered because of this,” he said.
Iipumbu said Namra told the party that confiscated goods are still in possession of the ministry, which does not hold water, because “people did not get any notification of their things as to whether after the evaluation they were qualified to be fake or not fake”.
The party demanded that Namra refund the owners, the “order-with-me generation”, of the products which were burnt, of which the value amounted to N$5 million.
Iipumbu stated that the party received a positive response from the ministry of home affairs.
“They promised they are trying to engage all stakeholders to make sure they come up with a clear and promising response on the issue,” he said.
Source: namibian
