The Metrology Bill which will repeal the Trade Metrology Act of 1973 and the 2005 Trade Metrology Amendment Act once promulgated has sailed through the National Assembly and has been referred back to the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade with minor grammatical corrections.
This was last week revealed by Industrialisation and Trade minister, Lucia Iipumbu who highlighted that the need to revise the Trade Metrology Act of 1973 and the 2005 amendment was due to that the former focused primarily on trade related activities which put emphasis on the application of accurate and precise measurements in trade transactions and excluded certain crucial consideration such as the protection of human and animal life as well the protection of the environment.
“The new Bill also designates the Namibian Standards Council (NSC) as the Governance Board for metrology and for the appointment of the Metrology Advisory Board,” Iipumbu said.
Iipumbu’s remarks came subsequent to appointing a new Namibia Standards Council.
The appointment of the Council is done in accordance with section 6 (3) and (4) of the Standards Act, 2005 (No. 18 of 2005), read with the Public Enterprises Governance Act, 2019 (No. 1 of 2019) and Cabinet Decision No.10/28.06.22/012.
The NSC is responsible for the management, conducting, supervision, and control of the affairs and activities, and the performance of the functions, of the Namibia Standards Institute, including the maintenance and safekeeping of proper records of accounts and financial statements of the Institute.
The new council members are Paulus Natangwe Kalenga and Matilda Kahimbi Jankie-Shakwa who will serve as chairperson and vice chairperson respectively; and Vincent Nowaseb, Thaddeus Eli-Megameno Shigwedha, Lloyd Liewelly Londt and Monica Nehemia as members.
The appointment is effective for a period of 3 years from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2025. The Council replaces Prof. Martha Kandawa-Schulz; Rosalinda Katjivena, Milton Louw, Dr. Penny Hiwilepo-van Hal, Axel Tibinyane, John Ali Ipinge, and Ainna Vilengi Kaundu as outgoing members.
“The NSI has testing Centers in Walvis Bay and Luderitz which have been accredited. The Council is thus seized with ensuring that these Centers retain their accreditation status because losing accreditation will have disastrous consequences not only for NSI but for the country at large. The Inspection Centre (also at Walvis Bay) carries out Inspection and surveillance services that covers factories, processing plants, cold stores and fishing vessels and perform evaluations of food processing systems for compliance to international and national statutory requirements,” Iipumbu said.
The NSC and by extension the NSI is also tasked with the objective of leading the institutional and legal modernisation of the National Quality Infrastructure to ensure that the concerned bodies provide competent and essential support and services to industries, the Government of Namibia and all other stakeholders in line with the international best practices and norms.
“In the implementation of the aforementioned objectives the NSC should be guided by the Revised National Quality Policy for the period 2020-2025 which we launched on the 23rd of April last year (2021). In this regard, it is our wish that this Policy becomes a living document that will benefit the people of our Republic and to this end work has already commenced.
“The Namibian Standards Institution (NSI) and the National Quality Policy (NQP) are one of the key performance indicators (KPI) of the country’s national quality infrastructure. The other KPI is the Legal Infrastructure consisting of the Standards Act No 18 of 2005, the Metrology Amendment Act No 17 of 2005 and the Accreditation Board of Namibia Act No 8 of 2005. It thus goes without saying that all Council members are expected to acquaint themselves with all the strategic documents that will equip them to execute their functions as Council members,”Iipumbu said.
Speaking in view of the newly appointed Council, Sikongo Haihambo, Executive Director in the Industrialisation and Trade ministry said: “In recent times we have started experiencing the unwanted phenomenon of board members fighting amongst themselves and even resorting to courts to sort out their differences. I therefore wish to caution and advise you against protracted legal challenges and rather focus your energy towards finding lasting solutions to the challenges that may present themselves. Effective boards have several ways to avoid litigation and preserve civility among dissenting board members.
“The power of the board is as a body of the whole, not as individual actors. It is expected that as Council members you should avoid personal self-interests and speak on behalf of the NSI. The commitment to serve on the Council should be tied to the inextricable acknowledgement that ‘no individual Council member has the power or authority to act on his or her own’.”