Elizabeth Joseph
Mara Beukes, the principal of Ambrosius Amutenya Primary School in Oranjemund, says their school prides itself on its school garden.

The project, titled Agricultural Project Pamwe, started five years ago and the school has since been known as the ‘green school’.

This year the project put up a greenhouse and areas with nets where the pupils are set to plant, harvest, and work on weekly as part of their agricultural curriculum.

“We plant tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, spinach, cauliflower, onions, and beets. The school project sells its produce to teachers and the community and also uses the rest of what’s left in our school’s nutrition scheme,” Beukes says.

The project receives support from Namdeb or OMDis and the parents also support them a great deal. It aims to teach the learners about food supply and entrepreneurial skills through their labour in the garden.

Article sourced from My Zone

Today the Oranjemund Town Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with OMDis Town Transformation Agency for the economic transformation of the town of Oranjemund.

The MoU signing ceremony was witnessed at Council Chambers on 20 th August 2020 by the Mayor of Oranjemund, His Worship Cllr. Henry Coetzee, and the management of both parties. The Chairperson of the Management Committee (MC), Cllr Toivo Auala, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Shali Akwaanyenga for Oranjemund Town Council and General Manager of OMDis, Mr. Tony
Bessinger signed the MoU on behalf of their respective entities.

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlines the nature of the partnership between OTC and OMDis. The MoU aims to benefit the town of Oranjemund and its community; to encourage and promote smart partnership between public and private sector investments for the benefit of the local economy, and to ensure that total economic transformation is realized.

The main goal of the MoU is to promote and create an enabling environment for the sustainable
development of new industries and SMEs, while at the same time offering incentives to both existing and new businesses through Council property and investment policies.

In terms of tourism Oranjemund in the south-western corner of Namibia is a rough diamond (pun intended). The quaint little mining town has been open to the general public for just over two years and its development potential is enormous. With regular FlyWestair flights from Windhoek and Cape Town it has never been easier to explore the hidden gems of this rustic town and meet its friendly people. Below are five special things to do and see when visiting Oranjemund:

Ghost

About 20 km from Oranjemund the Hohenfels police station was a stately building constructed in 1908 on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Orange River. According to local legend, the daughter of the constable stationed there took a disliking to a Nama woman whom her father had taken as his mistress. In 1914, while the constable was away on patrol, the 15-year-old daughter shot and killed the Nama woman after a heated argument. Since then it is said that strange things happen in the middle of the night and that a headless woman would sometimes be seen wandering about in and around the building. Although the former police station has long since turned to rubble, the headless ghost apparently still haunts the area.

WESTAIR aviation inaugurated its commercial passenger flight from Windhoek to Oranjemund on Wednesday, a move which is expected to benefit both the town and the company significantly, while growing the local economy.

The inauguration took place at the Oranjemund airport, where mayor Henry Coetzee expressed gratitude to the airline.

He said the flight route would essentially bring economic transformation for the people and the industries which operate in and around the mining town.

The initiative falls in line with the key principles and vision to reconnect and reintegrate Oranjemund into the rest of Namibia through the Oranjemund 2030 agenda.

“For us, it is an opportunity that will help the town to promote itself as a business hub and tourist destination as we have so much to offer, given the natural resources at our disposal,” Coetzee added.

He encouraged the group to further expand their network to Cape Town and Johannesburg from Oranjemund, seeing that the town attracts South African investors.

“This will mean more international connections as an extension to the rest of the world,” he noted, adding that development ‘needs partners’.

ORANJEMUND has plans to diversify its economy and move away from its dependency on diamond mining.

This will be done through the Oranjemund 2030 (OMD 2030) agenda where the private and public sector together with the community aim to drive a few initiatives.

The diversification plan was presented by the newly created Omdis director, Retha van der Schyf, at the Westair commercial flight inauguration last week.

Omdis is a private agency which was hired by the town as an economic development accelerator.

The town has been dependent on the diamond mining industry over the years; however it aims to move towards developing other sectors as the inland diamond industry move to marine diamond mining.

The town will focus on tourism, agriculture, agro-processing and renewable energy.

The agenda (OMD 2030) was launched in 2016 and has been active since 2018 after the town’s transformation plan was enacted in 2014.

The town chose the year 2030 as it aligns with the life of the mine as well as the timeline to transform the town, which will take approximately 10 to 15 years.

She explained that the plan is needed to be in place to transform the town and will have three phases.

Van der Schyf continued that the transformation programme will focus on turning employees of the mining town into ordinary citizens irrespective of their affiliation with the mine.

She said the first three years will be focused on transferring municipal services, residential and commercial property.

“That is where you take your municipal services, your property that was predominantly in the hands of the mine and you hand it over in a functioning and sustainable way to a local authority,” she explained.

Dear Oranjemunders,

OMDis wholeheartedly welcomes you to Oranjemund’s new business directory. The purpose of this directory is to provide a comprehensive list of all of Oranjemund’s businesses and services in one place.

Our main aim is to make it easy for old and new town residents, as well as visitors to find the products or services they need. In addition, our underlying desire is to promote and make visible the many diverse businesses in town – big or small – that work so hard to provide for and serve the community of Oranjemund.

OMDis is a newly formed entity in Oranjemund. Enabled by Namdeb and working in close partnership with the Oranjemund Town Council (OTC) and OMD 2030, its core purpose is to contribute to diversifying Oranjemund’s economy. The goal is to safeguard the town’s future as the mining industry experiences turbulence.

OMDis’ business objectives are: a) to support existing town businesses, b) to develop new small & medium enterprises, as well as a culture of entrepreneurship, and c) to co-create new larger industry platforms that can support the future economy of the town.

Although extensive groundwork has been completed over a period of time, OMDis has only been formally established in August. We now look forward to rolling up our sleeves alongside the entire community of Oranjemund to actively and more visibly play our part in securing this special town’s future.

We would like to extend our gratitude to Sheena Mouton in particular, as well as the rest of the OMDis team for compiling this directory. We are also grateful to the OTC and OMD 2030 for their support in ensuring its completeness. Every effort has been made to ensure that all businesses and services are included. As a new publication it is possible that we have overlooked a few. For that we apologise in advance and aim to republish early next year to accommodate any unintentional oversights and any feedback for improvement we receive.

OMDis would especially like to thank all the businesses of Oranjemund that form part of this directory. It is our hope that you will benefit from increased business as a result hereof.

Finally, we would like to invite the community of Oranjemund to actively focus on spending locally. Significantly more money stays in a community when purchases are made locally. By supporting local businesses, you are contributing to the sustainable future of your town – a heartfelt goal we all share in and have a responsibility for.