Namibia - Tobacco Products Control Bill passes National Assmebly..

October 13, 2009 - The National Assembly adopted the Tobacco Products Control Bill with one amendment on Thursday, October 8th the last sitting day of the year. Namibia map..

On September 20, 2009 we reported that the Tobacco Products Control Bill was tabled by Health Minister Richard Kamwi.

The Bill will now go to the National Council, the House of Review. In a moment of rare agreement between the opposition and the benches of the ruling Swapo Party, Members agreed to a small, but important change of words in Clause 3, which originally stipulated that a member of the umbrella labour movement NUNW, should sit on one of the supervisory boards to be created once the bill is promulgated.
Tsudao Gurirab of the official opposition party CoD proposed that the words should be changed to “a member of organised labour” and thus would avoid the name of a specific labour union. “For the first the Member talks sense and I agree,” said Deputy Health Minister Petrina Haingura. The House then adopted the amendment and the Tobacco Products Control Bill was passed.

Parliament went into recess about five weeks earlier than planned because MPs wanted to go and campaign for the upcoming elections. The National Assembly will again convene on February 9 next year, which is also the Day of the Constitution in Namibia. It will then be 20 years since the Constituent Assembly had adopted the final draft of the country’s Constitution in 1990.

Reference: Parliament passes Tobacco Bill by BRIGITTE WEIDLICH, The Namibian, 10/12/2009.