Senator Stern seeks support for AB 1417, backed by stakeholders and free of opposition.

Stuck in a fitness plateau? Learn why progress stalls & get actionable tips on training, nutrition, and mindset to break through. Start seeing results!

The Erongo Offshore Safety Conference is bringing together minds from throughout the sector to ensure safety in a deeply precarious industry that offers both great risk and great reward. The conference began on Thursday at Swakopmund. Erongo governor Neville Andre reminded everyone how high the stakes truly are. “Safety is not a buzzword — it is the oxygen of sustainable progress. A single lapse can erase years of trust, destroy ecosystems, and derail Namibia’s rise as a global energy partner.” He said the pillars of health, safety and environment can only be upheld through cooperation and by adopting a learner mindset. “Let me be clear: Progress without protection is an illusion. Let this conference be where we turn rhetoric into results,” he said. He went on to challenge individuals at every level of the offshore world to do their part, for the industry to treat the Patroleum Act 1991 as a starting point rather than a destination, for the government to marry oversight with agility, for academia to create ‘African solutions for African problems’, and for every worker to use their voice to be an ambassador for safety. Chief strategist Knowledge Ipinge said he witnessed the anxieties of offshore workers first-hand in his role as chairperson of the Walvis Bay Urban Constituency Disaster Risk Management Committee. He stated that these were caused by gaps in laws and policies, extended shifts, concern about job security, and the mental health challenges that come with spending long periods in isolation out at sea. “I appeal to every attendee of the Erongo Offshore Safety Conference to shift from a top-down, paternalistic approach to one that genuinely values and incorporates the voices of all employees,” he urged. He called for the establishment of an independent Namibian offshore safety regulator, as well as welfare programmes that prioritise mental health and family assistance as a vital measure. “It is our responsibility to ensure that those who labour in these critical sectors do not suffer in silence,” Ipinge said. The post Erongo conference tackles safety in high-stakes offshore industry appeared first on The Namibian.