Celebrating Multichoice Namibia’s 25th Anniversary with Hon. Mbeuta Ua-Ndjaraka
Setting a Benchmark
Mbeuta was born in Botswana and joined the liberation struggle in Zamibia and Angola in the nineteen eighties. Mbeuta came to Namibia in 1989 at the age of twenty-five for the first time to continue giving his contribution to the new born republic.
From your perspective, how did MultiChoice contribute towards the development of the Namibia’s broadcasting industry and ICT in general?
Particularly the human mind, it blossoms the imagination, particularly of the young people by bringing a blend that is not only Namibian one, that is African and global. It broadened the horizon of our young people, of its viewers. To be in Namibia and yet be part of this greater global village. That’s very important. Everybody comes from an angle and that mix makes it good for Namibians. To see the world much larger, faster, fascinating and entertaining.
What positive changes do you think MultiChoice Namibia made in the lives of Namibians through entertainment?
The positive changes, particularly with the advent of digital migration, as you aware Namibia was amongst the very first three countries in SADC to migrate from analogue to digital. MultiChoice was handy to bring that spring of things and thereby bringing more excitement to Namibians in areas where NBC could not reach. It helped the nation, the industry by giving meaning to digital broadcasting whereas, a good number of places would have waited longer had it not been for MultiChoice Namibia.
In your opinion how did MultiChoice Namibia contribute to job creation, education and poverty eradication and how does this talk to the Harambe Prosperity Plan and Vision 2030?
Well, we do it together, we do it better, we do it faster, we do it deeper, we do it wider. MultiChoice Namibia does not only employ people at its outlets. It has suppliers, it has installers, it has technicians, of varied types. Some are employed, some are self employed. It brought real meaning to the lives of many people if you take beneficiaries of those that are directly employed through activities of MultiChoice Namibia. You can count thousands and when you come to a sole liberation by the viewers, it is tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands that MulitChoice has affected in the positive. In affirming them as worthy citizens that are able to pull along, Harambe-ing together with a lot of Namibians.
What about education? How do you think MultiChoice has been making a difference?
Yes, MultiChoice Namibia has got educational programs and these are beneficial. They are very interesting and entertaining and young people learn much better in an entertaining environment. Learning is not only for young people, even people within industries, they are learning through picture and motion.
How has MultiChoice been enriching the lives of communities in Namibia?
People in the filming industry. We have had a backlog with the national broadcaster not being able to absorb all that Namibian creativity. MultiChoice came in handy and the majority of Namibians were then blessed to have an exposure to additional local content. In fact it’s a museum of service to Namibia’s current and future generations… For that we give our market to MultiChoice Namibia.
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