Dear Norbert, I guess you are quite eager to for an answer, since you have send me your post as private message 3 days after posting it on this thread. I do apologise for offending you personally, quite possibly you are one of the better controllers in Nam.
But let us face the facts: since there are no facilities in Namibia for initial training, you guys are being send to ATNS for that. I doubt you have been to Germany for that matter. DHPS Langen does in fact not exist. DHPS is the German private high school in Windhoek. The place in Langen is called DFS.
And I also know, what ATNS thinks about the majority of controllers working in Windhoek. And we both know, that Namibia has had an extremely close shave by ICAO, amongst other factors due to the short comings of ATC. We are lucky, not to have lost ICAO membership, yet.
To be honest, at the moment I wouldn't know of any 2 controllers of German descent. There is 1, who is about to go back to Walvis Bay within the next couple of weeks. Then there is another one of European descent, but he is actually Dutch. In the end it would be very wrong, to judge anybodies abilities by their accent. But it so happens, that those controllers in Windhoek, who are the hardest to understand, deliver the worst service. I am convinced, it is coincidence.
We both know, that there is at least one controller working in Windhoek, who has been fired by the Botswana ATC, for poor performance.
Then we have a young lady (not a trainee), who lost the plot completely, because she had to deal with 3! aircraft within the Eros ATZ. Unfortunately she has proven on several occasions, that anything more than 3 aircraft is hard to handle.
Quite a while back, another lady, also not a trainee, has made me do a go-around just before touch down in FYWH, after landing clearance was already given. Her reason for this instruction was, that there were some large birds observed next to the runway, but more than half way down. Since I was flying a C210 at that time, well capable of using only a few hundred meters of the runway, it was a bit of an over reaction.
One of your controllers is so laid back, that you always have to call at least twice, before he answers, and no, he has not always been busy on another relay. Pilots do talk amongst each other.
A few weeks ago, an A340 (frome the north) and a B190 (from the east) approach FYWH. At 100 NM WHV the B190's ETA is 1 minute ahead of that of the A340. The controller tells the B190 crew to keep the speed up and the A340 guys to slow down. The A340 was not even in the descent yet. Since both A/C belong to the same company, the 1900 Captain suggests, to rather slow down and give preference to the faster A340, since it is much easier for those guys to keep the speed up than for the 1900. Slowing down an Airbus is a much more costly affair, since that thing costs a few hundred U$ per minute to operate. The controller insisted, that the 1900 must stay number 1.
In another instance a departing 735 destined to FACT was kept at 9000' for almost 10 minutes due to a small piston twin passing FYWH enroute southbound. Knowing the climb performance of the 735 being in excess of 3500 ft/min , it would have been much better to make them turn out northbound with the instruction to cross WHV southbound above the FL of the light twin. That would have saved quite a bit of fuel.
Despite having received start up clearance, we had to wait for more than 10 minutes at the holding point, because there was an A319 40 NM inbound from FAJS.
Recently a PC12 was told 'no reported traffic below FL150' while in descent into an uncontrolled airfield, despite the fact, that the very same controller has just spoken to a C401 flying into the very same field. Both a/c were approaching the airfield from the same direction and got each other visual closer to the field. Luckily the pilots did communicate amongst each other.
Interestingly enough, the only collision I can remember has taken place relatively close to FYWH in controlled airspace, while there was hardly any other traffic around, not in the busy uncontrolled airspace around Sossusvlei or Swakopmund in high season.
I could go on and on. I have flown in many countries, low level uncontrolled and FL410 controlled. Namibia certainly has not the worst ATC service, but there is much room for improvement. But the average ATC in Namibia is far behind those guys working in RSA and Europe, even the Luanda guys are more clued up, when it comes to handling traffic volume.
Being an ATC is not only about safety. You are supposed to deliver a service to pilots, to give them the most efficient routings within the boundaries of safety regulations. And that is were most of the Windhoek controllers fail badly, not necessarily on the safety side, but on efficiency.
And in order to work in a foreign country, you only need 1 passport. It can even be a Namibian one, ask me, I have done it before, brother!