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According to Norbert Suchanek of German “Neues Deutschland” [article], people in Namibia are not only suffering from health problems due to radiation, but also the mining process consumes masses of water, which is in very short supply in he Namib Desert anyway. Further, it is said that the conamination caused by the mining is underestimated about tenfold by some official reports. The water consumption of uranium mining in Namibia is said to be about 3,3 million m² per year, which equals the water consumption per year of about 4,5 million persons (Only for drinking, not calculating anything else. Assumed per capita consumption for an adult is 2 litres a day.).

It is not only radiation and water supply that worries people in Namibia: In addition to uranium, many other highly toxic chemicals are set free in the process, among which are arsenic, cadmium and copper. The river Wonderfontein Spruit alone is said to transport an estimated 50 tons of uranium and it’s byproducts per year, exposing many poor africans to the radioactive waste and an enormous amount of heavy metal.

Source: en.WikiPedia.org

New mines are planned and probably starting to run in 2009. The rising interest of mining companies for africa is probably a consequence of tightening environmental and  health regulations in Australia, which is very rich in uranium and was one of the top areas for uranium mining in the past (21% of world uranium mining in 2007, compared to 6% for Namibia). Inge Lindemann, an expert on uranium mining states that there is no such thing as safe uranium mining:

Wherever you find uranium, people are suffering. (translated by author, original in the article mentioned above)