Windhoek Observer

Renthia Kaimbi Namibia’s maritime laws are outdated and could undermine the country’s offshore oil and gas ambitions, industry bodies and legal experts say. This week, minister of works and transport Veikko Nekundi tabled notice in Parliament for Namibia to adopt the amended protocols of the Inter-Governmental Standing Committee on Shipping.  The 2006 instrument seeks to transform the regional body into a maritime organisation aligned with African Union frameworks. If ratified, Namibia will gain voting rights in the organisation’s Assembly. Namibian ports and logistics firms will also access associate membership, allowing them to take part in regional freight negotiations and strategy…

Allexer Namundjembo Windhoek West Constituency councillor Emma Muteka wants public parks in her constituency to be safe, clean and accessible. She met Windhoek mayor Sakarias Uunona on Wednesday to discuss park safety, student transport, informal trading and proposed changes to municipal by-laws. Muteka said conditions in some parks have declined and called for better maintenance and oversight.  Both sides agreed to improve cooperation between the city and the constituency office to address the issue. Student transport was also discussed. Muteka said university students who rely on public buses face daily challenges, especially those attending the University of Namibia (Unam) and…

Justicia Shipena  Karibib Town Council has rejected claims that marble dust and related by-products distributed in the town contain asbestos fibres. This follows a report circulating this week alleging that marble mining and processing waste has been illegally dumped across Karibib and that some of the dust contains asbestos fibres that pose long-term health risks to residents. On Thursday, Karibib Town Council Chief Executive Officer Tangeni Enkono said independent laboratory testing was carried out in June 2025 on marble dust and related by-products referred to as marble waste. Enkono said the testing was conducted by National Environmental Health Consultants CC,…

Allexer Namundjembo Deputy minister of defence and veterans affairs and Swapo Central Committee member Charles Mubita has been ordered to pay N$158 289 in legal costs after losing his defamation case against fellow party member Reinhold Shipwiikineni. The High Court dismissed Mubita’s claim on 14 February 2025 and ordered him to pay Shipwiikineni’s legal costs.  The costs were taxed on 8 December 2025 during a hearing before Taxation Master Tanita van der Merwe in the High Court’s Main Division. Shipwiikineni’s bill of costs, prepared by Tjombe Incorporated, was taxed on a party-and-party scale and certified at N$158 289. The amount…

Staff Writer The Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) has concluded a five-year climate change adaptation project worth about N$164 million in the Kunene region. The project, known as IREMA, was implemented in Sesfontein, Fransfontein and Warmquelle in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform. It was approved by the Green Climate Fund board on 1 March 2018. The initiative had a total financing envelope of US$10 million (approximately N$164 million). It aimed to strengthen the resilience of smallholder farmers and rural communities affected by drought and climate variability. EIF manager for corporate communications, Romeo Muyunda, said the…

For generations before the present one, love unfolded within a rhythm that felt recognisable and reassuring, a quiet sequence through which education opened the door to employment, employment created the ground for stability, and stability offered space for marriage, family, and the slow, deliberate work of building a shared life. Within that movement, love lived not only as emotion but as arrival, a moment when the future appeared secure enough to welcome another person fully into it, allowing partnership to grow inside the shelter of expectation already fulfilled. In the lives of many young people today, that rhythm stretches into…

There is a quiet arithmetic woven through modern romance, seldom visible in poems or photographs yet present in nearly every decision young people make about love. It lives in transport fares counted before agreeing to meet, in restaurant menus studied with more caution than curiosity, and in the careful spacing of gifts across calendars already carrying rent, airtime, and family responsibility. Within this landscape, love travels alongside money with a sensitivity that feels both gentle and strained, moving in constant awareness of the fragile mathematics required for survival. For many young Namibians, affection unfolds within the same breath as budgeting,…

February often arrives dressed in a single story about love, oe shaped by roses, carefully chosen messages, and the quiet expectation that romance stands at the center of emotional life. Shop windows glow with promises meant for couples, and conversation turns easily toward relationships measured through partnership and longing. Yet beneath this familiar narrative lives another form of love, quieter and far more constant, carried not in grand gestures but in the steady presence of friendship. For many young women moving through uncertain seasons of study, work, healing, and becoming, it is friendship that listens first, stays longest, and understands…