Editorial

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s recent directive that all government institutions must budget for internships and apprenticeships is a welcome intervention in a country grappling with an escalating graduate unemployment crisis. The instruction is both practical and necessary.  For too long, thousands of young Namibians have walked across graduation stages, degrees in hand and hope in their hearts, only to be met by a labour market that appears structurally incapable of absorbing them. Internships and apprenticeships are not a silver bullet, but they are a sensible bridge between education and employment. They offer graduates what employers repeatedly demand: experience.  They create pathways…

Namibia is facing a housing crisis of staggering proportions, one that can no longer be treated as a slow-burning concern or relegated to policy backrooms. Nearly one million people, representing roughly 42% of the population of Namibia, live in informal settlements. That figure alone should jolt policymakers, business leaders, and citizens alike into urgent action. It is not merely a statistic; it is a reflection of daily hardship, inequality, and a growing disconnect between policy ambition and lived reality. For years, housing has featured prominently in political rhetoric and development plans. Yet delivery has consistently fallen short. The reasons are…

In a political climate often defined by distance between policymakers and the sectors they regulate, the Namibian government’s decision to dispatch its most senior leadership to the coast for direct consultations with the fishing industry stands out as both rare and commendable. It's unprecedented. The presence of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Lucia Witbooi, Elijah Ngurare and Inge Zamwaani in one room with industry stakeholders is not merely symbolic; it is a deliberate acknowledgement that the fishing sector, anchored along the cold and productive waters of the Atlantic Ocean, is far too important to be managed through fragmented dialogue or bureaucratic detachment. This…

A troubling pattern is emerging across Windhoek: families are losing their homes through property auctions under circumstances that raise serious questions about fairness, transparency and basic human decency. What should be a carefully regulated, last-resort legal process has, in too many instances, become a mechanical exercise that disregards the lived realities of those affected. No one disputes that debt obligations must be honoured. Financial systems rely on enforcement. Courts exist to uphold contracts. But there is a fundamental difference between enforcing the law and exploiting its rigidity. Increasingly, residents are not challenging the existence of debt; they are challenging the…

Few places on earth capture the imagination quite like Sossusvlei and Deadvlei. Rising from the ancient sands of the Namib Desert, these landscapes are not merely tourist attractions; they are living symbols of Namibia’s identity, resilience, and natural inheritance. For generations, they have represented an open invitation to Namibians to experience the profound beauty of their country, an accessible wilderness that belonged to all. That understanding is now being fundamentally altered. At the centre of the controversy is a shift in how access to Sossusvlei and Deadvlei is managed. Historically, visitors, both local and international, could enter the Namib-Naukluft Park,…