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Foot-and-Mouth Disease has arrived at precisely the wrong time for Namibia to indulge in political games, regional grandstanding or ideological arguments. The confirmation of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Namibia’s previously FMD-free zone is not simply another agricultural story. It is a national economic warning that demands discipline, scientific decision-making and an immediate recognition that the country’s livestock industry is too important to be treated as a political football. Ten of 11 samples collected from cattle in the Karasburg State Veterinary District have tested positive for FMD. That fact alone should concentrate the minds of policymakers, farmers, traders, transporters and politicians. The…

There are some government interventions that deserve to be judged not by the speeches that accompany them, but by whether they finally move long-standing national problems from the realm of promises into the realm of action. The Prime Minister’s intervention on Namibia’s stadium crisis is one such case. For years, the Windhoek Observer has argued that the state of Namibia’s sporting infrastructure is not merely a sporting inconvenience. It is a national development issue. It touches on national pride, youth development, economic opportunity, tourism, urban regeneration and, importantly, our ability as a country to host our own international sporting events.…