Featured

…why Namibia must move from fragmented agricultural support to a deliberate national subsidy strategy For decades, agriculture in Namibia has occupied an uncomfortable position in the national economy.  It is simultaneously regarded as essential to the country’s survival and treated as though it should somehow prosper without the level of public support routinely provided to farmers elsewhere in the world. That contradiction can no longer be sustained. Namibia is a vast, dry country with limited arable land, highly variable rainfall, recurrent droughts, expensive water and electricity, long distances between production areas and markets, and a relatively small domestic consumer base.…

Heroes’ Day should not merely commemorate the famous. It should remember the young Namibians who stood up in classrooms, schoolyards and streets when doing so could cost them their freedom, and sometimes their lives. There is something profoundly uncomfortable about the way Namibia remembers its heroes. Every August, we dust off the language of sacrifice, liberation and patriotism. We gather at Heroes’ Acre. We lay wreaths. We listen to speeches. We invoke the names of the dead and celebrate the men and women whose courage helped bring colonial rule to an end. And then, for another year, we go home.…

Patience Makwele  Young Namibians have rallied behind President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s decision to confer national hero status on 16-year-old Cornelius Tulotokela Shimwaafeni. They say his rescue of two babies should be celebrated as an example of courage rather than becoming consumed by controversy over tribalism and recognition. Shimwaafeni who is from Omutundungu village in the Omusati region, was conferred with hero status by Nandi-Ndaitwah during the 60th Heroes’ Day commemoration at Heroes’ Acre in Windhoek on Wednesday. The teenager was recognised after risking his life to rescue nine-month-old twins who had been thrown into a water pond on 17 May 2026.…

Patience Makwele A 19-year-old student at a local institution has narrated her harrowing experience of obtaining abortion medication from an unverified seller on TikTok after falling pregnant and fearing her parents’ reaction. The student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said fear of disappointing her strict and religious parents led her to seek help outside the formal healthcare system, where she later experienced severe pain and heavy bleeding. She said the experience was followed by months of irregular menstrual cycles and prolonged bleeding, and that doctors later told her she may have difficulty conceiving in future. “I am an only…

Patience Makwele  More Namibian boys than girls are repeating grades and leaving school early, while women have made up the majority of tertiary students and graduates for more than three decades, new research has found. The findings, presented by University of Namibia (UNAM) education researcher Dr Faustina Kashinauua Neshila at the launch of the DEN Impact Foundation in Windhoek on Tuesday, point to a persistent gender disparity in educational achievement from primary school through tertiary education. According to the research, the average promotion rate for female learners was 78.4%, compared with 75.1% for male learners. Girls also recorded a lower…

Patience Makwele  The First Gentleman Lt Gen (Rtd) Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah has launched the DEN Impact Foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at addressing challenges facing Namibian youth, particularly boys and young men, through education, sports, agriculture and vocational training. The foundation, which is independent of government, will operate under a four-year strategic plan and serve as an implementing vehicle for programmes identified through community engagements conducted by the Office of the First Gentleman. The foundation was officially launched by Prime Minister Dr Elijah Tjitunga Ngurare at a ceremony attended by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Vice President Lucia Witbooi, government officials, academics,…

When Namibia became independent in 1990, the country inherited a public infrastructure network that, whatever its political and historical context, provided the new government with a significant foundation on which to build. Railway lines traversed much of the country. Hospitals and clinics served communities across the regions. Government offices, houses for public servants, official residences, police facilities, military barracks and other state properties formed part of an established public infrastructure system. The task of the independent Namibian state was therefore not to build a country from scratch. It was to take what existed, maintain it, improve it and progressively expand…

There was a time when the words “trade fair” suggested something considerably more ambitious than a collection of market stalls, a few food vendors and a stage occupied by a local DJ. A trade fair was supposed to be a marketplace of ideas, products, investment and opportunity. It was a place where businesses could find customers, entrepreneurs could meet investors, manufacturers could display their capabilities, farmers could identify markets, service providers could establish relationships and communities could see what was being produced beyond their immediate surroundings. In Namibia, however, the trade fair has increasingly become something else. Across the country,…

There is a deceptively simple question at the heart of Namibia’s economic debate: Does Namibia have enough money? At first glance, the answer appears to be no. Our country has a small economy, high unemployment, widespread poverty and inequality, an infrastructure deficit and a government that continues to rely heavily on borrowing to finance its obligations. According to the Ministry of Finance, public debt stood at N$167.2 billion, or 67.3% of GDP, in the 2024/25 financial year and was projected to rise to N$182.9 billion, or 67.5% of GDP, in 2025/26. Yet there is another Namibia sitting largely beneath the surface:…