Opinions – Windhoek Observer

20 Feb

A golden buffer or gilded gamble? Bank of Namibia’s strategic bet on local gold

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

The decision by the Bank of Namibia to begin purchasing gold from local producers marks one of the most consequential shifts in the country’s reserve management strategy since independence. By targeting gold to make up approximately 3% of Namibia’s net foreign exchange reserves, the central bank has signalled a deliberate and strategic recalibration of how it intends to shield the economy from global turbulence. At face value, the move appears prudent. Central banks worldwide have been reassessing their exposure to foreign currencies in an era marked by geopolitical tensions, persistent inflationary pressures and volatile capital flows. Gold, historically regarded as…

20 Feb

“No more plundering” call meaningless without ideological belief, conviction!

Opinions

We are no longer interested in exporting raw materials, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema recently told the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Hinting that Africa has “now awakened and is no longer interested in exporting raw materials but yearn for discussions that lead to adding value to its economies”. Adamant and boasting that the continent is now speaking one language and wants everyone including ordinary citizens to feel the benefit of its mineral endowment. “We don’t want to talk and keep attending conferences and yet the man in the street can’t feel the benefit of the mineral endowment that we…

20 Feb

Designing Namibia’s oil future: Power, accountability and the constitutional middle ground

Opinions

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) Namibia stands on the brink of a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Billions of dollars could flow from oil and gas resources, but who controls that wealth, and how it is managed, will determine whether this opportunity becomes a blessing or a curse for generations to come. This week, the National Assembly debated the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Amendment Bill, a law that proposes shifting authority over the oil and gas sector from the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy to the Presidency. Supporters argue that centralising power ensures faster decisions, coordinated leadership,…

20 Feb

YOUNG OBSERVER | #UNMUTED

Featured, Opinions

Nations are not built in moments of celebration. They are built in the long stretches of ordinary time that follow. Flags are raised, constitutions are signed, and history marks these events as turning points. Yet the true test of freedom begins after the applause fades, when a people must decide what to do with the future that has been placed in their hands. Namibia now lives firmly within that quieter chapter of its story. More than three decades have passed since independence transformed the political destiny of the country. A generation has grown up knowing freedom not as a dream…

19 Feb

The door or the sword: Why Africa will no longer ask permission to exist

Opinions

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) There is a Swahili saying that cuts to the heart of our modern predicament: "Wakala huona tu kile anacho uwezo wa utambuzi wa kuona." Translated, it means an agent only sees what they have the cognition to see. For decades, the world has looked at Africa and seen only what its limited cognition allowed: a continent of problems, not solutions; of resources, not resourcefulness; of people to be saved, not partners to be respected. That blindness ends now. When the spotlights dimmed on the 39th African Union Summit, something fundamental…

16 Feb

Why Swapo and Namibia need President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah now

Featured, Opinions

Let me address the elephant in the room directly. There is a deafening silence surrounding a matter that is critical to both Swapo and Namibia. Conversations about succession ahead of the 2027 Swapo Congress (C2027) are intensifying, yet they are rarely confronted with the seriousness they deserve. Positioning has begun, camps are quietly consolidating, and speculative debates are increasingly shaping political discourse. As Charles de Gaulle reminds us, sometimes “politics is too important to be left in the hands of politicians.” In moments of strategic consequence, silence becomes complicity. The country and the party cannot afford petty squabbles disguised as…

16 Feb

A necessary line in the sand: protecting public housing and restoring accountability

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

Minister of Works and Transport Veikko Nekundi has taken a decision that many before him have avoided. In stating unequivocally that government employees evicted from state-owned houses will not receive special treatment or automatic relocation, he has drawn a firm line between entitlement and accountability. It is a decision grounded not in hostility, but in principle. At a time when public infrastructure is under strain and housing demand continues to rise, the minister’s stance reflects a necessary commitment to restoring integrity in the management of state assets. The numbers alone underscore the gravity of the matter. Government immovable assets are…

13 Feb

YOUNG OBSERVER | #UNMUTED

Featured, Opinions

February has a way of drawing attention toward love, placing it gently at the centre of conversation through symbols that feel both familiar and comforting. Yet beneath the surface of celebration lies a quieter reality shaping the lives of many young people; a season of becoming marked less by certainty than by patience, less by arrival than by unfolding. In such a season, love reveals itself in forms wider than romance alone, appearing in friendship that sustains, in ambition that persists through delay, and in the quiet courage required to keep building a future that cannot yet be clearly seen.…

13 Feb

What use is a good constitution amidst poverty?

Opinions

This Monday, the 9th of February, marked Constitution Day, the day when, 36 years ago, in 1990, the Constituent Assembly adopted the country’s constitution leading up to its coming into effect with the country’s independence the same year on 21 March. The question that begs to be asked is, 36 years after, is there cause for celebration? Is there any reason why 36 years after everyone in Namibia should celebrate this day, and why? Needless to say, the answer to such a question cannot but be mixed. While the Namibian Constitution is and must be ordinarily a source of pride…

13 Feb

Cuba has been strangled to death through a silent genocide: who sanctions the sanctioner? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Opinions

PAUL T. SHIPALE (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) Every year, the United Nations overwhelmingly condemns the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Every year, 187 nations vote against it. Every year, nothing changes. If 187 voices cry “wrong”, but the powerful continue as if the world never spoke, is that international law or theatre? And if it is theatre, who is the audience? And the joke is on whom? There is currently a human-generated humanitarian crisis taking place in Cuba, and Russia has warned that Cuba’s energy crisis is becoming critical because of the United States using “suffocating measures” against…