Opinions

Kae Matundu Tjiparuro Developing Omaheke or dicing with its development? This question crops up naturally if one reads between the lines of the happenings in the region. Starting with the seeming developments in the region most recently, with reference, for a start, to the headline “Nganate tries to extinguish fire over Farm Nuwehoop issue,” in New Era in mid-August. The particular issue the headline is referring to is the trusteeship of the said farm. The governor of Omaheke, Pijoo Nganate, with a detectable sense of arrogance, was categorical that management affairs relating to the farm currently are driven by his…

Jeronimo Kateya Sixty years after the first shots at Omugulugwombashe Sixty years after the first shots at Omugulugwombashe, Namibians gather once again for retrospection, reflection, introspection, meditation and contemplation on Namibia’s past, present and future. This reflection is fundamentally hinged on the Hegelian philosophical thesis-antithesis-synthesis dialectic. The thesis rests on the premise that Namibia is independent, mineral-rich and formally sovereign (International Monetary Fund, 2025). Conversely, the antithesis remains logically unresolved. Data show that the extractive enclave contributes 13.6 per cent of GDP and roughly half of foreign-exchange earnings, while employing only 1.4 per cent of the workforce (Reuters, 2025; IMF,…

…until we name the offspring of colonizers and the colonised, we will keep blaming democracy for our predicament Lazarus Kwedhi “Tashili ekunde, omekunde shili” — the enemy is within the nation itself Thirty-six years after independence, Namibians have done what constitutional democracy demands. Citizens register. They vote. They have changed faces in Parliament and State House. The government has launched Vision 2030, successive National Development Plans and the Harambee Prosperity Plans. Yet the material conditions of the majority remain largely unchanged. The land question is unresolved. National debt, budget deficits, inflation, unemployment, poverty and hunger continue to weigh on the…

Vincent Shimutwikeni Namibia is not debating whether retirement security matters. It is debating how best to build it. A pension system is more than a payroll deduction; it is a social contract between generations. The question is whether the architecture we choose will work for Namibia. The National Pension Fund (NPF) is not a new idea. The Social Security Act 34 of 1994 provided the legal foundation for an NPF, yet Part VII has never been operationalised. More than three decades later, the objective remains compelling: ensuring that Namibians do not reach old age without an income. The need is…

Every August, as Namibia prepares to commemorate Heroes’ Day, the country enters a familiar season of remembrance. Names are recalled, sacrifices are celebrated and, inevitably, questions arise over who deserves the highest recognition the Republic can bestow. But increasingly, another question is beginning to demand attention: Have Namibia’s national honours lost some of their meaning and allure because the public does not clearly understand how they are awarded? The question is not intended to diminish the sacrifices of those who have received national recognition. Rather, it goes to the heart of what an honour is supposed to represent. An honour…

When one of Namibia’s most senior economic officials says that the investment required to develop a single oil discovery could exceed the size of the country’s entire annual economy, every entrepreneur should stop and listen. Bank of Namibia Governor Ebson Uanguta recently put the scale of the proposed Venus development into striking perspective. He said an investment of about US$17 billion could be required, compared with an economy he estimated at US$14 billion to US$15 billion. The comparison is extraordinary. But the more important question is what Namibia does with it. US$17 billion is an investment estimate, not the value…

Soini Nampala The Anti-Corruption Commission’s slogan, “Be Part of the Fight,” represents more than a call to report corruption. It is a national invitation for every Namibian to participate in the protection of the country’s resources, institutions and democratic governance. The fight against corruption, however, cannot be fully effective if it begins only after individuals have entered public office and obtained access to public resources. If corruption is capable of influencing the process through which individuals attain political power in the first place, then the fight against corruption must also consider that earlier stage. The Anti-Corruption Act provides an important…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro A spectre unfolded in Namibia’s southern neighbour, South Africa. A spectre not in terms of a calamity, as some may conclude and/or guess and jump to conclusions, nor in terms of a jamboree, as yet others may hasten to think. But a historic and revolutionary one. One which Namibia, particularly the union movement, if in this day and era there’s any union movement in Namibia to speak of. Let alone any revolutionaries in Namibia, likewise, if there are any today in Namibia to speak of. This was the 105th anniversary of the Communist Party of South Africa (SACP),…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro The Namibian government and its former colonial master, Germany, which continues to pull all the strings, especially when it comes to the issue of restorative justice for the Ovaherero and Nama for the genocide committed by imperial Germany, can try everything and anything in their political and diplomatic book, but there’s no stopping the tide towards true restorative justice. With Amnesty International bidding to join the case in the Windhoek High Court, to throw its weight behind the Ovaherero and Nama descendants in their effort to stop the dreaded Joint Declaration (JD), there’s no mistaking that the matter…