Opinions

Victoria Shekutamba Burnout is often described as a personal struggle and portrayed as an employee feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope with workplace demands. However, burnout is not merely an individual issue. It is an organisational risk with significant long-term consequences for performance, morale, and institutional sustainability. In many workplaces across Namibia, burnout does not always present obvious symptoms. Employees continue to report for duty, meet deadlines, and attend meetings. On the surface, operations appear stable and functional. Yet beneath this apparent stability, energy levels may be declining, engagement may be weakening, and cognitive sharpness may be gradually diminishing. It…

Lazarus Kwedhi As conventional wisdom dictates, “oshilongo mpa oosa, mpa ondigolo” and “gumwe otati sa, gumwe otati kalako", meaning that one part of the country is mourning while another part is celebrating. One person wants you dead while another wants you alive. In light of this conventional wisdom, the USA–Israel coordinated military strike against the Islamic Republic of Iran that reportedly killed Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with other national and military leaders has ignited mixed feelings among Iranians, in Middle Eastern countries, and around the world at large. Anti-Islamic Republic government supporters are seen supporting the USA–Israel…

In the quiet spaces where history lives, museums, archives, monuments, and preserved building, a nation converses with its past. These sites are not merely repositories of objects or relics; they are instruments through which societies narrate their collective story, negotiate identity, and transmit values across generations. The recent notice of motion in the National Assembly by George Kambala, calling for the Old State House to be converted into a museum in honour of Namibia’s founding president Sam Nujoma, therefore touches on an issue that extends well beyond architecture or administrative use of a building. It goes to the heart of how Namibia…

Kae Matundu Tjiparuro It is budget time in Namibia. With all eyes and ears and, indeed, attention focussed and fixed on that single persona. With many aspirations, hopes, expectations and anticipations. Rightly or wrongly. Oft with little assurance, as it has come to transpire over the years, let alone realisation of the various hopes, expectations and, if you wish, prayers. Not strange. For how can a whole country place so many expectations on a single individual? As if she/he were Ms and/or Mr Miracles and/or Ms/Mr Everything to all and sundry. Oblivious to the reality in which the country has…

Fransina Kahungu On International Women’s Day, 8 March 2026, we are intentionally choosing to move beyond celebration without empowerment and confront a deeper question: how do empowered women empower others? This year’s theme is Give to gain. It has often been said that women do not help other women rise once they themselves have risen. Whether this has merit or not is yet to be properly studied. However, one might confidently state that real power is influence over policy. It is the ability to shape women and not just symbolise change. It is the ability to look back and say…

Staff Writer Bank Windhoek has reaffirmed its commitment to Namibia’s financial modernisation agenda following its participation in a high-level engagement on the rollout of Government-to-Person (G2P) payments under the national Instant Payment Programme (IPP). The meeting brought together minister of finance Ericah Shafudah, Bank of Namibia governor Ebson Uanguta, deputy governor Leonie Dunn, Bank Windhoek managing director James Chapman and other industry participants forming part of the first cohort implementing the IPP. Discussions focused on alignment, operational readiness and progress on the G2P digital payments rollout through Instant Payments Namibia (IPN), the entity established to operationalise the country’s instant payment…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) “If the truth is not faced head on, the lie will not disappear. It will destroy everything.” In the short story The Suit (1963) by Can Themba, a betrayal is symbolised by an object left in plain sight. No one confronts it. No one removes it. It remains in the room silent, heavy, and corrosive until it destroys the household. Today, the international order feels like that room. A narrative sits at the centre of global politics: that powerful states act primarily in defence of freedom, stability, and global security…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro A lifetime of 85 years was literally reduced to 30 minutes in Namibia during which Namibia, including President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, last Thursday, paid homage and tribute to civil rights leader, the late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson. A tribute that had all signs of a hurried job and thus was reluctantly hosted. Worst of all and ironically but not strangely, late Jackson’s life was reduced by the United States of America's (USA) ambassador to Windhoek to a mere two minutes or so. Perhaps a reflection of the reality that few of his contemporaries are now around, especially in Namibia,…