Opinions

As a Namibian entrepreneur, I have increasingly found myself asking a deceptively simple question: How committed are Namibian workers to the economies of the towns and cities in which they live? It is a question worth asking because beneath Namibia’s statistics on employment, urbanisation, housing and consumer spending lies another economy that receives remarkably little attention — the “back home” economy. I was reminded of this recently during an interesting conversation with a friend. We were discussing Namibia’s urban economy when he pointed out something that, at first, sounded obvious but became more profound the longer I thought about it. Every month,…

…Namibia cannot prepare children for tomorrow using an education system designed around yesterday Intelligent Maricle Katire The education curriculum is the bedrock of a nation's future. It determines not only what children learn, but what kind of citizens, workers, leaders and communities a country will produce. When a curriculum becomes outdated, the consequences are not confined to classrooms or examination results; they follow an entire generation into adulthood, the labour market and society. Namibia has not remained the same since independence. Our population has grown, our cities have changed, our economy is evolving, technology has transformed the way people communicate…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro The Dr Hage Geingob University of Namibia Campus, on the occasion of the 85th birthday anniversary of the late Statesman, saw the inauguration of the Dr Hage Geingob Townhall Conversation. Intended to be an annual event at the Dr Hage Geingob Centre being established. To keep alive his memory, marked by, if you wish, his immeasurable contribution and sacrifices for Namibia in his illustrious lifetime. The beginning was made in this regard indeed. Not necessarily with a bang if the content, substance and quality of the contributions by the various panelists on the night is anything to go…

Lazarus Kwedhi For more than three decades, land has been the loudest issue in Namibian politics and the quietest in terms of results. At every election, at every rally, and at two National Land Conferences, we have been told that the government has a solution to colonial land dispossession. Yet drive through communal areas, urban peripheries, and even past vacant commercial farms, and the same question haunts us: where is the land promised to the people? The answer we were given in 1991 was "willing seller, willing buyer." It was repeated in 2018. But "willing seller, willing buyer" is not…

Lazarus Kwedhi On 31 March 2026, the Presidential Task Force on Land, Housing and Sanitation submitted its report to President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. After months of consultations and the commitment of state resources, its housing recommendations sound familiar: establish a Mortgage Bank, support National Housing Enterprise (NHE), strengthen Build Together, promote Alternative Building Technologies, and scale up PPPs and employer housing schemes. The recommendations are disappointing. Instead of providing alternative solutions, they reproduce the current housing crisis in a different shape, but with the same taste. On paper, it looks like action. On the ground, it feels like "new packaging, same…

Matheus Hangula Graduating from university is one of the most joyful moments that every graduate will never forget in their lives, hoping that education has opened doors for opportunities and employment. Yet, for many, graduation marks the beginning of prolonged job searching, travelling long journeys for interviews, rejection, and unemployment. Graduating and not employed, or taking more than three to four years to secure a job, is one of the most frustrating experiences that many graduates are going through nowadays. Unlike around 2000 until 2009, where I observed that you graduated and got a job the next day, things have…

Africa’s industrialisation debate is often presented as an economic question. I believe it is much more than that. It is a question of dignity, economic sovereignty and whether we are prepared to build economies that create value for Africans rather than merely supplying the raw materials on which somebody else’s prosperity is built. The Africa Industrialization Index, covering the period 2010 to 2017, offers a sobering snapshot of the continent’s industrial performance. The figures show significant differences between African economies and, more importantly, reveal how difficult it is for countries to sustain industrialisation once it has begun. Between 2010 and…

Asteria Pirola I was 23 when I signed my first governmental contract, through the University of Namibia’s Centre for Continuous Professional Development Unit (CPD). I had no business degree, no mentors, no “real skills” other than sheer grit and determination to exceed my client’s expectations. So, I learned by doing: technical proposal and financial writing, briefing and paying consultants, running the operational side of a contract with no formal training behind me. My first degree, in human resources management from the Polytechnic of Namibia came later. By then, it wasn't teaching me from scratch, it was formalising skills I'd already…

Kae Matundu Tjiparuro Arguably, the biggest challenge facing many impoverished Namibians today is economic emancipation. Arguably, because in itself, without much elucidation, the term "economic emancipation" is not only meaningless but senseless – especially ideologically. Particularly hearing that 35 years after the country is believed to have been free and independent, it is not and actually has not been, by the politicians' own admission, in view of the realisation, if only post facto, by the Swapo Party of Namibia itself. It is strange that the country has not been free yet, while with the lowering of the apartheid South African…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) When Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane (1920-1969), who was one of the founders of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) and its second president until his assassination in Tanzania in 1969, declared his slogan “ A Luta Continua”, it was later popularized and expanded by Samora Machel who declared “A Luta Continua” (“The Struggle Continues”), and asked “against what?”, he was not calling Africans to prepare for endless war. He was issuing a warning to future generations. He understood that defeating colonialism would be difficult, but building prosperous, just, self reliant and dignified…