Opinions

Arminda Hepute As the year 2026 draws to a close, it is important to step back and review the National Development Plans and developmental policies introduced to ensure that our commitments align with our national achievements. As a Namibian youth diplomat in the diaspora, I am interested to see Namibia succeeding in implementing plans to address youth unemployment, which stands at 44.4%, the rising cost of living, and soaring energy prices. One of the key priorities for Namibia’s national development, highlighted in the 2025 Africa Peer Review Mechanism governance report, is investment in institutional coordination and the availability of reliable…

Malcolm Kambanzera  I was having lunch with a friend recently. He is completely withdrawn from politics and simultaneously feels that politics is reserved for the “who’s whose” as he put it. Now here is the thing, for centuries, the world was divided between those who ruled and those who were ruled. There were kings and queens, emperors and conquerors, nobles and aristocrats. Beneath them were peasants, servants and slaves whose lives were largely determined by circumstances of birth. Power was inherited through bloodlines, acquired through conquest, or maintained through force. A king's son was destined for the throne, while a…

The developments surrounding Rwanda’s impending removal from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) should give Namibia and, indeed, the rest of Africa reason to reflect on how we approach international trade, economic sovereignty and our dependence on external markets. A recent report by CGTN Africa, highlighting how Rwandan traders are turning increasingly towards African markets amid the looming suspension of their country’s AGOA benefits, offers an important lesson. When access to a major international market becomes uncertain, countries must find alternatives, adapt and, above all, build economic resilience. The United States announced on 2 November 2026 its intention to…

Kae Matundu Tjiparuro The Ovaherero and Nama descendants of the survivors of the genocides committed against their forebears by imperial Germany may think that the victory by the Democrats in the just-ended midterm elections is only far, remote, and removed from them but of no consequence to them. Especially in their quest for reparatory justice. One must emphasise reparatory justice here, as opposed to compensation. Because reparatory justice denotes a process, a long one for that matter, and not just a quick-fix solution, which compensation is. Which is what the Joint Declaration (JD) between the Namibian government and its counterpart,…

MEGAN PRITCHARD When Anny and Eduard Mouton opened Ogilvy Namibia in 1996, they started with a team of four in a first-floor office at Maerua Mall in Windhoek. Thirty years later, almost everything about our industry looks different. Media has fragmented; technology has reshaped how brands reach people and agencies have reinvented themselves more than once. Yet one problem has outlasted all of it. We still mistake change for progress. Three decades in, the fundamentals of building a strong brand have moved far less than most of us would like to admit. A brand is not a personal project David…

Dylan Mukoroli You hear the same argument over and over again: you cannot mine uranium where water is precious, especially not near Leonardville. The Stampriet Aquifer is sacred, they say. Touch it, and you risk poisoning everything. Some headlines go as far as suggesting that even a dash of uranium could contaminate an entire region. The mining method they are so determined to discredit is in-situ leach recovery (ISL), a process that does not involve digging massive open pits but instead works with the minerals already contained in the underground rock formations. Let us talk plainly about what in-situ leach…

There is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of Namibia’s economic ambitions. On the one hand, the country speaks enthusiastically about attracting investment, creating employment, industrialising its economy and positioning itself as a destination for international capital. On the other, we appear increasingly unable to translate these ambitions into the legislative certainty, administrative efficiency and institutional coordination required to make investment happen. The revelation that approximately N$15 billion in investment projects are facing administrative and regulatory bottlenecks, while a broader pipeline of 94 projects could generate some 22,000 jobs, should give Parliament and government considerable pause. These are not merely…

WANDILE SIHLOBO October is a special month in global agricultural and food organisations. On the 16th many celebrated World Food Day, which marks the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945. It also gives countries a chance to reflect on their food security conditions and outline plans to strengthen resilience and contribute to efforts to reduce poverty in countries that remain highly impoverished. But this year’s World Food Day celebrations were different. Unlike in previous years, when some countries reported declining poverty levels, the outlook for 2027 is worrying, particularly in southern Africa. Many countries in…

I understand that government cannot simply wish away the realities of international markets. Namibia imports virtually all of its petroleum products, and we therefore remain exposed to movements in international oil prices, shipping costs, geopolitical tensions and the exchange rate. But I also understand something else: when the operating environment becomes exceptionally difficult, government has a responsibility to create breathing space for the economy. That is why the decision by South Africa to temporarily reduce its fuel levy deserves serious consideration in Namibia. South Africa is not pretending that it can control the international price of oil. It is recognising that…