Opinions

Kae Matundu Tjiparuro Yours Truly Ideologically entitles this week’s ideological indulgence Russia-Africa (Namibia) Entanglement, likening it to the famous, or perhaps notorious, Russian roulette. Russian roulette is described as “a lethal game of chance where a single round is placed inside the cylinder of a revolver, the cylinder is spun and a player points the muzzle at their head or body and pulls the trigger.” Reflecting on the recent visit of the Namibian President to Russia, where she attended the Third Russia-Africa (Namibia) Summit, Yours Truly Ideologically cannot help but be circumspect about the true meaning and essence of the…

Sem Billy David The five-year contract of the City of Windhoek’s chief executive officer once appeared to offer sufficient time to transform Namibia’s capital city. However, as the term approaches its reported conclusion in March next year, residents are increasingly asking whether the administration will leave behind tangible results or merely a series of last-minute explanations and promises. Windhoek is home to approximately 250 000 people living in informal settlements. Many continue to wait for proper roads, serviced land, sanitation, electricity and reliable access to essential municipal services. Despite repeated promises and development plans, large sections of the population remain…

Sem Billy David The five-year contract of the City of Windhoek’s chief executive officer once appeared to offer sufficient time to transform Namibia’s capital city. However, as the term approaches its reported conclusion in March next year, residents are increasingly asking whether the administration will leave behind tangible results or merely a series of last-minute explanations and promises. Windhoek is home to approximately 250 000 people living in informal settlements. Many continue to wait for proper roads, serviced land, sanitation, electricity and reliable access to essential municipal services. Despite repeated promises and development plans, large sections of the population remain…

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…