Opinions

Staff Writer  Nedbank Insurance Namibia has launched MyCover Funeral, a funeral insurance product that allows clients to cover up to 29 people under one policy, including extended family members and domestic workers. The product is the first to be introduced through a new policy administration platform developed as part of a business transformation programme that began in 2024.  The launch also marks the adoption of Nedbank Insurance Namibia as the insurance business’s new trading name. Nedbank Insurance Namibia head of client solutions, Allan Johnson, said MyCover Funeral was introduced in response to the need for insurance that better reflects the…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro “Pro-poor economic vision” - enters Reverend Paul Isak last Friday in his article as guest of the editor of an English daily newspaper. Thereby, he adds his name to the long list of what most, if not all, may ultimately be seen as apologists for the capitalist system in Namibia. Various terms, descriptions, political and economic coinages have been used to describe what is fundamentally one and the same problem continuing to bedevil Namibia since independence: increasing inequality and the attendant, unabated impoverishment of a majority, if not most, of the Namibian population. This is a situation that,…

Olavi Hangula and Naftal Akweenda The conversation around Namibia's energy sector is changing. The question is no longer whether the opportunity exists, but whether businesses are preparing now to participate when it arrives. For the past few years, Namibia's energy story has been dominated by discovery. Exploration results in the Orange Basin put the country firmly on the global energy map and brought with them a wave of interest from operators, investors and service providers. The next milestones are equally well known: Final Investment Decisions, development and, eventually, first oil. At the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference 2026, however, the…

Dylan Mukoroli As the world accelerates its energy transition and demand for clean, reliable power grows, our nation has a unique opportunity to expand its role as a responsible supplier of heavyweight minerals such as uranium while safeguarding the environment that sustains us. The Cabinet’s decisive engagement on creating a clearer, more conducive framework for mining, including in sensitive or previously restricted areas, signals a mature, balanced approach which allows us to prioritise economic benefits for communities while insisting on the highest and most uncompromisable standards of environmental scrutiny, safety and ethics. Responsible mining is not a slogan; it is…

Kae Mtundu-Tjiparuro Perceivably, there are divisions among Ovaherero and Nama genocide descendants and their communities on the question of reparations.  Perceivably because the said divisions are not real. Not only this but for that matter they are not essentially between and/or among the descendants and their communities. Because there’s no doubt that descendants and communities of the survivors of the Ovaherero and Nama genocide committed by Imperial Germany, are and have been searching and clamouring for reparations.  Thus any pronounced division is between the Namibian government that has decided to go against the best wishes, interests and desires of the…

Deputy minister of education, innovation, youth, sports, arts and culture Dino Ballotti has thrown down an important challenge to Namibian entrepreneurs: stop thinking of Namibia’s three million people as the limit of your market. Speaking at the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia’s Digital Transformation and Entrepreneurship Breakfast in Oshakati, Ballotti urged entrepreneurs to use technology to pursue customers in Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. His point was simple but compelling: “Your target market is not necessarily the person that lives next to you.”  As a Namibian entrepreneur, I agree with the ambition. But I would add a question that…

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…