Opinions

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro “We will continue to use our best endeavours to ensuring that our minerals and petroleum resources are exploited in the best interest of the country and its people. It is our resolve to be good stewards of our resources.” This is verse of what seems has become the personal anthem of Mines and Minerals Minister, Tom Alweendo, and his assembled choir and a popular rendition at almost at every choir competition of especially explorers and other mineral and mining vultures, whether on home turf or at one or the other forum. All meant so much to test the…

Ownership of land by rich foreign whites was the headline lately in one of the English dailies that seem to awaken many out of their usual slumber that land in Namibia, the little that may be left, if there’s any left from colonial capitalist plunder and thievery, is anything to go by. What is disturbing about this headline it is as if this is new phenomenon in Namibia, whether predating capitalist colonialism and even post capitalist neo-colonialism as pertaining today in an independent and free Namibia. The colonial agenda has been and is still about the natural resources of the…

Tomas Nashongo Access to reliable public transportation is a catalyst for urban mobility, linking individuals to socio-economic opportunities and employment. Public transportation serves as a lifeline, connecting people to essential services and financial activities. However, in Namibia, the legacy of apartheid—a policy of political, social, and economic discrimination against non-white people—has left many without adequate access to transportation. Orcutt explains that apartheid-era policies marginalized certain communities, restricting their mobility and access to transportation services. This deliberate exclusion not only limited access to transport but also preserved economic inequalities by denying people opportunities for work, social interaction, and cultural engagement. The…

Tomas Nashongo A closer examination of democracy reveals that it is a system of governance where eligible members of the state dictate laws and policies through their elected representatives. Consequently, these elected representatives work to serve the people. We can thus assess that democracy is a system of governance by people for the people equality and freedom is thus at the core of democratic principles. The refusal to legalize same-sex matrimony questions the anatomy of Namibia's democracy because it denies same sex couples the fundamental tenets of democracy, which is equality and freedom in this case to marry. Furthermore, the…

Esther Shakela It’s 9 o clock on a Tuesday morning and you are getting frustrated because the desk officer who needs to draft an authorization letter for your pensioned mother to finally get approval for a house is not answering their landline. The desk officer is yet to arrive at the office, he left his house at 08h30. You send an e-mail and decide to call again during the course of the day. Thereafter, you answer the landline in your office and inform a citizen that they should call you back later and return to discussing the latest episode of…