Opinions

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) In the aftermath of President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s state of the nation address (Sona), public debate has largely fixated on tone, style, delivery, and symbolism.  This is a familiar distraction. The real issue is structural. What kind of state is Namibia becoming, and whether it advances or defers the unfinished project of liberation. At stake is not simply policy direction but the deeper question that has defined post-colonial Africa; can political sovereignty evolve into economic control, or will it remain structurally constrained? Continuity without transformation At a rhetorical level, the Sona…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) Namibia is undergoing a deeper and more consequential transition from liberation legitimacy to a system one may increasingly define as 'managed patronage'.  What appears on the surface as public frustration, elite recycling, or uneven justice reflects a structural shift in how power is organised, protected, and reproduced. The national mood is marked by a growing sense of unease. It is at times such as this one that true leadership is tested and goes through a baptism of fire because trust, once anchored in the moral authority of the liberation struggle,…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) At independence, a flag rises, an anthem is sung, and a nation declares itself free. But decades later, the more difficult question emerges quietly: persistently free in what sense and for whom? In Namibia today, that question does not begin with policy. It begins with legacy. A system cannot fully erase a national legacy forged through resistance. But it can reshape it, dilute it, and, more subtly, domesticate it. What was once a force of transformation can be reduced to ceremony, honoured in speech and disconnected in practice. The real…

Kae Matundu Tjiparuro “Govt rejects N$54m per stadium proposal,” read a headline in one of the local English dailies on Monday just after the country’s 36th independence anniversary.  Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but highly commend the Prime Minister for putting his feet down in this regard by rejecting the proposal. The N$54m is simply four or five times more than the amount which the government has budgeted for a stadium. Currently the government has only allocated for the initial building of only 28 stadia countrywide, two in each of the country’s 14 regions. Heaven knows how many and how long…

Mwetuvaya Nghiiki and Selma Iipinge Namibia stands at a defining moment in how it prepares its people for the world of work. The launch of the National Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Policy (2025–2030) signals more than progress in education milestones; it reflects a national shift towards building graduates who are ready to contribute meaningfully from the start. As the country advances toward a knowledge-driven economy, one truth stands out: the strength of Namibia’s workforce will rely on how learning connects with real-life practice. For years, universities and training institutions have worked from their own internal WIL guidelines. Now, with a unified…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro CERTAINLY any Pan-Africanist cannot but commend as well as welcome the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) of a resolution on the Transatlantic Slavery and the Slave Trade. Defining the unspeakable and despicable acts of former colonial powers in Africa, foremost the Transatlantic Slavery and Slave Trade, as “the gravest crime against humanity” is giving a moral as well as political weight to the long demand and aspirations by and of Africans and people of African descent in the diaspora for reparations from the former colonial powers. Expectedly, foremost, the United States of America (USA) voted…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi said the government should explore exporting labour by sending qualified Namibians abroad and receiving remittances that can be ploughed back into society. This follows his concerns that the government is overemphasising social protection and particularly education, the highest-funded sector with a budget allocation of N$28 billion this financial year, which could create more problems. Swartbooi made the remarks while contributing to a discussion on the national budget in the National Assembly. “The government needs to look at countries like Nigeria and South Africa,…

By the President’s own admission in her 36th Independence Anniversary statement and speech, Namibia is facing poverty and inequality. That is a fact! However, what is not clear and what the country must come to terms with through a national dialogue is what these socio-economic evils, for a lack of a better term, represent.  Challenges as Her Excellency maintains. Or are they fundamental factors of the capitalist system? Because unless the country addresses these varying interpretations and understandings as they seem between and among those, like Her Excellency, who think poverty and inequality are just challenges, and those who think…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) On 21 March 2026, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah stood before the nation and invoked a familiar but powerful refrain: “One Namibia, One Nation.” It is a phrase or slogan deeply embedded in the country’s post-independence identity and a moral anchor forged in the transition from colonial rule to sovereign statehood. Yet, in her speech, unity did not sound like a settled achievement. It sounded like a warning. Her emphasis on unity must be read not as ceremonial rhetoric but as a political signal. When a head of state stresses the dangers…