Opinions

Dikson Nangombe The recent rampant practice in Namibia of subjecting traditional leaders to election processes or installations is a departure from traditional norms. Namibia, being a democratic country where the doctrine of majority rule is upheld, is witnessing a shift towards politically installed or elected traditional leaders. However, I wish to criticise this trend. The position of a traditional leader should ideally be hereditary rather than being determined through elections or political appointments. Some traditional authorities are now adopting the Western method of selecting their representatives, seemingly detached from their roots and ancestral practices. Recently, I came across a case…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) “In Namibia, a cow can be worth less simply because it was born on the wrong side of a fence.” Few structures expose the persistence of colonial power in Africa as clearly as Namibia’s red line. Officially known as the veterinary cordon fence, the barrier is presented as a sanitary measure designed to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease and protect Namibia’s livestock exports. But reducing the red line to a veterinary issue obscures its deeper reality; it is an economic, racial, and historical frontier born under colonialism…

Lazarus Kwedhi The recent State House intrusion wasn’t just a security lapse. It did not only expose a deeper problem in the State House security cluster, but it further probed the question of who holds the President to account when the presidency fails? On 30 April, an intruder was reported to have scaled the wall at State House, passed empty police booths and a CCTV blind spot, and reached the floor near the president’s bedroom before being caught by a family member.  Days earlier, the same suspect had reportedly jumped the wall and intruded into the house of former GIPF…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro As much as the ongoing solidarity campaign by Namibians and fellows with Cuba may not be based on ideological grounds and/or convictions, it is pleasing to see this initiative and it needs every possible support, especially from Namibians, given the role that Cuba played during the country’s liberation struggle.  Eventually Namibia is a free, independent and sovereign country – not so much an equal among the nations of the world, but it has claimed its nominal place among the nations of the world. It cannot be expected at this stage to be an equal among fellows and other…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) Sankofa: Memory as strategy The Akan principle of Sankofa teaches, "Go back and fetch what was forgotten.” This is not a call to romanticise the past. It is a warning against historical amnesia. We are going to celebrate on May 23 the Omagongo/Omaongo Annual Cultural Festival, inscribed by UNESCO on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2015. The 25th of May is Africa Day, and May 28 is officially observed as Genocide Remembrance Day in Namibia.  It is a national public holiday dedicated to honouring…

Mirjam Zucky Bauleth Namibia’s health system in its current form is fragmented, with evident disparities and bears high administrative costs amidst limited fiscal pooling. Her excellency Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s commitment to promoting equality, social justice, and inclusive development reflects national discourse around Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and social solidarity. While there have been several efforts to revamp public healthcare, including implementation of “Vision April” Phase 1, there has been public outcry regarding the implementation process and sustainability. Many fear that without concrete steps, this vision may risk perpetuating existing disparities within the already bleeding health system. These concerns yearn for…

Soini Nampala The Constitution and Supreme Law of the Republic of Namibia contain a chapter on the Principles of State Policy, articulated in Article 95, with a key focus on the “Promotion of the Welfare of the People". This chapter and article empower every Namibian to influence government policy by debating and scrutinising its decisions. The word “democracy” has been so misused to the point where it has almost lost its true meaning. In its basic sense, democracy refers to a government that is ruled by the people through their elected representatives. This means that the people choose, through elections,…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) When the USA’s President Donald Trump went to Beijing, accompanied by a large entourage of the Silicon Valley’s CEOs worth 20 trillion dollars combined, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked him rhetorically in their meeting/summit in the Great Hall of the People, saying, "Can China and the USA overcome the ‘Thucydides Trap' and create a new paradigm of major countries’ relations?"  Indeed, the twenty-first century is being shaped by a geopolitical transition of historic magnitude with the accelerated rise of China and the rapid decline of the United States as the…

By any honest historical measure, Namibia achieved political independence in 1990. But political independence and economic emancipation are not synonymous. Thirty-six years later, many of the structural foundations of the apartheid economy remain remarkably intact, repackaged under democratic governance yet functionally unchanged in their outcomes. This is an uncomfortable truth, but one that must be confronted with intellectual honesty rather than ideological defensiveness. As a Black Namibian entrepreneur, I have increasingly come to appreciate that while our political architecture has transformed, our economic architecture remains deeply influenced by colonial and apartheid-era logic. Ownership patterns, access to capital, spatial inequality, market…

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro As the 28th of May, now officially, by the government's proclamation, Genocide Remembrance Day (GRD), approaches, marking the fourth time running that some genocide descendants are and have been commemorating it and the second time the Namibian government is doing so this year, any bona fide descendant cannot but reflect on happenings on this front as well as visualise the day. Hence my indulgence in this regard and on this occasion herewith. In this treatise I am tackling the problem of the problematic. Titling it as such is a missive and/or critique regarding the ever-evolving and developing political…