Opinions

Armchair Activist: (Un)sanitary Peasants
18 Feb

Armchair Activist: (Un)sanitary Peasants

ObserverNational News, Opinions,
Dear Comrades in bling So, there I was, watching some mindless television and lo and behold, some Councilor from some constituency I am yet to visit came on my screen spewing some nonsensical gibberish about condoms and sanitary pads. When I heard the word ‘condom’ I immediately became erect (excuse the pun). Because in my mind I was thinking, “are they whining about that infamous tender by our fellow blinger, again?” We all know what a bunch of cry babies these lot can be. Anywho, I digress. Now as I was watching, one Harald Kabrude started talking about condoms and…
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Don’t play political football with land issues
12 Sep

Don’t play political football with land issues

ObserverNational News, Opinions, , ,
The Green Schemes that were touted as Namibia’s blueprint to food self-sufficiency has failed and the government is now looking at a different management model to continue its strategy to make Namibia produce what its people consume. The company created in 2011 to run 11 Green Schemes, the Agricultural Business Development Agency, experienced serious governance, financial and operational deficiencies. In addition, the running of the Green Scheme according to the Minister of Agriculture, who was moved there in the second term of the current President’s term, observed that there were institutional challenges in the administration of the schemes. According to…
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Cry of the Namibian Youth
12 Aug

Cry of the Namibian Youth

ObserverOpinions,
Today is International Youth Day and President Hage Geingob have wished our young people a Happy International Youth Day and assuring them that the government will continue to live up to its responsibility to accompany and support young people in ‘’their endeavours to become productive citizens’’. The many programmes the government has set in motion to empower the youth, including its spend in the education sector, show that the government is concerned with where the youth find themselves in the Namibian society. What concerns the government and the society at large is the slow off-take of these programmes and their…
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16 Jul

BoN targeting the goose intent on laying golden eggs in affordable housing

ObserverOpinions, ,
Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Property Group Save Namibia (PGSN) seems to be sending shock waves through the Namibian property market, especially the housing market. To the extent that before they have properly taken off they have been inviting the undue attention of the country’s central bank. Surely the Bank of Namibia (BoN) cannot and should not be the one having a brief with PGSN, not given the PGSN noble goal, which is to help provide affordable houses if not decent shelters. Yes, the PGSN as yet may not provide for houses towards the lowest end of the housing market, meaning to those…
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16 Jul

Are these just ‘’small storms’’

ObserverOpinions, , , ,
Should the rumblings that we lately see in the new political formations be regarded as crises in these movements or political parties. The new parties that participated in the 2019 national elections and the 2020 Regional and Local Authorities polls have changed Namibia’s political landscape. The new arrivals reduced the dominance of the ruling party, Swapo in the national, regional and local government structures. They broke the hegemony of the liberation movement in national politics, reduced the ruling party’s presidential candidates 86 percent in the previous elections in 2014 to around 56 percent in 2019, the took two regions from…
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Auditor General not taken seriously
09 Jul

Auditor General not taken seriously

ObserverOpinions, , , ,
Accounting officers at government ministries, including State House are failing to implement recommendations and advice by the Auditor General in his audit reports. This is becoming a cause for concern as the same recommendation and observations are made by the Auditor General over some years. While the Auditor General is doing commendable work in thoroughly auditing the finances of government, it goes to waste if his recommendations are simply ignored. In three financial reports tabled by the Auditor General in the National Assembly recently, the AG repeatedly express concern over recommendation that were made in previous reports not implemented. The…
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02 Jul

Namibia still “searching” for “correct” land reform trajectory 32 years after?

ObserverOpinions,
Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro “This Eurocentric [capitalist] approach to land reform will never get us anywhere. It continues to protect the interests of foreigners. It continues to protect the background where we come from and enforce it. We are never moving towards reform and never moving towards ensuring that the livelihoods of our people are going to be transformed. Not now. Not under the current situation.” Sandie Tjaronda of the Ancestral Land Foundation of Namibia (AFLON). 28062022. “We run around here as politicians talking about industrial revolution. We believe in agrarian revolution. The first act of revolution must be agriculture based where…
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02 Jul

Swapo in search of high calibre youth leadership

ObserverOpinions, ,
The Swapo Party 3rd Policy Conference that started in Windhoek this morning is tasked to direct the party and formulate policies for the future and is held under the appropriate theme of ‘’Strengthening the Swapo Party for a United Congress 2022’’ in preparation for the decisive meeting, particularly for the 2024 Presidential and National Elections. From President Hage Geingob opening remarks the gathering is important in the sense that it will deliberate on critical issues such as Youth Empowerment and Employment. The future belongs to the youth, the President declared saying that future cannot be achieved through rhetoric, but requires…
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02 Jul

Namibia’s Rating Downgrade: What does it mean for Namibia? – By Josef Kefas Sheehama

ObserverOpinions,
Fitch Ratings (Fitch) downgraded Namibia’s long-term foreign currency credit rating to BB- and changed the outlook from negative to stable on Friday, June 24. This reflect high and rising government debt and exacerbated by the economic shock. A downgrade means that when Namibia needs to borrow more money, as it inevitably will, investors will demand a higher interest rate because of the lower creditworthiness of the country. This will translate into higher interest costs which leave less money to be spent on running and developing the country. Successful economic policy requires that priority be given to interventions which offer the…
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25 Jun

Skills mismatch costing the country

ObserverOpinions, ,
Numerous observers and critiques of Namibia’s education system have repeatedly hammered on the country’s education and training for not delivering the desired results in terms of skills needed by the economy.The main observation is that there is a serious skills mismatch in the skills produced by educational institutions and what is needed by the industry. As a developing country, Namibia not only experiences skills mismatch but serious skills deficit. What is for sure is that there is not enough consultation or talking taking place between those designing school, university and VTC curricula and the industry. Educators should not sit in…
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