Editorial

For decades, the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) has been the government’s principal vehicle to meet one of Namibia’s most pressing social needs: decent and affordable housing. Yet the promise of shelter for all has repeatedly been deferred. Backlogs have grown. Informal settlements have multiplied. The gap between aspiration and reality remains a national embarrassment.  With the ink now dry on a five-year collaboration agreement between the NHE and the Roads Contractor Company (RCC), the message is unmistakable: it is now or never for the NHE to prove that it can deliver on its founding mandate. The agreement signed this week…

When the Namibian government announced that, effective 30 November 2025, it will suspend the deduction code system for public servants, the news landed like a thunderclap across the financial sector. On paper it may look like a simple administrative tweak, removing the ability for lenders and insurers to collect repayments directly from civil servants’ salaries. In reality, it threatens to upend a seven-billion-dollar ecosystem of term-lenders, microlenders and insurance providers whose business models hinge on deduction at source (DAS). The immediate poster-child of the disruption is Letshego Namibia, which according to Simonis Storm researcher Kara van den Heever originates 96%…

Thirty-six years after Anton Lubowski’s assassination, the wound remains open and the questions still sting. That grief deserves recognition and compassion. No family should carry the weight of a loved one’s unresolved murder. The sorrow of Gabrielle and Nadia Lubowski is real, and their yearning for answers is understandable. But grief, no matter how deep, cannot stand in for proof. Pain is not evidence, and in their recent interview the two women drift from mourning into dangerous conjecture. Their claims that Sam Nujoma, SWAPO’s founding president, was effectively a South African asset and complicit in Anton’s killing are not just…

Namibia’s hospitals are quietly facing a crisis that could shape the future of our entire health system. The nation’s medical interns, young doctors in the most formative and vulnerable stage of their careers, are burning out. They are working marathon shifts that stretch far beyond reasonable limits, often without adequate compensation or structured mental-health support. This is not merely an unfortunate rite of passage; it is a dangerous pattern that threatens the interns themselves, the patients they serve, and the very pipeline of Namibian doctors we rely on to care for future generations. Internship is meant to be demanding. These…

The scenes that unfolded in Parliament on Thursday were nothing short of disgraceful. What should have been an ordinary sitting of the National Assembly turned into chaos when Affirmative Repositioning (AR) members clashed with Speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. The events left Namibians shaking their heads, wondering whether the institution meant to embody our democracy is losing its way. It began when AR member Tuhafeni Kalola rose without permission and refused to take his seat when instructed to do so. The Speaker ordered him out of the chamber, but he refused. When security officers were called in, fellow AR MPs Job Amupanda…

Namibia is facing an inconvenient truth, one we have been too timid to confront head-on: suicide is claiming lives at an alarming rate. Among those who have chosen this tragic path are not only men and women buckling under social and economic strain, but children, our children. Every report of a life cut short is not merely a statistic, but a devastating rupture in families, communities, and the nation’s future. And yet, as the suicide rate climbs, our national response remains timid, fragmented, and inadequate. President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was correct to express concern about suicides in her recent address. But…

The Minister of Health and Social Services recently boasted that the ministry saved more than N$200 million through better procurement practices. On the surface, this is good news. But before we clap, let’s pause. Why should we celebrate a ministry for simply not wasting money? Praising a government department for finally buying goods at fair value is like applauding a fish for swimming. It exposes the rot in our procurement system rather than proving its efficiency. And at the heart of this rot is the phenomenon of “middlemen.” The mrise of the middleman Middlemen exist in every economy. They connect…

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s address to the 26th Annual Meeting of the Council of Traditional Leaders should send shivers down the spine of anyone who cares about Namibia’s unity. On the surface, her speech was respectful and conciliatory, an olive branch to chiefs, hompas, and traditional authorities across the land. But between the lines lay a sobering warning: our country risks sliding back into a Bantustan mentality, the very disease our liberation struggle sought to cure. The illusion of tradition Let us be brutally honest. Traditional authorities play a role in our cultural identity. They preside over rituals, settle minor disputes,…

When Finance Minister Erica Shafudah addressed over 800 delegates and 80 central bank governors at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Global Policy Forum in Swakopmund, she did something that deserves recognition: she confronted the uncomfortable truth. Namibia, three decades after independence, remains one of the most unequal societies in the world. The minister did not hide behind slogans or polished talking points. Instead, she acknowledged that inequality, rooted in colonial dispossession and apartheid exclusion, continues to cast a long shadow over our democracy. That candor matters. Too often, governments facing stubborn structural problems resort to denial or distraction. Commending…

For many Namibians, home ownership remains more of a dream than a reality. The numbers are sobering: a housing backlog of 300,000 units, more than 200,000 shacks in Windhoek alone, and an average three-bedroom house in the capital costing around N$1.2 million. Against this backdrop, the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) has launched its Pension-Backed Home Loan Scheme (PBHLS), which will take effect next January. The scheme allows civil servants and other GIPF members to use up to one-third of their pension savings as collateral for a home loan. On paper, it promises cheaper financing, easier access, and the dignity…