Editorial – Page 3 – Windhoek Observer

05 Mar

Is this what the youth is telling us about the future?

Editorial, Featured

Chaos in the National Assembly is no longer shocking. It is becoming routine. This week, proceedings descended into disorder after National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) member of parliament Vetaruhe Kandorozu questioned the citizenship of deputy minister of education, innovation, youth, sport, arts and culture Dino Ballotti and told him to “go back to Italy.” The deputy speaker, Phillipus Katamelo, ruled the remarks unparliamentary. Swapo members of parliament walked out in protest after the matter was referred to the standing committee on rules. The session collapsed. We have written before about the conduct of our parliamentarians, on both sides of the…

04 Mar

Are we outsourcing the bench ?

Editorial, Featured

The Office of the Judiciary this week announced the appointment of former judges from the region to Namibia’s High Court. A former judge of the High Court of Botswana, Gabriel Komboni, has been appointed on contract for two years and five months. Two Zimbabwean jurists, retired High Court judge David Mangota and former High Court judge James Devittie, have been appointed as acting judges for three years. On paper, these are distinguished legal professionals. Their experience is not in question. Regional judicial exchange is not uncommon, and cross-border appointments can, in certain contexts, strengthen jurisprudential coherence within the Southern African region. Yet the announcement…

03 Mar

Sports betting: Why government must act now

Editorial, Featured

Psychologists are sounding the alarm: online gambling is rising sharply among young people, with a notable increase among young women. They warn that smartphones and social media have normalised gambling in a generation already weighed down by unemployment and financial pressure. In Namibia, this is not an abstract concern. It is a flashing red light. We have seen this movie before. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Namibia witnessed the rapid proliferation of shebeens across the country. At the time, the argument was framed as progressive and economically empowering. Legalising and tolerating informal bars was presented as a pragmatic…

02 Mar

Rising reserves reflect stability and a moment to consolidate

Editorial, Featured

Namibia’s international reserves rose to N$51.9 billion at the end of January, driven by inflows from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). In an uncertain global environment marked by currency volatility, geopolitical tension and tightening financial conditions, this development is a welcome affirmation of macroeconomic stability and disciplined fiscal management. For a small, open economy such as ours, international reserves are not abstract accounting figures. They are the backbone of financial credibility. They ensure the country can meet its import obligations, service external debt and cushion itself against global shocks. Crucially, they sustain confidence in the one-to-one peg between the…

27 Feb

A budget that stabilises but does not transform

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

When minister Ericah Shafudah tabled the N$104 billion national budget this week, she presented it as a careful balancing act between fiscal discipline and developmental necessity. On paper, it is a responsible document. In substance, however, it raises a more difficult question: is Namibia managing decline cautiously or building growth boldly? The answer, at least for now, leans toward caution. The numbers are instructive. Of the N$104 billion, a staggering N$81.3 billion is directed toward operational expenditure, salaries, administration, recurrent costs and the machinery of government. Only N$6.5 billion is earmarked for development spending. That ratio should concern anyone serious…

26 Feb

Beifang must not put profits before people

Editorial, Featured

At the heart of the latest labour unrest at Beifang Mining Technology Services (BMTS) at the Husab project is a question far larger than shift rosters or bonus formulas. It is a question about corporate citizenship, respect for Namibian labour law, and whether profitability can ever justify practices that workers experience as punitive and unfair. BMTS, a contractor operating at the Husab Mine, has in recent weeks found itself once again at odds with its workforce and the Mineworkers' Union (MUN). While earlier tensions centred on a revised shift roster that led to the dismissal of approximately 11 workers, the…

25 Feb

Leadership by example. But health reform must start with the basics

Editorial, Featured

When Health Minister Esperance Luvindao told Parliament yesterday that public hospitals must be good enough for senior officials, she cut through years of polite avoidance. Her message was direct: if the state runs a public health system, those who govern the state should use it. That declaration deserves recognition. Namibia has lived with an uncomfortable duality in healthcare. The majority depend on public facilities that are chronically stretched. Meanwhile, a politically connected minority accesses private care through the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (PSEMAS). The result is a structural detachment between decision-makers and the daily experience of ordinary patients.…

25 Feb

Leadership by example. But health reform must start with the basics

Editorial

When Health Minister Esperance Luvindao told Parliament yesterday that public hospitals must be good enough for senior officials, she cut through years of polite avoidance. Her message was direct: if the state runs a public health system, those who govern the state should use it. That declaration deserves recognition. Namibia has lived with an uncomfortable duality in healthcare. The majority depend on public facilities that are chronically stretched. Meanwhile, a politically connected minority accesses private care through the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (PSEMAS). The result is a structural detachment between decision-makers and the daily experience of ordinary patients.…

24 Feb

Defending the defenders of the law

Editorial, Featured, Observer Money

The Windhoek Observer welcomes, without hesitation and without qualification, the urgent call by justice and labour relations minister Fillemon Wise Immanuel for residential security protection for all magistrates and prosecutors in Namibia. This recommendation is long overdue. It is both tragic and sobering that it has taken the death of prosecutor Justine Shiweda to bring this matter into sharp national focus. No public servant tasked with upholding the law should have to pay with their life before the state recognises the gravity of the risks inherent in the administration of justice. Yet here we are, reminded in the harshest possible…

23 Feb

IPC’s moral posturing meets the test of power.

Editorial, Featured

Namibians deserve consistency from those who seek to lead them. They deserve principle anchored in action, not rhetoric that evaporates at the first touch of reality. The unfolding controversy around the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) and its newly installed leader of the official opposition, Immanuel “Imms” Nashinge, is not merely about a vehicle. It is about credibility. It is about whether populist indignation survives contact with responsibility. For years, IPC leader Dr Panduleni Itula has built political capital on righteous outrage. He has lambasted presidential salaries as excessive. He has condemned parliamentary salary increases as unjustifiable in a country…