Editorial – Page 4

10 Mar

All that Glitters Is Not Gold

info_e12wt4csEditorialAll that Glitters Is Not Gold, Jonker-1X, president Hage Geingob

Oil is black gold, and its recent discovery in potentially commercial quantities in Namibia is a mixed blessing. QatarEnergy discovered light oil in their Jonker-1X deepwater well located 270 km off Namibia’s shores. We write this editorial knowing that years will pass before champagne corks are popped, and Namibia begins to rival the barrels of daily crude oil production of Nigeria, Angola, or Gabon. Nevertheless, the discussion about Namibia as an oil producer must start in earnest. Understandably, there must be a joyous gleam in the eye of those struggling to manage the debt-laden national budget while waiting for more…

04 Mar

FISHROT: Justice delayed is Justice Denied

info_e12wt4csEditorialFISHROT: Justice delayed is Justice Denied

We embrace the timeless words spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who quoted a 19th-century British Prime Minister, “…justice too long delayed is justice denied.” Currently, the Namibian judiciary has a limitless time clock that denies justice. The amount of time between arrest and trial and judgment is appalling. Is the Namibian judiciary held back by insufficient investigatory skills such that it takes years to collect credible, usable evidence? Is there such an overload on the court dockets and too few trained staff that being arrested in Namibia is tantamount to an extra-judicial prison sentence? Has the judiciary process…

25 Feb

Old Age Grants must be based on the cost of living

info_e12wt4csEditoriale Disability Grant in Namibia, Iipumbu Shiimi, Old Age Grants must be based on the cost of living

Adding N$100 to the monthly Old Age Grant and the Disability Grant in Namibia, making the amount received N$1,400, does not make this year’s budget, as recently announced by Iipumbu Shiimi, Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises, a pro-poor budget. Instead, it is a ‘fit-it-in-so-we-can-claim-we-are-doing-something’ budget when it comes to having social grants that fit the actual cost of living in Namibia. With the Parliament’s public viewing gallery full of pensioners and a warm-hearted story about Minister Shiimi’s conversation with a village pensioner in his opening statement, he set the mood for the presentation of a caring, sensitive, effective social…

18 Feb

Uutoni must fill the CoW vacuum

info_e12wt4csEditorialErastus Uutoni, Uutoni must fill the CoW vacuum

As in nature, politics abhors a vacuum. This is a well-known saying derived from one of Aristotle’s teachings. When considering the mess at the City of Windhoek (CoW), ironically expressed in the garbage recently thrown in the streets of our reasonably clean capitol city center, the persistent political vacuum at the City Municipal Building is roiling. Erastus Uutoni, Minister of Urban and Rural Development since March 2020, is the man in the political hot seat responsible for helping to craft and then manage a solution for the unfocused restlessness of the Windhoek City Council. However, it seems that instead of…