Opinions – Page 8 – Windhoek Observer

07 Aug

Namibia’s 51% Mining Ownership Gambit: A Strategic Win or a Populist Trap?

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

The Namibian government’s recent announcement that it will take up a 51% stake in all mining operations came at an interesting time, right in the middle of the Mining Expo, where international investors were visiting the country. The timing was clearly intentional, aimed at signaling a new era of resource nationalism. For many Namibians, the declaration sounded like a long-overdue corrective to decades of foreign dominance in the sector. The applause was loud, and understandably so. Who would not support the idea of Namibians finally owning the wealth beneath their soil? But beneath the rhetoric lies a more complicated reality.…

06 Aug

Protecting Your Data in the Digital Age

Observer Money, Opinions

Johannes Abraham Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the financial industry, making banking more efficient and accessible. However, fraudsters are also leveraging AI to create sophisticated scams that target individuals and businesses. At Letshego Holdings, we are committed to ensuring your financial security and helping you stay informed about emerging threats. Understanding AI-driven fraud and taking proactive measures can help protect your finances and personal information. How AI Fraud Affects You Fraudsters are using AI to impersonate trusted financial institutions, to deceive customers into sharing sensitive information. One of the most concerning scams is AI-powered phishing, where scammers send highly convincing…

06 Aug

Paved Roads, Unpaved Lives

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

There’s something to be said about Namibia’s roads. Anyone who has driven across our vast, open country knows the feeling, smooth tar under your wheels, horizons stretching endlessly, and barely a pothole in sight. In fact, our roads are ranked among the very best on the African continent. That’s no small feat for a nation as sparsely populated as ours. With a population of only about three million people, we have close to 49,000 kilometers of roads crisscrossing this wide land. Of those, around 6,600 kilometers are fully paved to international standards. For perspective, that’s roughly 16 meters of road…

05 Aug

The slow death of our towns: Namibia’s local authorities in crisis

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

As Namibia heads toward the local authority elections this November, one cannot help but look around our towns and villages and ask: What has become of us? The decay is not only physical but moral, institutional, and systemic. Our local authorities, which should be the engines of development and custodians of urban dignity, have instead become symbols of mismanagement, neglect, and corruption. What we are witnessing is not just decline; it is the slow, painful death of our towns, one municipality at a time. From Dreams of Housing to Settlements of Despair Drive into almost any Namibian town today, and the first…

04 Aug

Namibia, wake up: The reparations fight is your fight too

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

Much is being said about the reparation talks between Namibia and Germany. To the casual observer, it might seem as though the process has come a long way. After all, Germany has admitted wrongdoing and even recognized the atrocities committed against the Nama and Ovaherero people as genocide. Some consider this progress. But let’s be honest, it is not. It is a carefully worded statement, a hollow concession designed to appease rather than truly atone.What happened in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 was genocide, by every moral and legal definition. Tens of thousands of Nama and Ovaherero were slaughtered, driven…

04 Aug

Socio-economic growth war with public and private ownership

Opinions

Efraim Shimbali Namibia and Africa at large, has suffered a huge socio-economic dilution. To understand this dilution, one ought to dig deep to the roots of Africa’s historic community pre-colonialism. Communities of empires with a single head of governance and control. A background of social inclusion and economic ownership of togetherness as well as exchange of possessions without being bias. Gone are the days of investment through sharing. Days of kings or queens receiving economic assistance from the community, and when bad days approach, the palace rescues. Many will recall how Africans went to war with kings and queens only…

04 Aug

NAMIBIA’S RECLASSIFICATION AS A MIRROR, NOT A STIGMA

Opinions

Tio Nakasole Every year, the World Bank Group classifies the world’s economies into four income groups: low, low-middle, upper-middle, and high. These classifications get updated each year on 1 July, based on the previous year’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, expressed in U.S. dollars using the Atlas method. Based on the generous numerical definition of the World Bank's 2024 gross national income (GNI) per capita, economies are divided differently among income groups. Using the World Bank Atlas method, income calculated per annum is low income, $1,145 or less; lower middle income, $1,146 to $4,515; upper middle income, $4,516 to…

04 Aug

Namibia’s Wealth Shift: A new generation, a new legacy

Opinions

Veruscka Gertze Namibia stands at the tip of a new generation; one where wealth built up by baby boomers and older Gen Xers is starting to pass on to the next generation. But this is not simply an issue of wealth changing hands. It's an issue of changing how wealth is managed, protected, and used according to new values, new family dynamics, and modern realities. Once, most families focused on building wealth in the form of assets like real estate, retirement funds, and businesses. That's still true, but how families are handling their wealth is evolving. With greater financial sophistication,…

01 Aug

It’s Time to Ask the Hard Questions About Doing Business in Namibia

Editorial, Featured, Opinions

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s decision to integrate Trade into the Ministry of International Relations deserves praise. It is a smart move, one that aligns Namibia’s foreign policy with the urgent need to attract investment. It tells the world that Namibia is ready to do business. But the bigger question is, how easy is it to actually do business here? The truth is, Namibia offers plenty of opportunities. We have political stability, rich natural resources, and a location that opens doors to regional markets. On paper, we look attractive. Yet, the reality on the ground often tells a different story. Investors quickly…

31 Jul

Do Liberation Movements (LMs) pass their sell-by?

Opinions

Kae Matundu Tjiparuro Have the Southern African Liberation Movements (LMs) now passed their sell-by dates, run their course, served their purposes, and are no more relevant and/or of any consequence to their countries next phase? These are pertinent questions, as these movements, most of them years after the political independence of their countries, have now just been running on the crest of their so-called liberation exploits, their claim to having brought, through the nominal political independence of their respective countries, albeit not singularly and solely, it must be said. But at best, having been to a great degree instrumental thereto. …