Over 2500 people died of Covid19 in Namibia between the start of April and end of July this year (five times more than the entire preceding year) following the start of water cut-offs in March 2021. Yet very little debate has taken place about the possible causes of this disaster…

Thinkers who challenge the status quo are often suppressed and marginalised to protect the Establishment. But although they can be locked away and destroyed, their ideas cannot so easily be contained. — The case of Ignaz Semmelweis When the story of Dr Ignaz Semmelweis is taught in university courses they often leave out the sad part: that at the end of July 1865, the man who would later be known as the ‘saviour of mothers’ was taken by a friend under false pretenses to an insane asylum…

A brief history of how the ruling party and opposition sold the voters down the river during the height of the 2021 pandemic. — In March — shortly after Swapo suffered heavy losses in the November 2020 elections — the new minister of urban and rural development, Erastus Uutoni, sent a letter to all top municipal officials instructing them to start to enforce immediate debt recovery measures, by disconnecting the water supply of households…

A woman who dared to speak truth to power, a formidable freedom fighter has passed away. — NBC News said of Claudia Namises that she was ‘a selfless woman’, who has been taking care of orphans and vulnerable children since 2004. …

In his opinion piece published in The Namibian newspaper on 1 June 2021, entitled ‘Towards a Namibian Local Authority Family’, Dr Job Amupanda, who holds a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Namibia openly resorted to plagiarising the work of Puja Mondal and a number of Wikipedia contributors. — In his opening paragraph Amupanda states that: ‘To understand any society, one needs to study its organising principles. One is kinship. Sociologist Anthony Giddens simplifies that kinship is culturally learned “connections between individuals, established either through marriage or the lines of descent that connect blood relatives (mother, father, offspring, grandparents, etc)’. …

The month-long strike by NBC workers marked a milestone in the struggle of the Namibian working class, inasmuch as it was the first time that media workers came out in significant numbers to stand up against injustice and inequality in the industry. Many Namibians sympathise with the NBC workers, given…

‘The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.’~Hannah Arendt Dear Mayor, As I listened to the proceedings of the council meeting on 14 April that debated the issue of prepaid water, it brought to mind a woman I met many years ago that you should know about…

The prepaid water system that the City of Windhoek and other near-bankrupt councils want to introduce means automatic water cut-offs for those who cannot afford to pay upfront. — Higher water tariffs Under Windhoek’s proposed prepaid water system people who are currently struggling to afford water will be compelled to pay an extra N$4,293 for the installation of a prepaid meter, which is presented as a miracle solution to debt management.

In recent days we’ve heard reports of water cut-offs at towns across the country. New councillors at the helm of near-bankrupt municipalities are eager to balance the books and want the residents to cough up. — Apparently, the only way out of the financial crisis is to get the residents to pay more, but these days — after a five-year economic slump — money is too tight to mention in most households.