John Grobler
Guest Author
No image available
/ 23 May 2008

100 years of Namibian diamonds

From men inching along on their bellies in hot sand and grit whipped up by 90kph winds to satellite-guided ships manipulating 250-ton remote-controlled crawlers hovering around the ocean floor, Namibia’s diamond-mining industry has come a long way since 1908.

No image available
/ 2 May 2008

The body and loot of Dias?

The final resting place of Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, who in 1488 was the first European to discover the Cape of Good Hope and open up the East Indian trade route, may have been found 500 years after his caravel disappeared in a storm off the south-west African coast in 1500.

No image available
/ 4 April 2008

Multinational cuts and runs in Namibia

Five years after opening its arms to globalisation, Namibia is left nursing a R200-million hangover, polluted groundwater and thousands of angry workers after the showcase Malaysian textile plant Ramatex Berhad suddenly closed last month. Namibia rolled out the red carpet for Ramatex in 2002.

No image available
/ 4 March 2008

Swapo not used to competition

Political violence has reared its head in northern Namibia’s political heartland of Owambo, where a new Namibian political party, the Rally for Democracy and Progress, is contesting a local election against the ruling party, Swapo. The election outcome is widely seen as an indication of the future of Namibian politics.

No image available
/ 28 November 2007

Swapo rally shadowed by new party threat

Namibia’s ruling Swapo party started its fourth annual congress in Windhoek on Tuesday, an event dominated by former president Sam Nujoma’s retirement from active politics and the formation of a new political rival. About 580 official delegates and many more invited guests will over the next three days affirm Swapo’s future leadership.

No image available
/ 16 November 2007

Swapo’s crisis of legitimacy

Namibia’s ruling Swapo Party plans to amend the country’s Constitution at its end-November congress to do away with the position of prime minister and create the position of deputy president instead, sources said this week. This would ensure Swapo’s leadership, still dominated by former president Sam Nujoma, tightens its grip over a government accused of ineptitude, graft and corruption.

No image available
/ 8 October 2007

Sam won’t play it again

Former Namibian president Sam Nujoma formally announced this week that he would not seek re-election as president of the ruling Swapo party in a move that has been interpreted as an attempt to avert a looming split among the party’s rank and file. His announcement, made on Monday at an emergency Swapo politburo meeting, ended months of speculation that 77-year-old Nujoma, who stepped aside as state president in 2005, would seek re-election in 2009.

No image available
/ 7 August 2007

Namibia moves to stop rot

In a surprise move, Namibian Prime Minister Nahas Angula reshuffled 10 permanent secretaries — the government’s top public servants — this week to speed up delivery in key economic sectors and halt the rot in politically sensitive services such as health.

No image available
/ 13 July 2007

New role for Nujoma?

Will former Namibian president Sam Nujoma simply fade into the background of Swapo — or will he succumb to pressures from his hard-line loyalists to hang on to the ruling party’s presidency for another five years? With Swapo’s central committee due to meet this weekend to discuss the date and procedures for its annual congress, which will likely determine Nujoma’s future role.