EDITORIAL: Stop shooting the alarm bell

Namibia must learn to appreciate its activists instead of reflexively branding them enemies of the republic.

From those who expose corruption to those who challenge leaders over neglected communities – the girl child, sexual minorities, the landless, the working poor – these are not saboteurs. They are citizens invested in the moral and material progress of their country.

Calling out corruption is not an act of rebellion. It is an act of maintenance. It is tightening the belts of a democracy so that it does not collapse under its own complacency. Only the semi-conscious mistake scrutiny for sabotage. In truth, those who expose wrongdoing are doing leaders a favour by identifying the rot before it consumes the nation.

Yet time and again, whistleblowers and activists are greeted not with gratitude but with hostility – often from the very institutions that should be tying their shoelaces in gratitude.

Consider activists like Michael Amushelelo and Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, who spent months behind bars for confronting exploitative labour practices. Yes, activism is not a licence to disregard the law. No one is above legal boundaries. But neither should the law be weaponised to silence uncomfortable truths.

Even those who operate within orderly, constitutional frameworks have faced heavy-handed responses – labelled destabilisers, accused of undermining peace. But what truly destabilises a nation? Is it a protest placard – or landlessness, hunger, joblessness and grinding poverty? The media accused them of harbouring political ambitions – as if that were a crime.

The peace so often invoked in defence of silence is a selective peace – one enjoyed by those with roofs over their heads, food in their cupboards and salaries in their bank accounts. But peace means little to the man standing at a traffic light at dawn, hoping for a day’s labour.