Fair resource allocation: A recipe for a strong Namibian House

Recently, the Municipality of Walvis Bay ordered police officers to remove shacks of people in Walvis Bay whom they claimed occupied plots illegally. This comes after the City of Windhoek took a similar approach late March when they destroyed shacks in the 7de Laan informal settlement. The issue of land has since independence been a justifiable complaint of so many young Namibians who cannot afford high rent in fancy suburbs.

Instead of amicable solutions being found, few elite Namibians continue to own thousands of hectares of land while the majority of less fortunate Namibians still have to live without land of their own. Following the suspension of the football league in the country, the Namibian Football Players Union gave a wounded statement last week saying the Ministry of Sports, Youth and National Service has killed sports in the country, setting the tone for the way forward in the redevelopment of football in Namibia. Therefore, trade unions have since independence served as a means to represent a certain section of people in a workplace - to voice the needs of those they represent. After independence, they have been vocal compared to pre-independence with the only problem being that some union leaders have gone to bed with their superiors at the expense of those they represent. In today's edition of the Astute Conversation, our second-time writer Patience writes about a country failing its people. Brian talks about the activities of trade unions before and after independence in Namibia.