EDITORIAL: Equality must not become retribution

As a nation, Namibia must tread carefully not to recreate the very injustices we once fought to dismantle. We shook off the chains of racism that excluded black Namibians from the economic and political centre of gravity. We challenged gender discrimination until we arrived at today’s remarkable reality: a female president, vice-president, speaker of the National Assembly, and a Cabinet where women make up nearly 60%. These are historic milestones, and rightly so.Yet, in moments of triumph, it is easy to lose sight of the principle at the heart of the struggle – fairness. In correcting old wrongs, we must resist the temptation to swing the pendulum too far in the opposite direction. Affirmative action should be about levelling the field, not tilting it against another group. Racism, whether by whites or blacks, is the same poison poured from different bottles.Gender equality requires the same vigilance. While we celebrate the strides women have made, we must question practices such as “female-only” job adverts by state institutions. Do these initiatives truly empower, or do they risk creating a perception of exclusion for men? If empowerment is reduced to retribution, then we are not building equality – we are building cycles of vengeance. Today’s beneficiaries risk becoming tomorrow’s victims if we deploy the ‘it is our time’ attitude, and the very harmony we claim to seek will slip further from reach.Namibia should be proud of how far it has come. But the work of nation-building requires balance, fairness, and inclusion. This country belongs to all of us – men and women, black and white. Our task is not to tilt the scales from one extreme to another, but to steady them in the middle. Only then will the promise of freedom feel true to every Namibian.

EDITORIAL: Equality must not become retribution

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Namibian Sun 2026-01-01

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EDITORIAL: Equality must not become retribution

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Namibian Sun 2026-01-01

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