By Staff Reporter
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has put Namibia’s post-independence record under an unusually sharp spotlight, warning that the country can no longer sustain itself on the glory of the liberation struggle while poverty, unemployment, inequality and corruption continue to confront its people.
Addressing the 60th Heroes Day commemoration at Heroes Acre in Windhoek yesterday, Nandi-Ndaitwah said the liberation generation had delivered political freedom and sovereignty to Namibia, but the responsibility now lies with the current generation to deliver the economic freedom that remains unfinished.
“Political freedom and sovereignty have been won. But every generation has its own struggle,” she said, identifying economic emancipation as Namibia’s defining battle 36 years after independence,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah.
The haed of state listed poverty, youth unemployment, inequality, corruption, institutional inefficiency, hunger, homelessness and hopelessness among the “enemies” facing modern Namibia.
“The enemies before us may no longer wear military uniforms, but they are no less real,” she noted.
Her remarks effectively shifted the focus of Heroes Day from remembering the dead to judging the living, challenging Namibians to ask whether the sacrifices made during the liberation struggle have translated into a better material reality for ordinary citizens.
The President’s most pointed challenge came as she warned that history would eventually judge the current generation on what it did with the freedom it inherited.
“The question history will one day ask of us is simple: What did we do with it?” she said.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said future generations should be able to look back and conclude that the current generation fought poverty, reduced inequality, rejected corruption and chose unity when confronted with division.
She said the struggle had therefore not ended, but had changed character.
During the liberation struggle, heroism meant confronting colonial forces, enduring detention, going into exile, taking up arms and resisting an unjust system.
Today, she argued, heroism must be measured by the willingness to build a prosperous and dignified Namibia.
The President used the example of 16-year-old Cornelius Tulotokela Shimwaafeni, who was conferred with hero status after risking his life to save nine-month-old twins who had been thrown into a water pond in May.
Cornelius, she said, did not act for recognition or reward. When asked what would have happened had the children died, his response was: “I was going to die with them.”
“That is heroism,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
The President argued that modern-day heroes could also be found among teachers who refuse to abandon struggling learners, nurses who continue serving despite exhausting conditions, farmers producing food despite drought, entrepreneurs creating jobs and public servants who reject corruption even when nobody is watching.
But it was her broader economic warning that gave the commemoration its strongest political message.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the Eighth Administration’s programme, anchored in the Sixth National Development Plan, should not be treated merely as an administrative exercise but as a set of “national assignments”.
She called for natural resource beneficiation, value addition, youth empowerment, investment, research, technology and innovation, alongside a more efficient public service.
Namibia’s vast natural resources, she said, must ultimately translate into dignity and improved livelihoods for its people.
The message comes as Namibia enters a new phase of development in which the government is under pressure to demonstrate that political independence can be converted into tangible economic opportunities for citizens.
“We cannot sustain ourselves on past glory alone,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said. “We honor the past most meaningfully when we build on what those before us sacrificed to achieve.”
The President also used the 60th commemoration to broaden the traditional narrative of national heroism, recognising not only prominent liberation figures but the thousands of Namibians whose names may never appear in history books.
She cited those who carried messages, provided food and shelter, endured detention, crossed borders, sustained families, organised communities and resisted colonial rule.
“Those who never returned home. Our freedom is their monument,” she said.
The commemoration also followed Monday’s reburial of the remains of six liberation heroes, including Eliaser Tuhadeleni, Hafeni Immanuel Shifidi, Nduuvu Fillemon Nangolo, Nathaniel Maxuilili, Simon Petrus Niilenge and Festus Nehale.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the return of the remains was a reminder of the human cost of the struggle and the responsibility inherited by those who came after it.
