The Veterans Question Namibia Has Not Properly Asked

After decades of payments, grants and income-generating schemes, Namibia needs to confront a difficult question: are we measuring whether veterans’ programmes actually work?

Few issues in Namibia carry the emotional and political weight of the liberation struggle.

The men and women who participated in the struggle for independence are not simply another category of beneficiaries in the national budget. Their sacrifices are woven into the history of the Republic. For many Namibians, supporting liberation struggle veterans is therefore not merely a question of social policy. It is a question of national responsibility.

But precisely because the issue carries such moral weight, it has become increasingly difficult to ask an important economic and policy question without being accused of disrespecting the veterans themselves.

That question is this:

After decades of government assistance, what does success actually look like?