A Complex Legacy
Mourning periods are usually not associated with honest assessments of those recently departed. This was very true of the weeks following President Hage Geingob’s death when praise singing dominated the public narrative. This is to some extent inevitable. Eulogies are by their nature tributes rather than balanced accounts. President Geingob’s strong points were indeed stressed […]
SIM Card Registration & The NCIS
The obscurest state agency is handed a most powerful ‘instrument’ with only presidential scrutiny IN his ministerial statement of 29 December 2023, extending the SIM card registration period to the end of March 2024, Information and Communication Technology minister Peya Mushelenga made it a point to start off by extolling the virtues of SIM card […]
Namibia’s Unfolding ‘Identity Crisis’
Compulsory SIM card registration, mandatory data retention and biometrics harvesting will degrade human rights and democracy In a few days communications privacy comes to an end in Namibia. This is because on 1 January 2024 perpetual mass surveillance will become the norm in the country as mandatory SIM card registration and data retention are fully […]
Struggling To Consult
The government approach is not how it should be done This has already been a highly instructive year in terms of what the government considers ‘consultation’. To recap, in the first half of the year, various government authorities rushed to parliament a raft of bills that have to be enacted before the end of September […]
Data Protection in the Age of Mass Surveillance – Part II
The proposed data protection bill is not up to standard concerning fundamental rights, freedoms, as well as privacy Addressing the room early on 22 August 2023 on behalf of the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (MICT), as she opened what was called a validation workshop for the latest version of the data protection bill, […]
Data Protection in the Age of Mass Surveillance – Part I
Namibian authorities pitch flawed safeguards as pervasive state surveillance looms “Today aims at setting the regulatory framework on how personal data should be collected, stored and processed,” said Linda Aipinge, director of ICT Development in the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (MICT), on the morning of 22 August 2023 to a conference hall full […]
Quality of Democracy Under Threat
New state mass surveillance powers and looming watered-down privacy protections will damage Namibia’s press freedom standing Just after 9 am on 3 May 2023 the Namibian presidency issued a statement to mark the country’s retaking of first position on the African continent on the 2023 World Press Freedom Index. Pride dripped from a World Press […]
Questionable Harvesting Of Biometric Data
MTC has been scanning fingerprints and taking face photos while the legal framework only requires basic information for SIM registration. In a usually empty retail space just around the corner from the box office inside the MTC Dome in Swakopmund, a crowd of people filled out forms and then queued to have their fingerprints scanned […]
Thoughts On The Pandemic – Two Years On
State of Emergency The initial lockdown was difficult for the public to deal with, but it was necessary. At the time we didn’t know how harmful the virus might be – so it was legitimate for government to introduce emergency measures and limit some rights, such as freedom of movement and size of public gatherings. […]
The 4IR in Namibia Faces Fundamental Issues
For many first world countries, the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) – which refers to the fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the internet of things (IoT), and other technologies – is already upon them. Countries such as the United States have made great strides in providing a blueprint for others to reference especially […]
