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Author: Reverend Jan Scholtz (Reverend Jan Scholtz )

Home Reverend Jan Scholtz
Letter –  Servanthood: The crux of leadership 
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Letter –  Servanthood: The crux of leadership 

In his classic book ‘Servant Leadership: Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness’, Robert K. Greenleaf suggests that the concept of the servant as leader emerged from reading Hermann Hesse’s ‘Journey to the East’.  In that story, Leo accompanies a party on a journey as the servant who does their menial chores, and...

Opinion – Encounters with Africa’s liberation icons 
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Opinion – Encounters with Africa’s liberation icons 

As we mourn and remember one of Africa’s greatest liberation icons – the likes of Sam Nujoma and Kenneth Kaunda – I vividly remember Tatekulu Nujoma’s visit to Lüderitz in 1998, when we celebrated the importance of children under the theme ‘Putting children first’.  As senior youth officer in the then-Ministry of Youth and Sport,...

Opinion –  Take your country forward 
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Opinion –  Take your country forward 

I recently attended a graduation ceremony, and as I sat in that jovial moment, observing and admiring the graduates, an important question dawned on me. A question that I believe haunts most graduates, specifically those who haven’t secured jobs. Where do we go after acquiring a qualification? Do we study further and keep collecting more...

Opinion – The family: Reflections on its importance 
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Opinion – The family: Reflections on its importance 

In my last article on the family, I wrote about the protection and the joy children bring into our lives and the potential they have of deepening one’s relationship with the world.  On the other hand, it has been said before, that “the way a society treats its children is a reflection of the dynamics...

Opinion – The synchronisation of societal priorities
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Opinion – The synchronisation of societal priorities

When, in 1137, the Abbot Suger announced plans to build a new choir for this Abbey church in St. Dennis, France, and adorn it with gold, his long-time friend, the Cistercian Abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux, critised Suger’s taste for excessive opulence: “What is the good of displaying all this gold in the church…?. You display...

Opinion – Word and action
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Opinion – Word and action

The most important issue in a mission is this element of word and action. There are those who think that a mission is primarily about talking but if we take a look at the biblical tradition, we will see that the sharp distinction which we are inclined to draw between word and action is not...

Opinion – Does your vote count? 
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Opinion – Does your vote count? 

The importance of elections cannot be doubted or over-emphasised.  At the very least, they provide the public with its clearest formal opportunity to influence the political process and help, directly or indirectly, to determine who will hold government power.  From this perspective, elections are about results.   In other words, who wins and who loses. ...

Opinion – Protecting the Namibian child
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Opinion – Protecting the Namibian child

Children are the future of society in that they are tomorrow’s adults, who will then mould their families. It is befitting that we look at the challenges they face, especially when their mental safety is under attack. There is a saying that goes, “A child is like a blanket sheet of paper on which every...

Opinion – Working towards an inclusive society
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Opinion – Working towards an inclusive society

Grönvik, in his work on the definition of disability in the social sciences, displays a photograph of a body, with the person’s head and face cut off, in a wheelchair at the bottom of a flight of stairs, and then proceeds to explain that the photography could be seen to reflect no less than five conceptions...