The year 2021, a year as contrasting as the landscape of this vast country, will be remembered for dizzying highs and soul-destroying lows.

But here we are at the end of a year that will be remembered as possibly the harshest in the history of Namibia.

To say the coronavirus and its ever-evolving variants have wreaked havoc with our lives and livelihoods would be a gross understatement. To arrest its spread through its devastating waves, officialdom has had to impose restrictions on our movements, how much we can reveal of our faces, and even how close we can come to strangers in public spaces. It closed borders and limited the number of people who could come here to gape at what this arid marvel of desert and forest, beaches and rivers and its people can flaunt, which ravaged businesses and those who derive an income from the almost 1.5 million who come here annually.

Covid-19 has not only depleted public and private resources, it also exhausted us physically and mentally. 

But when Namibia is hit hardest, its sons and daughters jump higher, run further and faster than most.

Namibians have enjoyed a most productive year in the most storied sports arenas of the world. A shiny silver in an Olympic super event and another sixth place for two 18-year-olds from here, numerous shattered records later, and a whole world who awaits 2022 to see what Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi can achieve in athletics and life. Certainly, world domination awaits the duo if the officials who barred them from their chosen event, the 400 metres, can stay in their lane and eat their humble pie as all who have competed against our two girls have had to.

And they weren’t the only Namibian athletes who punched above their weight. Honourable mentions must go to our men’s cricket team, professional footballer Peter Shalulile, whose discipline and skill continue to mesmerise the South African Premier Soccer League, and a bunch of kids who stormed the inaugural U/15 World Schools Sport Games in Belgrade, Serbia in September and plundered a litany of medals.

If only our elected leadership, on both sides of the proverbial aisle, can emulate the poise and guile with which our youngsters approached their tasks and perform, not only for the peanut gallery, but their mandates that they will want renewed in the next few years.

The year 2021 in Namibian politics was one to forget, with few milestones and only internal squabbles and jostling for the most lucrative positions making the headlines. The people certainly have nothing to show for it.

Do better in 2022.

Those who continue to steal the scarce resources from us, the people, and those who offer them safe harbour, may the long arm of the law reach all of you in 2022.

Let us use the rest of 2021 to rest, reflect and recharge.

We hope 2022 will bring relief to the downtrodden, the landless and homeless, and if we can’t eradicate Covid-19, we can find a way of living with it with little disruption to our social and business lives.

At the moment, the only way we can do that is by vaccinating. Let’s drop the pseudointellectual debate about what’s in the vaccine and who manufactures them, and let us get the jab. 

Merry Christmas and happy 2022.