It’s the end of the first week of 2022 and as expected, this year is not going to be much different than 2021.

The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.

The big ugly elephant in the room remains the all-consuming coronavirus and how we decide to deal with it.

We’re only two months away from the first anniversary of our vaccination programme, and we’ve only just fully vaccinated around 22% of the eligible population. During that time, we’ve lost over 3 500 people.

This newspaper reported this week that despite these worryingly low levels of vaccine uptake, government is not ramping up its approach to increase the number of people vaccinated.

Reckless and negligent driving is still killing too many people in the most productive section of the population.

A FIFA/Caf delegation is again heading our way to try and resolve the quagmire we managed to blunder ourselves into, with no one but the fat cats at Soccer House deriving any joy from Namibian football, which has largely been on ice for over three years. 

The rain that has threatened for days seems to elude many areas as both commercial and communal farmers have cast their eyes to the heavens more frequently over the last few weeks, only to be greeted with unbearable heat as time to plough and grazing and water for animals start running out. 

The City of Windhoek this week announced that they will stop providing water for free to informal settlement residents as government fell into arrears of N$90 million. This situation would certainly add to the ongoing health and sanitation problems.

We’ve certainly been in this omnishambles before and we have learned to cope with it. Many say, this too shall pass. We shall overcome. 

But we should press the reset button and do things differently.

The worryingly low levels of vaccine uptake, increasing number of positive cases and deaths should now give government ample reason to toughen its stance on those who have access to but refuse to be vaccinated. It is clear from the official statistics that those who succumb to the virus are overwhelmingly unvaccinated. Government unfortunately cannot keep pandering to the loud minority who would stubbornly refuse to get vaccinated or do not trust the science behind the vaccines, but trust the doctors when they fall sick. 

The unvaccinated hold our recovery back. Also, the private sector should help by requiring their staff to get the jab and to uphold regulations more strictly.

Hopefully in 2022, Namibians will behave more responsibly on the roads, be more polite and patient and adhere to the rules of the road. It’s impossible to police everyone on every stretch of every road of this vast country. Road users should take personal responsibility.

We’ve all been fed-up with the shenanigans of the Namibia Football Association. It’s clearly time for new people, new thinking and a complete paradigm shift by all involved in the country’s football.  

There isn’t much we can do about the rain, perhaps finding ways to bypass the inconsistent rainfall by farming with more drought-resistant species, be cleverer with how we store water, and be more responsible with the number of livestock we keep.

Windhoek’s brinkmanship with vulnerable people’s lives is unconscionable. There is no way that the City can leave the most vulnerable high and dry, on top of falling far short of election promises on land and housing.

It’s time the City realises it’s not a for-profit organisation, and that those on the outskirts in makeshift housing are also Windhoekers. On the other hand, government must come to the party and pay its bills, like all of us.

Here’s to a 2022 of effective change and improving health.