There was a time when Namibia’s mining and energy sector was led by people who not only understood the terrain but could smell opportunity beneath the dust.
Men and women who could stand on international stages, speak the language of investors, and return home with signed commitments—not just applause.
Today, that confidence and technical command appear to be fading fast. The sector feels adrift, led by figures who seem more comfortable issuing threats and populist statements than setting vision and pace.
Take Mines and Energy Minister Natangue Ithete, for instance. Since assuming office, his tenure has been marked less by strategic policy direction and more by reactive declarations.
Instead of articulating a clear road map for Namibia’s green-energy transition, mineral beneficiation, and upstream oil strategy, Ithete has relied mainly on warnings to investors, combative rhetoric, and ideological pronouncements.
Where his predecessors spoke the language of technical depth and investor confidence, he has leaned into populist grandstanding.
Mining is not for the thin-skinned or the politically cautious—it is about balancing national interest with global competitiveness.
Tom Alweendo, for example, may have been careful, but his grasp of policy and investor psychology earned him respect in boardrooms from Toronto to Tokyo.
He understood that credibility and stability were Namibia’s strongest currencies in a volatile global commodities market. In contrast, Ithete’s approach seems driven by pressure rather than purpose, bluster rather than blueprint.
If mining leadership today feels underpowered, the petroleum sector fares no better. The appointment of Maureen Hinda-Mbuende as Namcor’s interim CEO raised eyebrows for good reason.
Yes, she has a background in finance and public administration, but oil and gas is not just about balance sheets—it’s about exploration risk, reservoir economics, production sharing, and geopolitics.
Namcor sits at the heart of Namibia’s most consequential discoveries in generations, with global majors like TotalEnergies, Shell, and Galp reshaping the country’s energy destiny. Yet its top office is now occupied by someone without technical grounding in the industry.
Leadership in this sector is not ceremonial; it’s surgical. Decisions on crude marketing, production licences, and equity participation require a deep understanding of the science and economics behind every barrel. Without that depth, Namibia risks becoming a spectator in its own energy revolution.
This is not to discredit Hinda-Mbuende’s professionalism—she’s a capable technocrat—but rather to question the logic of appointing people whose expertise lies outside the field they are meant to lead.
When a country is on the cusp of a hydrocarbon boom and a green-energy transition, leadership cannot be about convenience. It must be about competence.
The broader problem is one of vision—or the lack of it. Namibia’s extractive sector, once envied for its policy consistency and institutional maturity, is slipping into reactive governance.
Too many announcements, too few coherent strategies. Too much posturing, too little progress. The result is a sector that looks busy but moves nowhere fast.
Leadership used to mean foresight—the ability to anticipate where the global commodity markets were heading and position Namibia accordingly. Now, it seems to mean managing headlines and political optics. The industry deserves more. Investors are watching closely, and so are Namibians whose futures depend on how this sector is run.
What the country needs are leaders who understand that mining and energy are not just political talking points but complex systems requiring skill, consistency, and courage.
Leaders who know that every statement moves markets, that every delay costs jobs, and that credibility is as valuable as copper, oil, or uranium.
Until then, the extractive sector risks becoming a field of missed opportunities—shovels in the ground but no one truly shovel-ready.
