For years, Namibians have been told that billions of dollars are being invested in modern road infrastructure.
We have celebrated the construction of dual carriageways, upgraded trunk roads and major transport corridors designed to move people and goods faster across the country.
Yet now, in a court affidavit defending the installation of speed humps on Windhoek-Rehoboth road, Minister of Works and Transport Veikko Nekundi argues that Namibia has no highways or freeways because no road has ever been formally declared as such under existing legislation.
If that is indeed the case, then a far bigger question emerges: what exactly have we been building all these years?
The issue goes beyond speed humps. It exposes a disconnect between infrastructure development, transport planning and the legal framework governing the country’s roads.
For decades, government has promoted roads such as the Windhoek-Okahandja, Windhoek-Rehoboth and Trans-Kalahari corridors as strategic national transport routes.
These roads have been designed to accommodate high traffic volumes, long-distance travel and economic activity. Motorists naturally assume they are highways by any practical definition.
The contradiction is difficult to ignore. Presidents, ministers and senior government officials have officiated at the opening of roads that were publicly presented as highways, freeways or key national transport corridors.
At these events, the country was told that Namibia was expanding and modernising its highway network.
Yet today, some of the same institutions are arguing in court that no highways or freeways legally exist in Namibia because they were never formally declared as such.
If that is true, then government must explain why this legal status was never addressed despite decades of road construction and billions of dollars in public investment.
Road classifications are not merely administrative labels. They influence speed limits, access control, pedestrian safety, law enforcement and infrastructure planning.
They help determine whether a road should have intersections, traffic lights, speed humps or direct property access.
A country seeking to position itself as a regional logistics hub cannot afford uncertainty over the legal status of its most important transport routes.
The argument also raises concerns about planning consistency.
If roads that function as highways have never been formally recognised as such, then policymakers, engineers and road users may not have been operating under the same understanding of how those roads should be managed.
The controversy surrounding the Western Bypass speed humps highlighted public frustration over decisions that many believe compromise the purpose of major transport routes.
Instead of debating whether speed humps belong on a highway, Namibia now finds itself debating whether highways exist at all.
This should serve as a wake-up call.
Government must urgently review the legal classification of the country’s strategic road network and align legislation with the realities on the ground. Infrastructure development cannot outpace the regulatory framework that governs it.
Namibia’s roads are among its most important economic assets. If they are intended to function as highways, then they should be formally recognised as highways.
If they are not, then government owes the public an explanation of what standard has guided decades of road planning, public messaging and investment.
Because if Namibia has no highways, then the question remains: what have we been building all these years?
* Briefly is a weekly column that is opinionated and analytical. It sifts through the noise to make sense of the numbers, trends and headlines shaping business and the economy with insight, wit and just enough scepticism to keep things interesting. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT OUR OWN, we simply relay them as part of the conversation.
