Minister Veikko Nekundi’s threat to label e-hailing platforms like Yango and inDrive as “facilitators of illegalities” isn’t about public safety. It’s a stunt—one that lays bare just how out of touch the government has become with the economy it claims to champion.
Let’s dispense with the pretence: the ministry is cracking down not because Yango is unsafe, but because it’s too efficient, too popular, and too affordable. Traditional taxis are struggling, yes—but not because they’re being treated unfairly. They’re being outcompeted by a service that works.
What we’re witnessing is a ministry enforcing yesterday’s rules to cripple today’s solutions.
The irony is almost comedic. This is the same government that trots out rhetoric about building a digital economy, supporting youth employment, and enabling the “creative sector.” Yet the very platforms that create new livelihoods—ride-hailing, TikTok, digital content, e-commerce—are met with bureaucratic hostility. You can’t open a PayPal account in Namibia. You can’t receive TikTok payouts. And now, you may not be able to drive for Yango either.
What message does that send to the youth hustling online, the unemployed trying to monetise skills, or the coder building the next app from Katutura? The message is clear: innovate all you like, just don’t expect us to make it legal.
Rather than updating transport policy to reflect the times, the minister is pandering to taxi union nostalgia. But nostalgia doesn’t build an economy. It doesn’t create jobs. And it certainly doesn’t help the average commuter trying to get around affordably and safely.
If the ministry had any strategic vision, it would see ride-hailing not as a threat, but as a blueprint: digitally enabled, demand-driven, low-barrier work. It would fast-track app-based compliance, overhaul the archaic permit regime, and bring gig workers into the formal economy with dignity—not criminalise them to protect a failing model.
The minister’s move is little more than short-term posturing, thinly veiled as law enforcement.
It’s not just regressive—it’s embarrassing. And it confirms what many already suspect: the biggest obstacle to progress in Namibia isn’t talent or potential. It’s too much government red tape.
* 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.
