Henk Mudge, president of the Republican Party of Namibia, has accused the Russia-linked uranium mining company Headspring Investment, of buying support from local councillors, headmen and other officials, to allow their more than US$500 million, 25 year ‘Wings’ project to continue.
“They bought them, they paid them to support them,” the veteran politician said.
Headspring is a subsidiary of Uranium One, which is wholley owned by Russian state-owned Rosatom, and intends to practice in-situ leaching to mine uranium from the crucial transnational Stampriet Aquifer in south-eastern Namibia. “I am speaking today in support of the Stampriet Aquifer Uranium Mining Association (SAUMA) a body of farmers, scientists, geohydrologists, and ordinary Namibians who have spent mor
e than four years fighting, at their own expense, to protect something that belongs to all of us,” Mudge said at a media conference at the parliament building in Windhoek on Thursday (9 April 2026).
Mudge insists that, “what is being proposed here, if it is allowed to proceed, will not only harm us. It will harm our children. It will harm our grandchildren. And it will harm people in Botswana and South Africa who drink from the same underground water body that we do, without ever knowing that a decision made in Windhoek sealed their fate.”
Last year the former deputy prime minister and then minister of industries, mines and energy Natangwe Ithete announced that the ministry of agriculture was mandated to permit Headspring Investments to continue exploration. More recently, in March, the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources, chaired by Tobie Aupindi, supported the continuation of exploration drilling and accused commercial farmers in the Omaheke Region of opposing uranium exploration only after millions of dollars in borehole payments ceased to flow to their farms. The committee threatened to subpoena the company for all non-disclosure agreements that may disclose financial arrangements for boreholes drilled.
Drilling permits 11561 and 11562 were first issued in March 2021 and according to Mudge, Headspring Investments spaced its hydrogeological-study boreholes in a pattern to mimic ISL-mining to do, “covert test mining under the cover of an exploration permit.” He says at least 77 holes were drilled, some without a permit, which led government to withdraw the permits on 5 November 2021.
“But this company did not stop. It changed tactics. It applied for 250 additional drilling permits. It filed a court challenge against the ministry. It began simultaneously under multiple business names; Headspring Investments, Zoya Mineral and Green Mining, obscuring the full extent of its activities across more than 7 000 square kilometers of exclusive prospecting licences in the Stampriet area,” Mudge elaborated.
“There is credible evidence that this company has actively sought to influence communities, political figures, and public opinion through material incentives,” says Mudge.
According to him Headspring's own water analyses have revealed significantly elevated levels of radioactive contamination in several boreholes near Leonardville, and that the agriculture ministry has confirmed that improperly designed Headspring boreholes have likely contributed. “Let that sink in. The contamination has begun. And not a single drop of leaching chemical has yet been officially injected,” says Mudge.
Addressing citizens of neighbouring Botswana and South Africa, Mudge said, “this aquifer does not respect national borders.” He adds: “I call on the governments of Botswana and South Africa to make their formal positions known to the Namibian government before any approval is granted.”
Watch his press conference here: q.my.na/6UEY
