Calls for land debate grow

The Namibian Non-Governmental Organisations Forum (Nangof) working group on land reform has called on government to renew the debate around ancestral claims and to review the land reform policy arguing that not all Namibians were driven off their ancestral land.
According to the convener of the group, Uhuru Dempers, people hoped that they would regain their ancestral land through legal expropriation but this he noted, never happened.
“We would like to state that under German colonial rule, the extermination of the indigenous populations and the expropriation of land resulted in Namibians losing most of their valuable land by military conquest to colonial settlers,” he said.
“The central and southern regions, especially those inhabited by the OvaHerero, Nama, Damara and San were particularly affected by colonial land expulsion,” Dempers said. He also said he was concerned that no date had been set or venue identified for the national land conference slated for November this year.
According to him, it is important that landless people, farmers’ organisations, resettlement beneficiaries and other stakeholders be part of this conference.
“Since the land question is a matter of national concern and indeed a sensitive matter, we are concerned that the land ministry is single-handedly organising this second national land conference,” said Dempers.
Dempers proposed that an organising committee comprising of all stakeholders, including landless Namibians, be set up.
Meanwhile, the working group plans to hold a series of local and regional consultations over the next two months.
The local and regional consultations will prioritise the eight regions, which according to the committee, were most affected by the German and South African colonial governments.
The first land conference was held after independence in 1991 to deal with the challenges of accessibility to commercial land and to protect farm workers from exploitation.
That conference came up with less than 30 resolutions; some of which have been implemented by central government.
Meanwhile, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) has also joined the fray and has called on government to involve other stakeholders, including churches and civil society in the structures organising the land conference.
The ELCRN in a media statement on resolutions taken at the Church Council meeting of 19 August 2016 proposed that a multi-stakeholder task force with the involvement of civil society be established to organise the land conference as a truly national platform for debate and critical reflection.
“The Church Council believes that ministry officials cannot evaluate themselves as that would make a mockery of this critically important and sensitive national question,” the ELCRN stated in the media statement issued yesterday.


JEMIMA BEUKES & FRED GOEIEMAN