EDITORIAL: We went fishing on land
It has been six years since the supposed ‘landmark’ second national land conference of October 2018 took place. For context, that’s longer than a presidential term. Six years is a lifetime.
Despite the pomp and fanfare of the conference, punctuated by long-winded political rhetoric and lengthy academic presentations, nothing fundamental has changed in terms of access to and ownership of land. The arrests of landless livestock owners in Omaheke yesterday is a manifestation of what was a long time coming.
The condition of the common man – as far as the hunger for land is concerned – is worse today than it was in 2018. This is so because the number of Namibians in need of land has increased as many have transcended into adulthood, while the price of this commodity has also increased.
For six years, government has been dilly-dallying with people’s lives. Those resettled are the least needy. They have not been evicted from the Gobabis town land like the men arrested yesterday.
The people mandated to deliver land to the masses are sleeping both on duty and in the comfort of their own, cushy homes – without a care in the world.
Late president Hage Geingob once said, rather disappointingly, that land does not necessarily mean wealth. This capitalist outlook, that people want land to become rich, is exactly what is wrong with the psyche of our politics.
To many people, land simply means a place to call home.
Despite the pomp and fanfare of the conference, punctuated by long-winded political rhetoric and lengthy academic presentations, nothing fundamental has changed in terms of access to and ownership of land. The arrests of landless livestock owners in Omaheke yesterday is a manifestation of what was a long time coming.
The condition of the common man – as far as the hunger for land is concerned – is worse today than it was in 2018. This is so because the number of Namibians in need of land has increased as many have transcended into adulthood, while the price of this commodity has also increased.
For six years, government has been dilly-dallying with people’s lives. Those resettled are the least needy. They have not been evicted from the Gobabis town land like the men arrested yesterday.
The people mandated to deliver land to the masses are sleeping both on duty and in the comfort of their own, cushy homes – without a care in the world.
Late president Hage Geingob once said, rather disappointingly, that land does not necessarily mean wealth. This capitalist outlook, that people want land to become rich, is exactly what is wrong with the psyche of our politics.
To many people, land simply means a place to call home.
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