NTLA, OTA take aim at Geingob

Nama and Ovaherero people are calling for an International Claims Conference and demand that the Namibian government work with them and not against them for the sake of the communities affected by the 1904-08 genocide.A statement issued by the Chief Petrus Kooper of the Nama Traditional Leaders Authority (NTLA) and Professor Mutjinde Katjiua on behalf of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) said President Hage Geingob mistakenly believes the impasse only lies in the quantum offered.Germany last year apologised for the Nama and Ovaherero genocide and offered N$18.4 billion for reconstruction; however, affected communities have rejected this amount as an insult.The Namibian government, too, has repeatedly said the amount is not sufficient, but is going ahead with plans to push it through in Parliament and get the buy-in from the affected communities.This while the communities insist that the agreement mistakenly regards development aid as reparations and an admission of guilt and that development aid or programmes of reconstruction and development support are not genuine reparations.Reparations, by contrast, imply that Germany has a debt to Namibia in general, and the affected communities in particular, the statement read.“The restitution of land expropriated from the Nama and Ovaherero people is a central issue in the demands for reparations, as communities dispossessed of their ancestral lands and natural resources have been plunged - for generations - into poverty and exclusion.”The statement went on to say that never in Namibia’s 32 years of independence has government fulfilled its obligation “to ensure some forms of remedy for the gigantic losses which have caused inter-generational poverty”.We are angryThe affected communities also agreed with Geingob that they are angry, saying this is because the president handled issues relating to the genocide badly.According to them, Geingob deviated from the letter and spirit of the Namibian National Assembly Resolution of 26 October 2006 and replaced it with a ‘government to government’ or ‘bilateral’ principle, and in doing so, effectively excluded the genocide victims from participation in direct negotiations with the German government’s Special Envoy.“Your choice of your Special Envoy, late Dr Zed Ngavirue and others in the technical committees, used as decoys to fool the world that the Ovaherero and Nama people were part of the Namibian delegation, is immoral as it is deceptive because they were not appointed by the Ovaherero and Nama victim communities to represent them,” the statement read.“They did not even carry with them their independent negotiation position papers. You’re boasting about the majority vote that Swapo received while genocide was never an election issue in the Swapo election manifesto. The end result of your years of negotiations since your administration took over is now only collecting dust and is thus only good for the archives.”jemima@namibiansun.com

NTLA, OTA take aim at Geingob

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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NTLA, OTA take aim at Geingob

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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