AR, LPM, Rukoro sidelined

The leaked official programme of the country's second national land conference slated for October indicates the event will be dominated by cabinet ministers and Swapo affiliates.The programme line-up includes the country's two former presidents Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba, President Hage Geingob, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, Khomas governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua, works minister John Mutorwa and former agriculture permanent secretary Joseph Iita. It also shows that former deputy prime minister Marco Hausiku and Kuugongelwa-Amadhila will chair a discussion on ancestral land rights and restitution from a South African perspective.International relations minister Netumbo-Nandi-Ndaitwah and Libertine Amadhila, also a former deputy PM, will co-chair a discussion on land governance and security of tenure.Local businessman Haroldt Urib and Mutorwa will chair a discussion on urban land delivery, looking at land prices and an upgradable land tenure system. Iita and local land economist Martin Shapi will chair a discussion on land tax and the property valuation system. Meanwhile, associate professor for land and property sciences at Nust, Wolfgang Werner, and International University of Management (IUM) professor Earle Taylor will give a presentation on thematic areas.Unam lecturer Phaneul Kaapama will give a presentation on injustice and land ownership patterns in Namibia from historical perspective. Ovaherero paramount chief Vekuii Rukoro yesterday criticised the inclusion of pro-government traditional chiefs and genocide committees, in contrast to the total exclusion of representatives from the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu Genocide Committee (OGF), the Landless Peoples Movement (LPM), the Association of Nama Traditional Leaders and the Damara King's Council of Gaob Justus Garoeb.Job Amupanda's Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement is also nowhere to be seen on the programme. Gaob /Gaseb, who has been under fire from his traditional community that demanded he step down in March, has been invited to represent traditional leaders. It was reported /Gaseb had failed to establish legislative authority structures and operated in a vacuum, allegedly selling, donating and alienating portions of communal land to private investors without the consent of the community.Rukoro promised that just as they are fighting their exclusion from government's official negotiations for genocide reparations, they will also “fight tooth and nail” against their exclusion from the land conference. “In its proposed format, the land conference is fatally flawed and is thus doomed to fail, as it is designed to continue to entrench the privileges of the imperialists, neo-colonialists and the new tribal cabal that is seeking to capture our structure of governance. “Those who never lost land during colonialism want to exclude us from discussing our ancestral land. They want to discuss land issues without our participation” he said. LPM leader Bernadus Swartbooi believes the line-up of cabinet ministers and Swapo affiliates for the conference is a ploy to intimidate and threaten attendees to behave, while their talking time would also be limited.“It is a Swapo election gimmick at best; this national land conference. The Swapo secretary-general (Sophia Shaningwa) forms part of this important committee and only one other political party is invited to say one or two things,” he said. Government's land conference concept paper, which has been seen by Namibian Sun, bemoans the past imbalances in the land distribution, which remains one of the burning issues Namibia has faced since independence. The state's objectives for the conference include reviewing the implementation of the 1991 land conference resolutions, addressing the structure of land ownership and deliberations on ancestral land claims for restitution and the removal of the red line, amongst others. “The slow pace of land acquisition, the scarcity of such land and inadequate financial resources to acquire land remain a bottleneck in the attainment of land reform objectives in the country,” the concept paper said. JEMIMA BEUKES

AR, LPM, Rukoro sidelined

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-07

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AR, LPM, Rukoro sidelined

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-07

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