AR throws down the gauntlet

JANA-MARI SMITH



The Affirmative Repositioning (AR) land activists yesterday announced their withdrawal from the Mass Urban Land Servicing partnership with, citing a lack of commitment on the part of the government.

Two of the group’s founders, Job Amupanda and George Kambala, announced a list of alternative actions, underlining AR’s commitment to “dedicate 2017 to practical action and less on bureaucratised meetings after meetings”.

The said activists from across the country were prepared to mobilise in order to “stop the practice of only the rich and politically connected who benefit from the national cake”.

According to Amupanda and Kambala, AR activists are embedded in 4 000 villages and informal settlements, 121 constituencies, more than 50 local authorities and in all 14 regions of Namibia.

Amupanda said the AR movement would change course this year.

“We have spoken enough, dialogued enough and given the political elite enough benefit of the doubt,” he said.

“The elites still do not get the message that they still rely on old propaganda and are not interested in changing economic policy to practically benefit the masses,” he said.

“Land occupation remains an available option in this practical year of action. Indeed, it must not appear as if land occupation has been abandoned completely.”

In July 2015, the government averted a mass land grab by partnering with the AR on the Massive Urban Land Servicing Programme, with a goal of initially servicing 200 000 plots countrywide.

AR decided to pull out because “not only is there failure to meet the targets and observe the urgency of the housing crisis, there is evidently no consequences for those who deliberately fail the massive urban land servicing programme,” Amupanda said.

He said the targets for the land servicing programme had been missed and “no single explanation was offered”.

Kambala and Amupanda claimed that the failure of the land servicing programme was linked to a government strategy “to ensure that AR will not succeed” by means of deliberate bureaucratic delays and lack of consequences for inaction.

The AR will instead focus on alternative programmes, including pushing for the implementation of a rent control board and a housing initiative for informal settlements, aimed at improving living conditions in these communities at no cost to residents.

A letter addressed to the government was sent yesterday demanding urgent progress on the implementation of rent control boards, Kambala said.

The letter warned that legal steps would be taken after 19 February if no further progress was observed in the next month.

Amupanda said the estimated half a million Namibians living in informal areas had been “abandoned” by the government, except before elections, when they were courted for votes.

“There is no intervention on the part of government and local authorities to decisively assist our people … who are still without basic services. Most of [them] have lived in informal settlements for far more than 26 years.

“Those people have successfully occupied land, and we will reward them for this,” he said.

The AR plans to mobilise local youth and raise funds to upgrade shacks with alternative building materials, install solar power and put up street names in the informal settlements.

Amupanda warned that attempts to oppose the informal settlement upliftment programme would be met with resistance.

“We hope nobody gets in our way because we are going to be very confrontational,” he said.