Central bank watches land debate

OGONE TLHAGE

The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is closely following discussions on land issues in the build-up to the second national land conference in October.

This follows developments in South Africa, where the rand lost value after the ruling African National Congress recently announced that it would amend the constitution to allow expropriation of land without compensation.

The rand, to which the Namibia dollar is pegged, lost 16 cents to the US dollar in response to the announcement by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

BoN governor Iipumbu Shiimi said the bank was monitoring the situation and he was positive that Namibian land reform would be conducted within the confines of the law.

“We believe the land issue is important but it must be done within the law. Hopefully this will be done responsibly. We continue to expect that outcome,” he said in response to a question about the central bank’s position.

President Hage Geingob earlier said that the issue of ancestral land rights could be debated at the land conference.

This has given rise to ancestral land claims by one political party and a traditional authority.

The South West African National Union (Swanu) demanded that ancestral land be returned.

“Land that is ours; the land we owned previously before colonialism, is ours, unless one wants to justify that stolen land can be kept,” said Swanu member of parliament Usutuaije Maamberua.

The spokesperson of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, Uazuva Kaumbi, last month said the government should not buy farms from “German settlers”.

“The government should rather negotiate with the German government for the Germans to relinquish the farms they own as a solidarity gesture, not for us to take the money and buy the farms from the Germans again,” Kaumbi said.

The land conference is scheduled for the first week of October.