Govt is selling Namibia out, Swanu says

ELLANIE SMIT

Swanu has accused the government of selling Namibia out by indefinitely postponing the second land reform conference, charging that external forces had applied pressure on the government to abandon the conference.

Swanu president Usutuaije Maamberua also claimed that the “majority tribe” in Namibia is stealing land just like the former colonial powers.

“The stealing of land continues unabated since the colonial times. First the German government systematically stole land from the Namibian people and then the South African government took over and continued with the evil practice and again the same practice is being followed by our current government,” he said.

The accusations were made after the minister of land reform, Utoni Nujoma, this week postponed the second land conference indefinitely because of financial constraints and the drought.

Maamberua yesterday said it is theft when stolen land is bought and then given to someone other than the one it was stolen from.

“The majority ethnic tribe is buying stolen land through the government and resettling themselves on it. Is that not theft?” he asked.

He added that land stolen from the Damara, OvaHerero, San and Nama people is being allocated to people who did not even lose any land, leaving the victims landless.

Maamberua warned that the government’s “indifference” to the land question and the 1904-1908 genocide could only fuel racial, ethnic and class tensions in the country.

He said the postponement of the conference came in the wake of President Hage Geingob’s visit to the USA, where he made a U-turn on farm expropriation and said that the Damaras, San, OvaHerero and Nama do not know their ancestral land.

“It is therefore clear to us that government has been put under internal capital interest and foreign capital interest pressure to abandon the land question solution in favour of forces unknown to us,” the Swanu leader said.

He said while the government supports the expropriation of land in Namibia it is not being implemented.

According to him the legislation is in place but government is running away from it and therefore statements are being made that the “whites and Western countries are going to get angry if we proceed with the expropriation process”.

Maamberua said the government’s “flimsy excuses” that it cannot afford to host the conference smack of underlying tribalism because the land conference would mostly affect minority ethnic groups.

Swanu estimated that it will cost about N$20 million to host the conference. Maamberua said Nujoma on Wednesday refused to say what the conference would cost when he announced the postponement in the National Assembly.

“He was dodging questions and the truth must come out.”

Furthermore, he said it was irresponsible of the government to think that Namibians are so foolish to believe government cannot afford to host the conference while the president could afford to spend a month in the USA with a large delegation. He said the cost of that trip has not even been made public.

According to him the indefinite postponement of the conference is a further indication that government is not serious about the land question.

“Government is also not conscious of the fact that the land question is linked with the genocide. Since government has already demonstrated that it is not concerned with the genocide and repatriation as demonstrated by its lacklustre attitude, similarly it is not concerned with the resolution of the land question.”

Maamberua said the land reform resettlement programme should pay attention to the issue of ancestral land.

He also said the transformation and concept resettlement process should be designed to address the plight of the people who were disposed of their ancestral land. “We demand that the land be returned to its rightful owners.”

He also said that the second land conference should put in place measures to restore everything lost during colonial rule, being property, dignity and their rights.