Land issue needs leadership

Despite renewed calls for land reform, the Namibian government and ruling party have failed to put the issue on the state agenda. The indecisiveness by government has led to many pressure groups cropping up and the spectre of radicalism, which may not augur well for the future of the country, has grown in leaps and bounds. This is because government has not taken the central position of pushing effective land redistribution to the poor, which has created power vacuums that radicalism is ready to fill. It goes without saying that President Hage Geingob understands this issue fundamentally, given his statements during an interview with a South African station. Like former President Hifikepunye Pohamba, Geingob warned of landless revolution, which will not be kind to current land owners. But why the current Swapo leadership is leaving this issue to be solved by the youth remains a question that must be answered. A talk-shop like the land conferences where resolutions are taken and implemented over successive years will not satisfy the immediate hunger for land. A case in point is 1991 where very few resolutions were implemented in over 27 years. Who is fooling whom? The land conference should be about actionable programmes and clear timelines that people can measure, not to take stock of what was not implemented 27 years later. Land hunger is real and to say it is a ticking time bomb is also nonsense. Solutions are needed immediately in the interest of all Namibians. It is not enough for Swapo and the Namibian government to adopt a wait-and-see approach to what is happening in South Africa. Listen to the cries of your own people and the ones you promised prosperity when you took the oath of office. There can’t be prosperity without the means of production in any country.