LPM takes swipe at commission
The LPM has called upon communities to boycott the commission's meetings.
The leader of the Landless People's Movement (LPM), Bernadus Swartbooi, has invited President Hage Geingob to join the LPM because he is “starting to sound like LPM”.
Swartbooi said the president “and one other opposition party” were beginning to sound like the LPM following Geingob's appointment of the 15-member commission of inquiry into ancestral land claims.
“We are offering Hage reluctantly – because we realise he is becoming LPM – a position as member of the LPM, but a position where he will never hold any executive post; maybe a position as a dancing commissar,” Swartbooi quipped at a press briefing yesterday.
Ancestral land claims have been a core agenda of the LPM since its inception and it is speculated that Geingob's appointment of the commission was an election gimmick to take the wind out of LPM's sails.
Swartbooi described the commission as a “conglomeration of puppets that are strategically placed to produce particular outcomes”.
“It is yet again a Swapo committee. These people pretend to do the right thing, but for the wrong purpose, with the wrong people [and] at the wrong time,” Swartbooi said.
“They even placed my 80-year-old grandmother, who should instead have been interviewed, as a commissioner. To make what contribution?” Swartbooi said, referring to Anna Fredericks.
Other commissioners are High Court Judge Shafimana Ueitele (chairperson), Phanuel Kaapama (deputy chairperson), Professor Lazarus Hangula, Chief Immanuel /Gaseb, Uhuru Dempers, Willem Kanjore, Joseph Petrus van der Westhuizen, Ryno van der Merwe, Nadia Le Hane, Jeaneth Kuhana and Igenesia Inge Murangi.
Swartbooi said Swapo and the government had at no point in the last 28 years expressed any support for the restoration of dispossessed land, while former presidents Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba had rejected the principle at last year's land conference.
“They have had to be forced,” he said, adding: “They know they are playing politics with the dispossessed audiences and these communities are also very aware of the deception.” The LPM believes that the commission's report, after its nine-month-long mandate, will be shelved to gather dust.
The LPM said the commission's probe would be a “useless exercise” and called on communities to boycott all sessions. Swanu's member of parliament, Usutuaije Maamberua, has also criticised the commission as “too Swapo”, echoing the LPM sentiment that the commission is a “Swapo committee”.
Swapo's executive director, Austin Samupwa, responded by saying that Maamberua's criticism was “baseless and bogus”.
Samupwa said although Swanu decided not to attend the second land conference, it still wanted to dictate the outcomes of a process it had not participated in.
Samupwa said the committee was drawn from all walks of life, and “reflected in a very imaginable way the inclusive approach championed by President Geingob”.
“It is utterly deceitful to claim that the eminent members do not possess the requisite expertise. Their qualifications in diverse fields such as history, law, politics, agriculture and culture, including land activism at different levels in affected communities, attest to the fact that the commission can fully discharge its mandate as per the terms of reference,” Samupwa said.
CATHERINE SASMAN
Swartbooi said the president “and one other opposition party” were beginning to sound like the LPM following Geingob's appointment of the 15-member commission of inquiry into ancestral land claims.
“We are offering Hage reluctantly – because we realise he is becoming LPM – a position as member of the LPM, but a position where he will never hold any executive post; maybe a position as a dancing commissar,” Swartbooi quipped at a press briefing yesterday.
Ancestral land claims have been a core agenda of the LPM since its inception and it is speculated that Geingob's appointment of the commission was an election gimmick to take the wind out of LPM's sails.
Swartbooi described the commission as a “conglomeration of puppets that are strategically placed to produce particular outcomes”.
“It is yet again a Swapo committee. These people pretend to do the right thing, but for the wrong purpose, with the wrong people [and] at the wrong time,” Swartbooi said.
“They even placed my 80-year-old grandmother, who should instead have been interviewed, as a commissioner. To make what contribution?” Swartbooi said, referring to Anna Fredericks.
Other commissioners are High Court Judge Shafimana Ueitele (chairperson), Phanuel Kaapama (deputy chairperson), Professor Lazarus Hangula, Chief Immanuel /Gaseb, Uhuru Dempers, Willem Kanjore, Joseph Petrus van der Westhuizen, Ryno van der Merwe, Nadia Le Hane, Jeaneth Kuhana and Igenesia Inge Murangi.
Swartbooi said Swapo and the government had at no point in the last 28 years expressed any support for the restoration of dispossessed land, while former presidents Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba had rejected the principle at last year's land conference.
“They have had to be forced,” he said, adding: “They know they are playing politics with the dispossessed audiences and these communities are also very aware of the deception.” The LPM believes that the commission's report, after its nine-month-long mandate, will be shelved to gather dust.
The LPM said the commission's probe would be a “useless exercise” and called on communities to boycott all sessions. Swanu's member of parliament, Usutuaije Maamberua, has also criticised the commission as “too Swapo”, echoing the LPM sentiment that the commission is a “Swapo committee”.
Swapo's executive director, Austin Samupwa, responded by saying that Maamberua's criticism was “baseless and bogus”.
Samupwa said although Swanu decided not to attend the second land conference, it still wanted to dictate the outcomes of a process it had not participated in.
Samupwa said the committee was drawn from all walks of life, and “reflected in a very imaginable way the inclusive approach championed by President Geingob”.
“It is utterly deceitful to claim that the eminent members do not possess the requisite expertise. Their qualifications in diverse fields such as history, law, politics, agriculture and culture, including land activism at different levels in affected communities, attest to the fact that the commission can fully discharge its mandate as per the terms of reference,” Samupwa said.
CATHERINE SASMAN
Comments
Namibian Sun
No comments have been left on this article