Swartbooi to address southern landless

Not less than 3 000 people are expected to attend a mass meeting in Keetmanshoop on Saturday in an attempt to stop the tabling of the Land Bill.
Minister of Land Reform, Utoni Nujoma, has so far denied repeated calls by communities and interest groups to postpone the tabling of the Bill until after the promised second land conference that was slated for later this year.
In response to the growing clamour, the minister has instead postponed submissions on the Bill from 16 January to 16 February but has expressed his intention that the tabling of the Bill with the opening of parliament would continue.
He had also dismissed claims that there were not sufficient national consultations on the Bill.
The mass meeting taking place tomorrow is held under the theme ‘landless Namibians’ mass meeting’ and is spearheaded by the //Karas Progressive Landless Namibians Movement.
The organisers said the mass meeting is aimed at creating awareness among landless Namibians that “they have been historically disposed of their land, [and the] unjustifiable and unfair allocation of commercial agricultural land purchased for resettlement as part of the broader land reform”.
The keynote address will be done by deposed former Deputy Minister of Land Reform, Bernadus Swartbooi, who was forced to apologise to Nujoma after accusing the latter of allocating resettlement farms in southern and central Namibia to primarily northerners who have not lost land during the colonial and apartheid regimes.
Paramount chief of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA), advocate Vekuii Rukoro, was also to attend the mass meeting but will instead be represented by senior councillors of the OTA as he will be attending the centenary commemoration of King Mandume Ya Ndemufayo to be held this weekend.

Catherine Sasman