The land injustice

The debate around land delivery has dominated social networks this week in light of tomorrow’s Affirmative Repositioning’ mass action. Many Namibians have criticised Swapo Secretary-General Nangolo Mbumba for not showing leadership in tackling the issue at hand. They argue that Mbumba’s sharp criticism of Job Amupanda’s land movement is politically motivated. The senior Swapo leader has also been accused of being far removed from the reality and the suffering of the landless Namibians. In yesterday’s edition, the mayors of Rundu and Windhoek admitted that serviced land was a problem in their areas, and as a result they were struggling to keep up with demand. As much as we agree that serviced land is an issue in many towns, central government and local authorities should admit that little effort has been made toward rectifying the country’s land inequality. Instead of coming up with a clear land release strategy - aimed at benefiting low-income and middle-income earners - the authorities have been moving fast to auction off large tracts of land to property developers and the politically connected few elites. For years now the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia - consisting of more than 5 000 members - has unsuccessfully applied to the City to acquire land for those in desperate need of it. Some have been waiting for 13 years, while another group from Okuryangava have been saving for land since 1991, and still the process of acquiring land have not been finalised. What an injustice! Are they happy to see poor Namibians looking on haplessly, as their precious land auctioned off to the highest bidder? We have now allowed the situation to spiral out of control, and instead of tackling the issue head-on, the powers that be are busy with patronage politics leading to gross inefficient service delivery and increased corruption. Cadre deployment is the death of service delivery.