We need a plan
We are pleased to see that President Hage Geingob has taken a firm decision on the long-awaited land conference, announcing during the first cabinet session of 2018 that it will be held this year.
The Office of the Prime Minister has now been mandated to get the ball rolling and the entire conference now falls under its control.
This is indeed good news.
However, while some public consultation has taken place, it has not been all encompassing and many issues are still outstanding. We think here of ancestral land, which should have sessions entirely of its own. Several NGOs have also held public meetings and we hope their findings will also be included.
Land, or equitable access to it, is certainly as basic a right as access to clean, drinking water.
And the land must be used productively.
Our resettled farmers are failing. They are unable to access proper funding to get their operations going, simply because they have no title deeds. Many once productive farms, and we think here of a place like Ongombo West, have turned into small informal settlements, where those with cattle while away their days.
An entire harvest of watermelon on a resettlement farm near Stampriet lay rotting because there was “no transport” to get the product into town to sell it.
This is not successful farming and makes zero contribution to the economy.
The same can be said for urban land. What use is a small plot if there is no functioning plumbing, or shall we simply grow our slums and see what happens?
We need a plan, because our people need a real and tangible tomorrow. This is their right and it is only fair.
But while we are handing out land, or making it equitably available, we must ensure that the standards of production and living are maintained. Otherwise, all we are doing is moving around the poverty-stricken to live the same way they did before.
And so it will continue for generations.
It is a gargantuan task, but there can be no more procrastination. Land is a thorny issue and we must be careful it does not bite us in the proverbial butt.
The Office of the Prime Minister has now been mandated to get the ball rolling and the entire conference now falls under its control.
This is indeed good news.
However, while some public consultation has taken place, it has not been all encompassing and many issues are still outstanding. We think here of ancestral land, which should have sessions entirely of its own. Several NGOs have also held public meetings and we hope their findings will also be included.
Land, or equitable access to it, is certainly as basic a right as access to clean, drinking water.
And the land must be used productively.
Our resettled farmers are failing. They are unable to access proper funding to get their operations going, simply because they have no title deeds. Many once productive farms, and we think here of a place like Ongombo West, have turned into small informal settlements, where those with cattle while away their days.
An entire harvest of watermelon on a resettlement farm near Stampriet lay rotting because there was “no transport” to get the product into town to sell it.
This is not successful farming and makes zero contribution to the economy.
The same can be said for urban land. What use is a small plot if there is no functioning plumbing, or shall we simply grow our slums and see what happens?
We need a plan, because our people need a real and tangible tomorrow. This is their right and it is only fair.
But while we are handing out land, or making it equitably available, we must ensure that the standards of production and living are maintained. Otherwise, all we are doing is moving around the poverty-stricken to live the same way they did before.
And so it will continue for generations.
It is a gargantuan task, but there can be no more procrastination. Land is a thorny issue and we must be careful it does not bite us in the proverbial butt.
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