OKAHANDJA – Residents of Oshetu One informal settlement in Okahandja said the land they are demanding is not a foreign land but land where they and their ancestors were born, which makes them entitled to it.

They said they are tired of being without land in their own mother country, especially in a town where they were born and grew up, thus they are taking matters in their own hands to allocate plots to all residents in need. Therefore, they gathered on Saturday and submitted copies of their identification cards to the organising committee for consideration. 

Organising committee member who also referred to himself a land activist, Liffius !Haoseb, said people are frustrated by the landlessness and they don’t want to wait for another 30 years to get land which they are supposed to get at birth.

“It is not about grabbing land, the land belongs to us as Namibians and we are entitled to get a piece of land here. We are not going to stop until all of us get land where we can stay with our families,”

Memory Ochs (40) said she was born and raised in Okahandja but she still does not have land of her own, which forced her to live with her parents.

“I was born and bred in Okahandja, I have kids and we are all living with parents, my kids will start having kids of their own soon, are we all going to live with my parents? Okahandja is full of open spaces but when you apply to get a plot, you are told that it belongs to someone,” said Ochs.

Popular Democratic Movement President, McHenry Venaani, who was also at the gathering, said the residents demand for land is justifiable and when parliament resumes in September, he is going to introduce a private members Bill called Flexible Land Tenure that will allow allocation of land to poor people. 

“I am also going to bring another bill called Urban Land Resettlement, for local authorities to temporarily allocate land to families, while they are waiting to be allocated permanent residential plots,” said Venaani.

When contacted for comment on Sunday, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development’s representative at the town, Linus Garoeb, said he spoke to the line minister and they are in a process to facilitate allocation of land to the residents.

-Nampa