The common sense of our lifetime dictates that Namibia is a vast country with a small population of barely 2.2 million people. Over 50 percent of this population is youth.
Twenty-four years after independence, many in this category are young professionals such as doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses, soldiers, police officers, journalists, upcoming and hardworking young business people and many others; their common denominator is that they are largely landless. There is hunger for land. There is anger for the perceived bias and favouritism applied in the current land allocation.
There is time to correct it and we must seize every opportunity to do so. To ignore this is to ignite the ticking bomb whose consequences may be too ghastly to contemplate.
Amid the current land hunger, there are disturbing reports that in some local authorities, corruption is the singular catalyst which is exacerbating inequality in land allocation. For example, in the case of the City of Windhoek, it is reported that a certain Namibian elite owns over 500 houses and allegedly has some City employees on his payroll for influence. It is further reported that the media fall out with the mayor, on the land allocation recently is but a [tip of the] iceberg of an endemic tug-of-war within the City, who feel that she (the mayor) has recently rejected this favoured Namibian elite from acquiring yet another property. Thus, sadly so, it seems the “tug-of-war” is based on greed and selfishness by a few individuals at the expense of the majority the voting public.
It is understandable that many are angry; it is understandably that many feel betrayed by the reported land allocation. However, given that it is an election year, we appeal that the matter not be politicised and thereby blame SWAPO Party for decisions that were not emanating from the party leadership. After all, it may be recalled that the first SWAPO Party Policy Conference 2012, which was preceded by the first Policy Conference of SPYL, resolved on a range of measures to handle land ownership, especially in urban areas. The SWAPO Party Youth League also, through the Department of Economic Affairs, held a land workshop and made recommendations on the same. It is, therefore, important that priority is given to the first time land applicants, than to those who want to have land in every town in Namibia. We would support an idea that reduces housing prices and access to land by all young people. In the same vein, we condemn the allocation of huge [tracts of] land to the capitalist elites who build flats all over our towns and charge exorbitant prices. Why should we allocate land in Otjomuise, Havana or in an informal settlements to someone from suburbs to come and build huge buildings for rental. Our people need land that they call theirs, not only these rental flats. We, therefore, propose that our people are given serviced land at affordable prices and can build modern houses at their own convenience.
Against this background, we call on our SWAPO Party government to amend, immediately after the next Parliament, the 1992 Local Authorities Act to make provision for each local authority, including the City of Windhoek, to reserve and give preferential treatment to young professionals such as doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses, soldiers, police officers, journalists, upcoming and hardworking young business people and many others. In other words, every young person should be afforded the opportunity to own land. Inexpensive students accommodation should also be constructed in local authorities like Windhoek and elsewhere in Namibia.
Further, we propose that there should be a limit on how many plots each resident can own in a local authority. In the same vein, we appeal to all traditional authorities to equally allocate land preferentially to the young people in their respective jurisdictions. Once again, we reiterate our earlier call that no foreigner should own land in Namibia except in joint venture with majority Namibian shareholdings. Finally, land is the only and sustainable resource that Namibia can bequeath to its current and future generations.
By Dr Elijah Ngurare