John Muyamba
Rundu-Ndonga Linena Constituency Councillor Petrus Kavhura has hailed as important the recent two-day consultative workshop that served as a precursor to the Second National Land Conference.
Kavhura, who also serves as a parliamentarian, noted that social activities have changed just as the country’s population has grown from the time of the first land conference. He says laws and policies must go hand in hand with that change and the upcoming land conference should address these changes.
He made the comments on the sidelines of the workshop that ended on Tuesday.
“The main aim is for us who are in the region to be given the responsibility to go back to our people who are not here and brief them on this so that they can also add their concerns and input to the land conference to be held in September,” he stated.
“This activity has opened our eyes and showed us what we have successfully done in regard to land or, and, what was not achieved. The world has changed and people also do change in how they think now compared to the past and their needs and demands also change – so what was working then might not work now because the population was smaller then and now we have a bigger population.”
“With the increased rural-urban migration, more people are now living in urban areas, so the way in which land in town was and is administered should change, as well as the pace at which serviced land should be delivered to people because the urban population is growing at a faster pace,” he said.
“Most importantly, we can talk about all that but the strategy is very important, how are we going to address the issues hindering land delivery? Right now people are expecting that the outcomes of the Second National Land Conference will result in fair land distribution so that the land should be given back to the people.”
“The upcoming land conference should come up with positive outcomes and decisions to give back land to locals, but those outcomes should still unite us as a country to move ahead with unity. People are expecting maximum benefits with regard to accessing land,” Kavhura added.
Many workshop delegates said they want to see change in the development of communal land and urged the government to develop infrastructure on farming units allocated to people to boost production.
Kavhura also said he would want to see the issue of human-wildlife conflict addressed.