WINDHOEK – The timely intervention by Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba yesterday halted an envisaged boycott by traditional leaders and civil society groups of the eagerly awaited national land conference, slated for next week.
Mbumba is acting head of state in the absence of President Hage Geingob who is in New York, USA, for the 73rd annual UN General Assembly.
Just as the traditional leaders and civil society groups were about to hold a press conference yesterday, presumably to state their stance on the land conference, Mbumba summoned them to the Old State House in a bid to avoid the planned boycott.
A significant number of traditional leaders of the Nama and the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu communities, joined by representatives of the civil society groups, yesterday congregated at the Habitat Research and Development Centre in Katutura, allegedly to announce their boycott of the event.
Earlier in the day, the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) had announced it will boycott the event despite being invited.
The conference was interrupted by Ovaherero Paramount Chief Advocate Vekuii Rukoro, who said he has received an urgent call from Mbumba to halt the media briefing so that they can join him at the Old State House to iron out their grievances.
He said Mbumba asked him, his fellow tribal chiefs and civil society representatives to urgently meet him.
“Given the importance and the critical nature of the issue at hand, we should postpone the press conference until tomorrow, same place, at 10h00, so whatever we discuss with the acting president can be conveyed to the general public here,” said Rukoro, before departing to the Old State House.
Last week, traditional leaders, even those that never saw eye-to-eye for years due to internal traditional squabbles, met at a Windhoek hotel and put their differences aside - perhaps temporarily - to form a united front in their quest for ancestral land claims.
The meeting drafted a letter which was delivered to Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, demanding the ancestral land issue to be a ‘thematic’ agenda item at the second national land conference.
A widely circulated “Draft Report on Government Position Paper” on land, outlining government’s position ahead of next week’s conference, says government will uphold the “supreme law” of the country by not entertaining claims and restitution of ancestral land at the second national land conference.
The document stated that ancestral land claims have a potential of spilling over beyond the borders of the country as all Namibians migrated from somewhere else.
“As some regions pointed out, this will be unconstitutional and contrary to the provision of the constitution, Articles 1 and 16 that state that Namibia is a sovereign, secular unitary state and that Namibians can reside and settle anywhere within the borders of Namibia,” reads one of the paragraphs.
“Reviving this debate will amount to acknowledging and accepting Bantustans and contrary to the spirit of One Namibia, One Nation,” reads another paragraph.
It appears the content of this document is what prompted traditional leaders and civil society groups to call a press conference yesterday.