2017-01-25Staff Report 2 Loide Jason Windhoek - The Regional Councillor for Oshikuku Constituency in Omusati Region, Modestus Amutse, plans to host a consultative meeting with traditional leaders in the constituency to address the land issue. Amutse revealed this in a telephonic interview with New Era on Tuesday, saying the planned one-day meeting is expected to take place in the 2nd week of February. Amutse is preparing for the meeting together with the Ministry of Land Reform so that they can find common ground. “I want some places to be declared as national places that cannot be fenced off for commercial purposes. We want to limit the activity of the use of land for commercial purposes,” he said. The councillor further explained that those who have no money to build today would suffer and those who have animals living in the community will as well have nowhere to graze should the current trend of fencing off land continue. “The country is experiencing a very fast rate of issues of land – the grazing areas are being camped off and public places with communal interest like oshanas where people used to graze and fish are also being fenced off as private property,” he said. “Those are places I am intending to protect by meeting with the traditional authority and ministry of land officials so that we reach consensus,” he elaborated. He said that consultation is already on and he had intervened in some areas with communal interest where land was about to be fenced off and told people to hold it until the meeting. “I stopped the ministry of land from issuing certificates to some of the areas that are in dispute so that we sort them out correctly and declare some of the areas as public places and that they not be privatised,” he said. 2017-01-25Staff Report 2
