Swanu leader Tangeni Iijambo has questioned the country’s policy of national reconciliation, saying there is no evidence suggesting it has worked in an independent Namibia.
Iijambo said this when he tabled a motion on reconciliation in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
“I rise today as the leader of Swanu of Namibia to place in front you and nation the question or subject of national reconciliation, which has had no meaningful, profound or transformational consequence economically or otherwise for the vast majority of Namibians over the past three decades,” he said.
According to him, reconciliation in political terms goes beyond repairing damaged political relations anchored in the country’s violent past and building peace in the aftermath of often systematic wrongdoing on the part of former foes.
“Reconciliation, in political terms, is also a moral imperative and it is inextricably linked to re-establishing mutual respect for the rule of law, especially equality before the law,” he said.
The truth, he said, is that Namibians continue to preach a fiction that has no bearing on reality or the situation on the ground.
“Although the evidence and experiences are still being accumulated, there is a growing recognition throughout the world that reconciliation is a necessary component of post-violence reconstruction and nation-building, as well as lasting peace-building,” he said. He said events over the past three decades of independence have brought to him a realisation that the foundations on which the country’s republic was founded, are beginning to shake and it fills him with apprehension if not despair.
“I, therefore, bring this motion before this august house, as an imperative requirement to highlight the dangers threatening the unity, peace and stability of Namibia,” said Iijambo.
– ktjitemisa@nepc.com.na