In this edition, the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) made a clarion call on government to rein in the escalating cost of land and stop local authorities who continue to defy a standing order that public land should no longer be put on auction.
The league’s remarks came in the wake of an auction yesterday of prime land in Windhoek’s Academia area where the affluent flexed their financial muscle, bidding as much as N$1.3 million for a piece of virgin land.
Like spectators at a soccer match, Namibians with less income were reduced to mere witnesses who stood on the sideline as Windhoek’s rich battled it out at the much-hyped auction by the Windhoek Municipality.
Designer clothing, top of the range cars and the smell of expensive fragrances dominated the scene at yesterday’s auction – and that was enough cause for intimidation of the lesser fortunate bidders who arrived in throngs in the hope their dream of securing land in Windhoek would finally be realised.
The event was a sad reminder of classism which has become the definition of how we live as contemporary Namibians.
Classism is differential treatment based on social class or perceived social class. Classism is the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups to advantage and strengthen the dominant class groups.
It’s the systematic assignment of characteristics of worth and ability based on social class. And the auctioning of land by municipalities has every element of the above definition.
Lately, wealthy people enjoy advantages that working class people are struggling to access. Even a precursory look at our nation’s poor neighbourhoods reveals a disturbing reality.
The schools and hospitals in those neighbourhoods are in a dilapidated condition and are seriously underfunded, while schools and hospitals in wealthy suburbs are in a comparatively pristine condition.
A learner at A. Shipena in Katutura’s Soweto has a slim chance of doing better than a counterpart at Jan Mohr in Dorado Park or Windhoek High School – yet they live in the same country, or better yet, the same city.
Early on in the history of our nation people of means were given huge land grants that poor people had never gotten. With land auctions spearheaded by institutions of government, we are slowly ushering our country back into its dark past of land ownership.
By their very nature, municipalities are institutions created to administer basic government services to the people. They are not commercial institutions which would be laughed at for not making profits.
Municipalities are not supposed to take part in capitalistic beauty contests for profits and massive revenues. It is against this very background that they are funded, probably not sufficiently, by the State.
Not every Namibian can afford land in Academia or any of Windhoek’s upmarket suburbs. But access to such areas must be equitable. There must be an element of justice and equality in the manner Namibians can access land across the country.
We currently live in a land of immense opportunity but most of such opportunities are only accessible to the elite. Yet this is not the Namibia we envisaged when the gallant sons and daughters of our country took on those who colonised us.
So, where do we go from here? As citizens we must believe that we can bring about social justice. We cannot have a country of social classes. Not when our constitution is very clear on the issue of equality.
If we don’t act as a nation to arrest the situation, the rich will gradually possess exclusivity to all that is worth our pride as a nation. The rich should not be discriminated against, but they should not be treated as first class citizens ahead of anyone else. We must promote equity, justice and fainess.