Swapo elders demand radical approach to land reform

THE Swapo Party Elders’ Council (SPEC) this week resolved that the government should take a “radical approach” “towards bringing land to the rightful owners” in the land reform programme.

The ruling party’s elders who asked for security to be upgraded at the party head offices in Windhoek also bemoaned the lack of recognition they are subjected to during national gatherings.

Speaking at the media conference on Wednesday after their CC meeting, SPEC deputy secretary Mkwaita Shanyengana said the council agrees with President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s announcement this year at the Heroes Day celebration at Omugulu-gwoMbashe.

Pohamba said then that the land reform programme was slow, not efficient and that he would look at alternatives for getting the land to empower previously disadvantaged Namibians.

“As such, the central committee resolved that the radical approach towards bringing land to the rightful owners specifically black Namibians should be employed,” Shanyengana said.

The announcement by the elders’ council follows many pronouncements by the Swapo wing on the land programme.

Last year, the elders called on the government to address the issue of land reform as a “matter of urgency”.

This year’s “radical approach” comes a month after The Namibian reported that the government has, over the past two years, rejected 259 farms measuring about one million hectares it had been offered for resettlement.

Shanyengana who is also Pohamba’s special advisor on media said another resolution was a request for the secretary general of the party to establish protocol security services at the party headquarters in Windhoek.

According to the elders, the CC has also “noted with dissatisfaction the Swapo party Elders’ Council’s ill-treatment at public gatherings”.

The CC thus called for recognition and equal protocol treatment of the elders like other leaders in the party. They also voiced concern over gender-based violence, alcohol and drug abuse by young people, teenage pregnancies and baby dumping.

The elders called for the strengthening of the law enforcement agencies to effectively control the sale of alcohol and drugs and to conduct research into society ills.