Land conference must address skewed resettlement: Gaweseb

WINDHOEK, 25 SEP – The upcoming land conference must revisit Government’s resettlement scheme which has benefited politicians and their cronies at the expense of the masses, Association of Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches of Namibia (ACPCN) president, Jan Fritz Gaweseb said.
Gaweseb made these remarks at the ACPCN mini-land conference in the capital on Monday when he was interviewed by reporters.
According to him, the government’s resettlement programme is skewed and has pushed potential farmers to the peripheries of the agricultural sector.
“I know many people that are able to use the land in a productive way, people with skills that have knowledge on how to cultivate land and have been applying to be resettled for many years, but cannot get land,” Gaweseb bemoaned.
He said the Namibian government is faced with a serious problem in applying justice in land redistribution.
“For me, the resettlement programme is skewed and I don’t think that process is fair. The process must be revised and we must come up with another strategy in order to do justice to our nation,” he said.
In addition, the ACPCN leader lamented that land in Namibia is overpriced, noting that the time has come for land prices to be regulated.
More so, he said existing municipal laws have made it a cumbersome process to own land in Namibia.
He then took on the issue of ancestral land claims for restitution, which has been a bone of contention in the run-up to the second National Land Conference.
“As much as maybe one may claim ancestral land, there are people who are sitting there today on that land. People who legally got that land. How do you remove them? How do you address that? You cannot chase them away.”
He continued: “It’s not so easy to just claim ancestral land and think the people [on that land] must disappear. It’s a process that we have to deal with. We should consult. We must discuss.”
Furthermore, churches, according to Gaweseb face challenges of their own, especially in accessing land from municipalities.
The provision of land to churches and faith-based organisations (FBOs) will contribute constructively to national development and the realisation of Vision 2030, he said.
“Churches and FBOs need ample land in order to assist the government in the fight against crime, all kinds of social evils, corruption, moral decay, and alcohol and drug abuse,” Gaweseb said.
The land conference is scheduled for 01 to 05 October 2018.
(NAMPA)