Africa-Press – Namibia. A PARLIAMENTARY standing committee on natural resources prematurely ended a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform after its officials failed to study an Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement’s foreign land ownership petition.
The meeting held at the parliament building was to discuss AR’s petition, submitted to National Assembly speaker Peter Katjavivi on 18 March 2019, calling for the urgent passing of legislation to regulate the right to acquire property by non-Namibian citizens.
The petition was submitted in the form of a draft bill that AR would like the legislature to pass.
ILL-PREPARED
At yesterday’s consultation meeting, two officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform – director of land reform and resettlement Petrus Nangolo and deputy executive director Penda Iithindi – confirmed that the ministry did not extensively study the petition.
Members of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources were angry to hear that.
“We are not satisfied with what you brought us today. We are sending you back to go and study the petition,” said the deputy chairperson of the committee, Agnes Kafula.
The officials from the land reform ministry made a short presentation that did not address the AR petition.
Among other requests, AR wants legislation to reaffirm, and give power, control and ownership of the land to previously disadvantaged Namibian citizens.
In their petition, the AR is asking parliament to pass a bill that prohibits ownership of land by foreign nationals. It also asks parliament to provide conditions and circumstances on the use of land by foreign nationals.
The petition asks the parliament to prohibit foreign nationals from using communal land for any purpose.
It further said any allocation of communal land to a foreign national before the bill is passed shall be deemed to have been an illegal transaction and shall be repudiated.
It also calls for the expropriation of urban land owned by foreign nationals in the public interest.
“We want you to answer the petition. Simple as that. We are giving you a week to study the petition. Come back next week with concrete and accurate information. That is an assignment,” Kafula said.
Swanu president and member of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources Tangeni Iijambo said there must be a political will so that the land is expropriated.
Swapo party member of parliament and member of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources Lucia Witbooi said the officials from the ministry still have time to make their submission.
“The land issue is indeed a painful history. You are the relevant ministry in this petition. You can still go through it and come back to make a submission,” she said.
Another Swapo party member of parliament and member of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources Natangwe Ithete said the failure to study the AR petition gives a wrong impression of the minister of agriculture, water and land reform Calle Schlettwein.
“This is straight talk. Remember that the public is watching on social media. This gives an impression that Calle, who is a full Namibian citizen but of German descent, does not want to study the petition/bill that would take away land owned by his ancestors,” he said.
He urged Schlettwein to instruct the ministry’s staff to read the document.
Referring to remarks that he did not want to study the petition because of his German ancestry and that it would “take away land from his ancestors”, Schlettwein said it was sad to note that a parliamentarian of the ruling party, without a thread of evidence, utters such opinions about him in public.
“Racism is what I fought all my adult life, and in my opinion such individuals are not fit to fulfil the obligations and responsibilities placed on any parliamentarian in our democracy,” he said.
Schlettwein said his ministry was fully aware of the petition before the committee.
“Our response remains that the issues raised in the petition are, by and large, in line with resolutions taken by the second Land Conference of 2018,” he said.
As a result, Schlettwein said the required amendments to the respective legislation (the land bill, which merges the Agricultural (commercial) Land Reform Act with the Communal Land Reform Act) have been concluded.
He said these provisions make it impossible for foreign nationals to own agricultural land in Namibia.
“At the public hearing, it was submitted that the technical team needs more time to fully assess and indicate how each matter is addressed in the bill,” he said.
He added that this is not a matter of inability to assess, nor a deliberate intention to delay addressing the pertinent matters raised in the petition, “but rather a matter of short notice,” he said.
AR activist Dimbulukeni Nauyoma hailed Iithete’s comment.
AR leader Job Amupanda said officials from the agriculture ministry were unprepared.
“The members of parliament pointed out that they must do the right thing,” he said.
Iithindi said they received the invitation late “to the extent that we did not provide substantial information in our presentation”.
“We would plead that the ministry make that information available through the secretariat,” he said, adding “We received the notice on the advanced hours of Thursday and we might not have compiled all the necessary information.”
Nangolo said despite not having sufficient time to go through the petition, it was important to note that the government has already put in a motion to close foreign land ownership loopholes.
CONSULTATIONS NECESSARY
In a separate meeting at parliament yesterday, Ministry of Urban and Rural Development deputy executive director Lameck Uyepa said the ministry was prepared to work with the committee.
“We went through it (petition),” he said.
Uyepa said their conclusion on the petition is that there is a need for consultation with the ministry’s stakeholders, the local authorities.
“They are the actual owners and implementers of the land issues. The consultations with the local authorities are crucial. We will first have to do that. It will take us a week or two, then we can submit it to the committee, ” he said.
Uyepa said their submissions to the committee will be limited to urban land.
“This is because we don’t deal with issues such as parks, agricultural land, or commercial land,” he said.
The parliamentary standing committee on natural resources chairperson Tjekero Tweya granted the ministry’s request.
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