from ALFRED SHILONGO in Windhoek, Namibia
Namibia Bureau
WINDHOEK, (CAJ News) – THE smaller opposition Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has pledged land reforms if elected into power at the elections set for November.
This pledge is at the centre of its manifesto, launched this past weekend as the campaign shifted into another gear.
Addressing a rally at Rundu Town in the great Kavango East Region on Sunday, LPM leader, Bernadus Swartbooi, said offering land to the previously disadvantaged Namibians would ensure such people owned property.
This, he said, would redress colonial imbalances.
“At the level of land: free urban plots in informal settlements to allow for property transfer to hundreds of thousands of Namibians who have no property at all,” Swartbooi said.
The LPM leader noted that such a land programme would combine with housing construction led by local authorities with an aim to reserve jobs for local residents while establishing an office of the Land Protector, who will deal with communal, commercial, urban and mining land complaints.
Swartbooi also spoke about changing the Minerals Act in order to give veto power to communities where Exclusive Prospecting License (EPL) and other exploration activities would be conducted in the diamond rich country.
“People must have a say in the land use and not the Minerals Act dictating how land use is to be changed, simply because a mineral resource could likely be found at a particular area,” he said.
He also spoke about exposing hundreds of youths to international business and technology programmes thereby connecting them to internships and potential job affiliations at internationally recognised corporations.
“We need to grow youth capability at every possible level of society and economic activity,” Swartbooi said.
He added: “People’s Economic Plan 2, giving our focus as it should be, to the people of this country, as the central and prime beneficiaries of the programme of action contained in the manifesto.”
While the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) is tipped to return its majority rule, political analysts forecast fierce competition with oppositions Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), United Democratic Front of Namibia (UDF), Congress of Democrats (COD), Republican Party (RP), National Unity Democratic Organization (NUDO) and Monitor Action Group (MAG).
Namibia will hold elections on November 27.
SWAPO has been in power since independence in 1991.
– CAJ News