Geingob courts timber harvesters
Farmers are demanding that President Hage Geingob's utterances on them selling their timber “anywhere” be put in writing and made available to all stakeholders, as it may simply be a ploy to attract votes.
While seeking to pour cold water over the brewing anger among Kavango timber harvesters, Swapo president Hage Geingob on Saturday announced that farmers sitting on stockpiles of raw, harvested timber will be permitted to sell their logs, including via exports.
This is contrary to a standing government order that came into effect from September this year that only timber processed to the final stage of use may be exported under export licences issued by forestry officials.
Geingob explained that setting up of a timber factory locally would take time and therefore farmers whose logs are in the process of getting rotten on their farms are angry as they are unable to sell their logs locally.
It is on that basis, said Geingob, that farmers should sell their already cut timber wherever they can, though urging that no new timber should be harvested.
“I am announcing today that those timber that have been cut and is rotting must go. In the future we are going to have a proper way of having factories to produce furniture here. But it's already cut, it's on the ground, lying there rotting, sell that anywhere you can,” Geingob said during the party's star rally for the Kavango East and Kavango West regions held in Rundu.
In April environment minister Pohamba Shifeta said the law prohibits the export of unprocessed or semi-processed Namibian timber.
This was after the relevant ministries placed a moratorium on timber activities in order to preserve nature and stop the plundering of trees which were being sold to the Asian buyers for peanuts, therefore robbing government of millions of dollars in taxes.
During his recent presidential town hall meeting in Rundu, angry timber harvesters asked the head of state to solve the impasse by lifting the moratorium.
Two months later, the ban on the transportation of timber in Namibia was lifted, but with stringent conditions attached.
These conditions include that no fresh trees should be harvested and that all logs must be loaded in the presence of officials from the agriculture and environment ministries.
It was also agreed that officials from the two ministries may be supported by law-enforcement agencies, including the police, and that no unprocessed timber shall be exported from Namibia, while timber processed to the final stage of use may be exported under an export licence issued by forestry officials.
Some farmers who spoke to Namibian Sun yesterday said contradictory directives from government is confusing them.
“Why could Geingob not make the same pronouncement then? For the past five months we did not know what stood for what and now we are told to sell our timber anywhere we want. The question is: What about the conditions attached to the lifting of the moratorium? How can we be assured that all is well to export again? Will the two ministries not come at us again?” one of them wanted to know.
The farmers are demanding that Geingob's announcement be put in writing and made available to all stakeholders, as it may simply be a ploy to attract votes.
KENYA KAMBOWE
This is contrary to a standing government order that came into effect from September this year that only timber processed to the final stage of use may be exported under export licences issued by forestry officials.
Geingob explained that setting up of a timber factory locally would take time and therefore farmers whose logs are in the process of getting rotten on their farms are angry as they are unable to sell their logs locally.
It is on that basis, said Geingob, that farmers should sell their already cut timber wherever they can, though urging that no new timber should be harvested.
“I am announcing today that those timber that have been cut and is rotting must go. In the future we are going to have a proper way of having factories to produce furniture here. But it's already cut, it's on the ground, lying there rotting, sell that anywhere you can,” Geingob said during the party's star rally for the Kavango East and Kavango West regions held in Rundu.
In April environment minister Pohamba Shifeta said the law prohibits the export of unprocessed or semi-processed Namibian timber.
This was after the relevant ministries placed a moratorium on timber activities in order to preserve nature and stop the plundering of trees which were being sold to the Asian buyers for peanuts, therefore robbing government of millions of dollars in taxes.
During his recent presidential town hall meeting in Rundu, angry timber harvesters asked the head of state to solve the impasse by lifting the moratorium.
Two months later, the ban on the transportation of timber in Namibia was lifted, but with stringent conditions attached.
These conditions include that no fresh trees should be harvested and that all logs must be loaded in the presence of officials from the agriculture and environment ministries.
It was also agreed that officials from the two ministries may be supported by law-enforcement agencies, including the police, and that no unprocessed timber shall be exported from Namibia, while timber processed to the final stage of use may be exported under an export licence issued by forestry officials.
Some farmers who spoke to Namibian Sun yesterday said contradictory directives from government is confusing them.
“Why could Geingob not make the same pronouncement then? For the past five months we did not know what stood for what and now we are told to sell our timber anywhere we want. The question is: What about the conditions attached to the lifting of the moratorium? How can we be assured that all is well to export again? Will the two ministries not come at us again?” one of them wanted to know.
The farmers are demanding that Geingob's announcement be put in writing and made available to all stakeholders, as it may simply be a ploy to attract votes.
KENYA KAMBOWE
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