Swanu wants resettlement list
Demands for the complete list of resettlement beneficiaries are refusing to die down and Namibia's oldest political party gave the government a week to release it or face the music.
Swanu member of parliament Usutuaije Maamberua has given notice that he intends to table a motion in parliament next week calling for an audit of the resettlement programme.
“I will ask for a relevant parliamentary standing committee to immediately embark on an investigation and to do a full audit of the resettlement programme since its inception to date,” he said.
Swanu's demand for the notorious list comes barely a week after President Hage Geingob announced that an investigation would be conducted into who had benefited from the government's resettlement programme.
Geingob said this after he was publicly confronted by social activist Rosa Namises about the existence of a so-called secret resettlement list, which allegedly features high-ranking government officials, including army generals, ministers and permanent secretaries.
Namises demanded that the list be made public before the conclusion of the second land conference which ended on 5 October.
This never materialised.
Meanwhile, Swanu has urged the government to follow up the second land conference with an international genocide conference.
Maamberua says it is unacceptable that Namibia suffered the first genocide of the twentieth century in Africa yet the county has failed to have a broad national discourse on genocide and land.
Maamberua believes that an academic institution such as Unam is well placed to be commissioned and funded by the government to take on this exercise.
“A preparatory process of at least two years is in my view in order. The close links of the two issues, land and genocide, in the Namibian context make it imperative for such a conference to take place in the aftermath of the just-ended [land] conference,” said Maamberua.
He also demanded that the president not only honour the memory of the late Chief Hosea Kutako, but also other unsung heroes of the resistance against German colonisation.
These heroes include Kaptein Andreas Lambert, the first Namibian traditional leader to be executed by German colonial troops on 8 March 1894; Jakob Marengo, who fought more than 50 battles against German colonial troops and earned himself the nickname 'Black Napoleon'; as well as Wieli Wilhelm Mahahero, /Haihab //Guruseb and Chief Fritz Aribib.
“We believe that by instructing that various sites be identified for erection of deserving national monuments, President Hage Geingob intends to give more recognition to and in honour of memorialisation of the genocide of 1904-08,” he said.
JEMIMA BEUKES
Swanu member of parliament Usutuaije Maamberua has given notice that he intends to table a motion in parliament next week calling for an audit of the resettlement programme.
“I will ask for a relevant parliamentary standing committee to immediately embark on an investigation and to do a full audit of the resettlement programme since its inception to date,” he said.
Swanu's demand for the notorious list comes barely a week after President Hage Geingob announced that an investigation would be conducted into who had benefited from the government's resettlement programme.
Geingob said this after he was publicly confronted by social activist Rosa Namises about the existence of a so-called secret resettlement list, which allegedly features high-ranking government officials, including army generals, ministers and permanent secretaries.
Namises demanded that the list be made public before the conclusion of the second land conference which ended on 5 October.
This never materialised.
Meanwhile, Swanu has urged the government to follow up the second land conference with an international genocide conference.
Maamberua says it is unacceptable that Namibia suffered the first genocide of the twentieth century in Africa yet the county has failed to have a broad national discourse on genocide and land.
Maamberua believes that an academic institution such as Unam is well placed to be commissioned and funded by the government to take on this exercise.
“A preparatory process of at least two years is in my view in order. The close links of the two issues, land and genocide, in the Namibian context make it imperative for such a conference to take place in the aftermath of the just-ended [land] conference,” said Maamberua.
He also demanded that the president not only honour the memory of the late Chief Hosea Kutako, but also other unsung heroes of the resistance against German colonisation.
These heroes include Kaptein Andreas Lambert, the first Namibian traditional leader to be executed by German colonial troops on 8 March 1894; Jakob Marengo, who fought more than 50 battles against German colonial troops and earned himself the nickname 'Black Napoleon'; as well as Wieli Wilhelm Mahahero, /Haihab //Guruseb and Chief Fritz Aribib.
“We believe that by instructing that various sites be identified for erection of deserving national monuments, President Hage Geingob intends to give more recognition to and in honour of memorialisation of the genocide of 1904-08,” he said.
JEMIMA BEUKES
Comments
Namibian Sun
No comments have been left on this article