Namibia tribes voice solidarity with resigned minister

The resignation of a senior Namibian official has refreshed debates on the the country's land reforms, with many local communities coming to the defense of the official.

There have been discontent voices over the years regarding the manner the government has run its resettlement program with some tribes claiming they were being sidelined even for available farms in their regions of origin.

Their sentiments ran high after the land reform deputy minister Bernardus Swartbooi was asked to step down by President Hage Geingob on Tuesday.

Swartbooi is the first high-ranking government official to publicly speak on the issue. He previously said the land reform minister Utoni Nujoma was resettling people from other parts in the south of the country while those from the region are sidelined.

The Namas and Hereros, for instance, are bitter over the land issue as they claim that it was taken away from their forefathers by the Germans during the 1904-1908 war.

Their argument is that the land should be given back to them instead of people from other region.

Damara king Justus Garoeb has called his people to rally behind Swartbooi in solidarity, praising the deputy minister for not lying about the land issue.

Garoeb said even if Swartbooi is silenced, their collective voice would never be silenced.

Three years ago, Garoeb, who was the president of an all-Damara party the United Democratic Front, told his supporters and people to support Geingob as the presidential candidate.

Another chief, PSM Kooper of the Kai-Khaun Nama sub-tribe, said Swartbooi has spoken the truth about the skewed land distribution in the south of the country.

"We are left destitute, landless, and culturally poor," PSM Kooper said, adding that the government has not done anything to lift the Nama people out of poverty and the state of landlessness.

PSM Kooper also said the government has been resettling people from other regions on farms government acquired under the land reform process in the south, while ignoring the local landless people.

The Ovaherero Traditional Authority has also supported Swartbooi, saying the implementation of the current land reform and resettlement program is unjust towards descendants of those who lost land through colonial dispossession.

"Swartbooi speaks for us, and we shall regard any punitive measures against him as a resolve to remove his voice from the arena of relevant ideas in the struggle for equitable access to land," a statement issued by the Authority said.

The South West African National Union (SWANU), Namibia's oldest party, has also voiced support for Swartbooi, saying the government has been resettling people on land lost by other communities.

Geingob, however, on Tuesday cited the Constitution to say that Namibians can live everywhere in the country and that no one should claim some people do not belong to a certain area.

Addressing the media at State House in Windhoek during the review of the Harambee Prosperity Plan, Geingob said Namibia was becoming more tribalistic.

"It is a serious development. We should not accept it. We condemn it. Tribalism will cause war if we do not address it," he said. Endit