San deserve their own land in communal areas: Amathila

By: * ABSALOM SHIGWEDHA

TRADITIONAL leaders have been urged to help Government implement the San Development Programme.

"It is in our collective interest to extend a helping land to the

San," said Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila when she

addressed the conference of the Council of Traditional Leaders in

Windhoek last week.

Amathila, who travelled to the rural areas earlier this year to

get first-hand information on the living conditions of San people,

said she found "criminal labour exploitation" of the San.

 

"Some San children, especially girls, are kidnapped and abducted

from schools without parental knowledge, in order to perform

domestic work and are later impregnated and dumped with children

they cannot raise by themselves," Amathila told the traditional

leaders.

 

She said San people needed land to settle on and abandon a

nomadic lifestyle.

 

"Once this situation is reversed, they can usher in a new era of

self-reliance and sustainable livelihood for themselves," she

said.

 

Amathila appealed to traditional leaders, as custodians of

communal land, to give land to the San people who live in their

areas of jurisdiction.

 

But she warned them not to throw San people "into the

wilderness", as they have the same rights as other Namibians to

live in productive areas.

 

She applauded some traditional leaders who have already

allocated land to the San, where they have now started planting

crops.

 

The Council of Traditional Leaders advises the President on the

control and utilisation of communal land and other matters as may

be referred to it by the Office of the President.

 

Amathila, who travelled to the rural areas earlier this year to get

first-hand information on the living conditions of San people, said

she found "criminal labour exploitation" of the San."Some San

children, especially girls, are kidnapped and abducted from schools

without parental knowledge, in order to perform domestic work and

are later impregnated and dumped with children they cannot raise by

themselves," Amathila told the traditional leaders.She said San

people needed land to settle on and abandon a nomadic

lifestyle."Once this situation is reversed, they can usher in a new

era of self-reliance and sustainable livelihood for themselves,"

she said.Amathila appealed to traditional leaders, as custodians of

communal land, to give land to the San people who live in their

areas of jurisdiction.But she warned them not to throw San people

"into the wilderness", as they have the same rights as other

Namibians to live in productive areas.She applauded some

traditional leaders who have already allocated land to the San,

where they have now started planting crops.The Council of

Traditional Leaders advises the President on the control and

utilisation of communal land and other matters as may be referred

to it by the Office of the President.

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