THE final report of the Commission of Inquiry into Claims of Ancestral Land Rights that has been collecting dust at office of the president has been leaked to the public through social media.
The 780-page document was submitted to president Hage Geingob in July last year by the commission that was set up in 2019 after the second land conference a year earlier.
The president at the time had promised to release it within one week.
However, this did not happen and the head of state has since been dodging questions about the report.
The leaked report contains strong recommendations, including a proposal to set up a legal process to deal with the issue of ancestral land claims for restitution to address the injustices and indignity caused to many indigenous Namibians by colonial and apartheid rule.
This process, the report states, should include enacting legislation to provide for ancestral land claims, setting up a body to assist claimants to formulate their claims, and establishing a body to adjudicate claims.
While the commission recommends the setting up of legal entities to deal with ancestral land, it notes that restitution in full may not be possible as was mentioned at the first national land conference in 1991.
The government has also been told to address the inefficiencies within the land reform programme, which has been criticised as skewed, ineffective and is seen as having favoured one ethnic group over others for the past 30 years.
“The oral testimonies and written submissions submitted to the commission raised issues that may seem as not falling within the narrow ambit of ancestral land, but which indirectly have implications on ancestral land rights claims and restitution.
“These included land reform generally, in relation to access, ownership, utilisation and control by the majority indigenous communities vis-à-vis the current ownership pattern where a minority controls the bulk of land as a result of historically discriminatory and unjust practices,” the report states.
