THE Affirmative Repositioning (AR) trio – Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, George Kambala and Job Amupanda – said they will not fight individual agendas but to restore the dignity of Namibians.
They said this during The Namibians’ #AskAR Twitter session yesterday.
Most of the Twitter users wanted to know what direction the movement would now take after accomplishing the land mission.
Some wanted to know whether the AR would tackle other issues like unemployment and whether there were steps in place to ensure that there will not be any land grabs on Friday.
“We have our mandate,” Amupanda said. “We have people come up to us and ask us to fight for their causes, but we are here to restore the dignity of Namibians, not individual agendas. We have our mandate and we are still carrying it out.”
#AskAR hashtags were used over 1 000 times yesterday and the three were asked questions ranging from their involvement and mobilisation of the mass land applications last year to the 31 July land occupation deadline, which was suspended after President Hage Geingob agreed to sit down with them to find a solution for the housing crisis.
The most frequently asked questions during the two-hour session included whether or not there would be preference for first-time buyers; how much the land that President Geingob was currently identifying for servicing would cost buyers and also why AR accepted the government’s deal without first consulting the masses.
The AR crew said that the government’s plan to service 200 000 plots was for the benefit of first-time buyers and that the cost of servicing would help determine the pricing.
They also said they didn’t need to consult the masses if their demands were for about 50 000 applicants and the government agreed to servicing plots for many more people.
On what will happen come Friday, the three said they were happy that the message is out there that the land occupation will no longer be taking place. They expressed hope that everybody was well-informed about the most recent developments.
Amupanda was at pains to explain that they were never actually planning to ‘grab’ land. He said it is a word the media use to make their cause seem violent and wrong.
He also said that occupying land at the end of July was not a threat to government but a set deadline that they had planned to meet.
The trio were asked many questions but the group gave short shrift to some who asked irrelevant questions. They said they hoped that Namibians would learn to ask “informed” questions. There was also an almighty virtual slap to longstanding AR detractor Fillemon Shikomba, who asked, “Now that you insulted the leaders who were good enough to sit down and engage with you, do you have any plans to apologise to them? The group’s answer was, “Again, we are willing to pay for your psychiatric evaluation.”
They were also asked whether or not they gave the government a deadline to meet as “government always fails” as well as what measures they had put in place to make sure they actually planned to service the plots and weren’t using it to “shut AR up” until after 31 July.
The three said that they did not need to as Geingob has already begun identifying plots for servicing and that they were not children who could just be shut up.
