Ovaherero Traditional Authority chief Hoze Riruako has urged the government to allocate land to disenfranchised Namibians instead of waiting for genocide reparation negotiations to conclude.
Riruako said this while giving feedback on discussions held with president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah at State House on Thursday.
“I wanted to see the president on some topical issues facing the Herero people, such as land and ancestral land. It was important to have this meeting calm the fears of our fellow Namibians – both white and black – because the whole ancestral land issue has been misunderstood.
“People think we are going to occupy their land which they acquired legally – whether is through resettlement or affirmative action or their own private sale, and this is not true,” he said.
Riruako said there is an abundance of unoccupied land which the Herero population of over 300 000 people should be given a chance to acquire.
He urged the government not to waiting for Germany to pay reparations, but to instead allocate land to allow those who were disfranchised of their land to acquire a piece.
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