SWANU parliamentarian Usutuaije Maamberua wants the second national land conference to pass a resolution to amend the Constitution to include a clause on ancestral land rights.
Maamberua said this on Wednesday at a media event in Windhoek, where he stated that there was a need to enact a law that would protect ancestral land because the issue, which according to him has been “brushed aside”, was not protected by the Constitution.
Maamberua said the Constitution only protected the rights of a minority who own “about 98% of the land in the country that they forcefully stole from us”, through Article 16, thereby ignoring the rights of indigenous people “who lost land during the German colonial era”.
He added that a law on ancestral land rights should also include the protection of the interests of indigenous people, as well as the natural resources found on the land such as mineral resources, and that such resources should benefit the owners of the land.
“Currently, the very first indigenous minorities, such as the San, Hai//om, Topnaars, Ovatue, etc, face more challenges in the realisation of their indigenous rights. This is clear that indigenous minorities’ land rights are not protected, but need to be guaranteed by the Constitution,” Maamberua said.
He, however, added that a law on ancestral land rights should also be carefully dealt with to avoid offending the principle of equality.
“In a sense, by including such power in the Constitution, Namibians would also be doing something appropriate to recognise the status of Namibia’s indigenous people,” he said.
Once the the law is passed, the politician said, the government would be compelled to take land from people who have benefited through colonialism, and return the land to the indigenous people.
Furthermore, people who have been resettled through the government’s resettlement programme, but have not lost land, should also return the land to the rightful owners, Maamberua said.
“People who have not lost land and are currently resettled on our ancestral land should also return the land to the legitimate owners,” he continued.
“We cannot be blinded by appeals for calm while our right to ancestral land is being denied in various government schemes, such as the resettlement on our ancestral land of people who never lost land,” he said.
Swanu’s position paper on land released last year also strongly hampered the case for ancestral land restitution.
The paper identified several areas in the country where indigenous people purportedly lost land to former colonisers.
These include the Omaheke, z//Karas, Hardap, Otjozondjupa and Khomas regions. This land, the paper said, should be expropriated for the purpose of restitution.
