Lüderitz residents want referendum

LüDERITZ residents want a referendum on the proposed name change for the southern coastal town to !Nami#nüs.

Residents opposing the name change suggested that the town council put the question to the vote.

The residents made the call at renewed consultative meetings held last Thursday by the council.

Speaking on behalf of the business and tourism sector Ulf Grünewald said an overwhelming majority of residents who attended the meetings “say no” to the name change, and proposed a referendum.

According to Grunewald, businesspeople in the town opposed the name change because it will “badly affect” their business.

“They are selling their businesses under the trade name Lüderitz,” Grunewald explained, adding that the proposed name change will also impact negatively on tourism.

He noted that 60% of tourists visiting the town are German citizens because its name has a German origin.

At the meetings residents expressed annoyance at the renewed consultations, questioning the purpose of renaming the town when the majority of them already had opposed the change.

“Why should the renaming process continue when we have already made our opposition clear,” said Reginald Hercules, who is one of the people against the name change.

He said residents will have no option but to seek legal recourse if government goes ahead with the name change.

“It is not economically viable. The people already said no and they must respect it,” Hercules fumed.

He accused government of wanting to impose the name change on the residents to satisfy the “sentimental values” of some individuals.

This was in an apparent reference to !Aman chief Dawid Frederick who proposed the name change 10 years ago.

“We cannot accept the name change proposed by somebody who does not have an interest in the town. We have sympathy, but why did he not demand a name change 100 years back,” Hercules remarked.

!Nami≠nüs is the original name given to Lüderitz by the !Aman community, a Nama sub-tribe, which was the first to settle at the coastal town before the arrival of German tobacco merchant Adolf Lüderitz, who is said to have bought the town from a Nama chief and named it after himself.

Hercules advised government to use the money to be spent on the name change on socio-economic programmes for the benefit of the locals.

When President Hifikepunye Pohamba announced towards the end of 2013 that Lüderitz would be rechristened !Nami≠nüs on recommendation of the Fourth Delimitation Commission, the residents protested against what they termed the unilateral name change.

Confused by a contradictory statement presidential affairs minister Albert Kawana made shortly after Pohamba’s announcement that the “process of the Lüderitz name change to !Nami≠nüs is being done through a different procedure not related to the work of the Delimitation Commission”, the residents wanted Pohamba to clear up what they described as this “confusion and misunderstanding” regarding the name change.

The mayor of Lüderitz, Susan Ndjaleka, yesterday said it emerged at Thursday’s consultative meetings that the residents are split, with one group supporting the name change, while the other opposes it.

Asked why council started renewed consultations on the name change, Ndjaleka replied: “It was on council’s agenda as it was started before we took office. It is not something that was introduced when the President made the announcement.”

According to Ndjaleka, during the consultative meetings some people got personal, and those who initiated it had “made true enemies”.

Despite this, Ndjaleka added she has no regrets as a leader, saying, “as council chairperson, I will, with or without support from fellow Namibians, fearlessly push the process through, and submit reports on the consultations to the line ministry”.

Ndjaleka also dismissed residents’ complaints that they were invited to the consultative meetings on short notice.

“It was not short notice. The meeting date was communicated to the public well in advance. I do not see any reason why they are complaining instead of dealing with the real issue,” said Ndjaleka, adding that the large attendance by members of the public shows that they were not invited at short notice.