I WOULD like to enlighten my fellow Namibians on what is happening in Mbukushu or Mukwe Constituency.
After Namibia’s independence we were all joyful to the expectations of freedom after the long anguish of colonialism. Immediately after independence the Government of the Republic of Namibia identified Divundu as one of the growth points for the development of a township. While the Government was confident about its mission to develop Divundu into a town, the traditional leadership however received this message with mixed feelings, and the plan by the Government to develop Divundu into a township was not supported by the Fumu [chief/king].A series of meetings were conducted with the HaMbukushu community to explain the importance of developing Divundu into a town. With the support of the political leadership in the region, the government convinced the majority of the community to accept the initiative to have Divundu as a town and a layout plan of the township was developed as well as the surveying and partial servicing of the land.Today Divundu has been declared a settlement area by the Government under the provision of the Regional Council Act, No 22 of 1992. Activities such as the Build Together Housing Scheme, construction of domestic water tank, construction of sewerage ponds and installation of water pipelines have been implemented.Notwithstanding the efforts by the government to develop Divundu, the Fumu however still intimidates the Divundu Settlement Committee not to co-ordinate the development activities within Divundu, namely the allotment of plots in Divundu.Being from here myself I know who the key people are in Mbukushu, [those] whom we regard as role models to advise the Fumu to respect and abide the Government policies and regulations.Surprisingly some of these role models don’t care at all but are only interested in bringing the development to their own houses. Some of them are siding with the Fumu not to support the development of Divundu into a town, and in exchange the Fumu gives them large portions of communal land to construct their homesteads and farms.Our Fumu is a referee and a player at the same time. The point here is, it is not the Fumu that we should blame but we should blame ourselves for not advising our Fumu frankly.We must all stand up and develop Divundu and we should not point fingers at one another. Divundu is a strategic location, which is a gateway to four neighbouring countries such as Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Vision 2030 can only be realised if a place like Divundu is properly developed.ConcernedDivundu
