No land, no moneyResidents of Stampriet and its surrounds say that government has no interest in resettling them and thus, they are trapped in poverty. Trapped in a cycle of poverty 0 The past 26 years of government land reform in Namibia has not provided any benefit to the impoverished 6 000 residents of the village of Stampriet in the Hardap Region and the residents say landlessness is the primary cause of poverty in the village.This was revealed at the regional land consultative meeting held at Stampriet by the working group of the Namibia Non-Governmental Organisation Forum (Nangof) led by Uhuru Dempers and Sima Luipert.
Nangof has now completed its consultations in the Hardap Region will attend to //Karas, Omaheke, Khomas, Otjozondjupa, Erongo regions. Consultations will also be held in the south of the Kunene and Oshikoto regions.
According to Nangof, community members at the meeting claimed that despite the fact that vast majority of them had applied for resettlement, not one of them have been considered or approved.
They expressed their concern over the announcement of a second land conference by the Minister of Land Reform Utoni Nujoma. The community is of the view that stakeholders’ involvement is critical and further to this, they say the resolutions taken at the first land conference in 1991 were never implemented.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Stampriet Community Cooperative, Rebekka Fleermuys, announced that they established a committee through the structures of the cooperative to represent them at the second land conference.
“This time around we want our voices to be heard,” Fleermuys said.
“The only places we can call farms are the backyards of our houses where we keep our livestock,” she added.
She said that the lack of land in Stampriet has aggravated the levels of poverty and that many of the poor are resorting to alcohol abuse because of the mushrooming of shebeens all over the village.
Fleermuys alleges that some shebeen owners threatened to kill her because of her stance against their businesses which she says are mostly owned by people from the northern regions.
“These people have no regard for the wellbeing of our people,” she claimed.
She added that although the government says that the reallocation of land will address poverty, it does not resettle the residents of Stampriet who are already very poor.
“We demand that underutilised farms should not be advertised but reserved for cooperative,” she said.
Helmut Gert Appolus, another resident of Stampriet, said that even as members of Swapo they do not qualify for resettlement.
“Some of us are bona fide Swapo members and have voted for the ruling party over the years, but still cannot qualify for resettlement,” he said, and added he wanted to know what else they will have to do qualify for resettlement land.
Dempers announced that they plan to organise a landless peoples’ conference after the regional consultative process to review and discuss the inputs from the respective regions.
“The objective is to see whether inputs from the regions are incorporated truly and correctly reflects the concerns and suggestions raised, and to agree on the final position paper of the regional consultations at the second land conference in November,” he said.