LPM denies claims about Geingob’s rally

LPM denies claims about Geingob’s rally CATHERINE SASMAN

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has denied claims that it is urging people at Keetmanshoop to not attend a Swapo rally to be led by President Hage Geingob this weekend.

New Era yesterday reported that Swapo’s //Karas regional coordinator, Mathews Mumbala, had accused the LPM of being hard at work urging people to boycott Geingob’s rally.

The LPM challenged Mumbala to prove his assertion.

It said it had no political agenda, was not a political party and could not be linked to any political organisation. It said it was a civil rights movement championing the cause of ancestral land restitution.

“Therefore, we reject and condemn the false assertion of Mumbala insofar as he tries to link LPM with a political party. Furthermore, we believe Mumbala is seeking upward political mobility by attacking LPM in an attempt to appease the Swapo leadership,” LPM said in statement.

The LPM said Mumbala had tried to block its public meeting held last month at Keetmanshoop’s J Stephanus Stadium by trying to appeal to the municipality to withdraw its permission for the movement to use the venue.

It alleged that Mumbala had wanted to arrange a Swapo meeting on the same day of the LPM meeting to serve as a red herring.

The movement also accused Mumbala of having “no sensitivity” or understanding of the land question.

“The land question is bigger than any president and bigger than party politics. The genocide, in the Namibian historical context, was committed for the purpose of land dispossession. This land dispossession had severe social, cultural and economic ramifications for our people, which we continue to feel until this day,” the LPM stated.

It added: “We see no need to instigate any boycott of the Swapo rally, as the land dispossessed in general and in particular the people indigenous to the South feel disrespected and insulted by national leaders and primarily by the Swapo leadership.”