Kae Matundu Tjiparuro
Developing Omaheke or dicing with its development? This question crops up naturally if one reads between the lines of the happenings in the region.
Starting with the seeming developments in the region most recently, with reference, for a start, to the headline “Nganate tries to extinguish fire over Farm Nuwehoop issue,” in New Era in mid-August.
The particular issue the headline is referring to is the trusteeship of the said farm.
The governor of Omaheke, Pijoo Nganate, with a detectable sense of arrogance, was categorical that management affairs relating to the farm currently are driven by his office and that it is a project under his authority and not a youth-specific project.
While the Omaheke Regional Youth Forum (ORYF) seems to be seeing matters differently, with the chairperson of ORYF, Kenaumue Jacob Hikuama, reminding the public and other entities that “the National Youth Council of Namibia (NYC) [is] the only statutory body mandated by an Act of Parliament to coordinate youth development in the country”.
Where, how and why there seems to be a discord and disconnect between the governor and the NYC about the farm and the related project, only time will reveal and tell. But it is not difficult to see why.
Swakopmund Uranium Foundation is reported to have pledged about six million for the project at the farm.
Obviously, this seems to be what everybody concerned seems to be positioning themselves for: to get his/her fingers in the pie. Be it the governor and his lieutenants and/or chosen ones and/or the NYC.
As the saying goes, money is the root of all evil. But there obviously must be more to it than what seems like a mere shoving and shuffling, pulling and pushing between stakeholders in the region.
Why would the Swakopmund Uranium Foundation, all the way from the Otjozondjupa region, regardless of how financially endowed it may be, be so much interested and willing to invest so much in a region so distant from its area and/or region of operations?
Surely, it needs to convince, at least Yours Truly Ideologically, that it is simply a matter of corporate responsibility.
Entering the equation, even if only by mention and what seems a distant association, is One Uranium, by virtue of one of the trustees of Nuwehoop who is an employee of One Uranium.
Is this coincidental? Swakopmund Uranium and One Uranium? What is this seeming infatuation of the region of Omaheke with uranium?
Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but muse, recalling the long-running saga about Headspring Investment’s involvement in the region in terms of prospecting uranium in the region.
Applying the in-situ method that farmers in the area/region have feared would negatively affect the aquifer, the only reliable underground water source in the area and to the area, they fear that their water source would be contaminated by the said particular uranium prospecting method.
This matter, especially the safety of the prospecting method, is yet to be concluded scientifically. Thereby, reassuring the farmers, and indeed the inhabitants of the region, that they need not fear anything about their water source.
With the government yet to produce any results of any scientific studies in this regard that it may have commissioned, only for Swakopmund Uranium, through its Foundation, to appear, of all areas and regions, in the Omaheke region, where the issue of uranium prospecting continues to be controversial.
Is there and can there be any connection, and what connection can there be other than just pure corporate responsibility, as many may be made to believe?
It is a well-known fact that the Omaheke governor has been overly and excitedly in favour of the prospecting of uranium in the region, not to mention the specific in-situ method in the Stampriet/Leonardville area.
Understandably so, given his eagerness to see economic development and progress in his region.
To the extent that he and many others undertook sponsored trips by the mining company engaged in this endeavour in Stampriet/Leonardville and elsewhere in Omaheke to Kazakhstan, where this particular prospecting method had been used.
Obviously, it was expected to be proven environmentally friendly. Is it any wonder if the contrary were true, such escapades to Kazakhstan would have been undertaken and sponsored in the first place? Obviously not.
Back from Kazakhstan, none among those who were part of the sponsored trips had a different opinion, with all affirming the environmental friendliness of the said prospecting method.
“The matters relating to Farm Nuwehoop Trust, its trustees legitimacy and deeds information are internal to the trust,” a statement issued by the governor’s Office was reported as having stated in the said New Era article.
With Nganate reportedly saying his office “cannot make the information public at this stage, and the appointment of the board remains the prerogative of the trust”.
Certainly, given the controversy in which the matter of uranium prospecting has been engulfed, and continues to be, this seeming lack of transparency does not inspire trust and confidence that whatever is happening and is going to happen at Farm Nuwehoop is in good faith and in the best interest of the region, especially its development.
Or is it a case of a certain cohort positioning itself to feather its own nests?
