Maria Hamutenya
The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) says the newly installed City of Windhoek Council councillors required between six months to a year for them to deliver on promises made to the voting populace regarding land and service delivery in the capital.
PDM Secretary-General Manuel Ngaringombe said the coalition partners just won the opportunity to rule the City of Windhoek two months ago. As such they should be given more time to discuss the way forward and find viable solutions and the resources to finance them.
“Give these people a chance to deliver, at least six to 12 months, if they do not deliver then you can hold them accountable. But you cannot hold people who are only 90 days in the office accountable,” said Ngaringombe.
“People should be patient as council will have their management meetings very soon, and the mayor will soon tell the people of Windhoek the way forward.”
This comes as land grabbers made efforts to individually appropriate land for themselves for the second time in Otjomuise last week. Groups made a first attempt at unilaterally confiscating state land for their own benefit two weeks ago.
The Affirmative Repositioning (AR) Spokesperson Simon Amunime said they the grouping which had campaigned on availing land during the past elections, was not quiet regarding the issue of the land grabbing and the populace fristrations.
“Residents should give them time as they still have to discuss the way forward. We have a clear plan of action of how we are going to address the land questions; we don’t want to be distracted,” said Amunime.
He added that there is a plan for the pre-allocation of plots and establishing a housing fund through.
“People are reducing the whole issue and blaming the AR but we don’t run the capital city, its run by progressive forces which are collective. We work with different political formations including PDM, IPC, LPM and other parties,”
He said the city council was still to meet on matters related to the land issue as people were sworn in on the 02 December and were busy with induction and orientation.
“As a movement, the land question is very central to the AR. We always make it very clear that if any in leadership fail to give land to the people, we (AR) are able to assist them. If the procedures established by the municipality are not giving land than people must resort to self-help,” the AR Spokesperson said.
Amunime further said that they are not condemning land occupation if people have given a leadership enough time to address the problem but nothing is done. Then, the AR stands ready any time to join the public.
“It is unreasonable [to expect that] someone that has been in the office for [only] four weeks will have delivered land to everyone,” said Amunime
Landless People’s Movement (LPM) Vice Spokesperson Joyce Muzengua agreed that residents need to give councillors time as they just took office.
“Most of the parties [that have won election] were campaigning about land. This is what they are focused on. There has not yet been any mention of land issues. The least they can do is to formally communicate to the people on what the council is busy with regarding land,” Muzengua said.
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) spokesperson Imms Nashinge however added that grabbing land is not the right thing to do, as it promotes anarchy.
“Ask those who are instigating the people to grab land. What do they want to achieve at the end of the day. We must respect our laws,” said Nashinge.
