YOURS Truly Ideologically cannot help but increasingly fear and get the impression that Namibia is heading for the worse economically.
In that sooner rather than later she would have no natural resources of her own to speak of. Article 100 of the Namibian Constitution on the Sovereign Ownership of Natural Resources enshrines that: Land, water and natural resources below and above the surface of the land and in the continental shelf and within the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone off Namibia shall belong o the Sate if they are not otherwise lawfully owned.”
Be that as it may be as, clear and categorical, as per our supreme law , the Constitution, In this fashionable age of investment craziness, Yours Truly Ideologically, and the country as much, cannot and should not rest on their laurels that in their lawmakers and he government, and Yours is also not so much about the Judiciary, that they have guardian angels and watchwomen and –men, in and to whom they have given the sacred trust of guarding these resources.
Thus, instead of relaxing, assured that the resources of the country, and theirs for that matter as the sovereigns, are in good hands and under good watch, they should be gravely concerned. Because as of writing it is eve not certain how much is still left of the said natural resources, and if it is still them the sovereigns, who are supposed to be the people, and or the State, on their behalf still owning these resources and how much is left that can be spoken of and about.
In view of the generally held view in some quarters of those who are supposed to be part of the A-team of policy makers(politicians),policy implementers (administrators /civil servants), making the country wise that the natural resources are no more theirs but by law that of the investors.
Law presided over by none other than the honourable lawmakers.
Because at the on-going rate of scrambling for our country’s natural resources, a scramble presided over our own under the guise of investment, it would be no surprise if there would be any natural resources left to talk about. At the rate they are and have been wholesaled to so-called investors.
As a would-be citizens with strong links with ad in of the region of Omaheke, with a big investment there, my only earthly, a sink little house, okapereke, that is if such a house structure there would in any way qualify as an investment one should be able to offer it as a collateral, I cannot but be concerned about the prospecting licenses, which have been up for grabs. With those with in-sider information, dividing them between and amongst themselves.
Surely as middle people for would-be prospectors to whom they now must been sold. And it remains a mystery for how much? Few if any who acquired the prospecting licenses, nor the prospectors themselves, have any association with the region. Likewise the region, especially in what were assumed and/or believed to be vast tracts of virgin lands in the area, specifically in the Eiseb hinterland of the Constituencies of Otjombinde and Otjinene, have literally become corridors with farmers now squeezed between these corridors as land has been auctioned to the highest bidders.
To whom would be seen as outsiders in the sense that they are not farmers who ordinarily have been farming in adjacent rural farming lands of Otjinene, Otjombinde, Epukiro. But sponsored syndicates whose agenda has been seeming to deliberately break the last economic bastion of the farmers in these communal areas.
These lands are supposed to be state land but this seems to have been happening, suspiciously under the watch of communal land boards, and some traditional local authorities and leaders.
Yours Truly Ideologically is citing such to illustrate that somehow the sovereigns are no more sovereign, if they ever existed, since the once to whom they have entrusted the duty of watching over the natural resources, have become the very agents of their rapid depletion.
Through one or other devious means, which has nothing to do with the preservation and conservation of the natural resources, let alone their value addition. Instead of wholesaling them ala the Fishrot style.
A pointer to the gross negligence and dereliction of duty regarding the trust of the preservation, conservation and watch over the natural resources, have been for some time now outplaying itself with the regard to the exploration of uranium in the Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer System (STAS) by Headspring Investment, the Namibian subsidiary of the Russian company, Uranium One.
Where all tricks in the book seem to be employed and deployed to acquiesce, especially indigenes in positions of authority to facilitate a safe landing for this exploration and eventually extraction. Despite the risks believed to be entailed by the way such exploration, referred to as In Situ, is going to be effected.
Lately it has been revealed that the data available pertaining to environmental impact assessment are not sufficient. It boggles the mind why such data is not sufficient. Because this surely is incumbent upon the government to ensure before granting any exploration license that an environmental impact assessment is carried out. If not by the government itself if it does not have the requisite scientific capabilities, to commission those who do.
Because such cannot and should not be left to the prospectors. Who increasingly have been proving that they are not above board in their dealings.
That is why there is an Environment Commissioner, to help the government keep a watchful eye over the natural resources of the country. Wat applies in mining and exploration equally applies to all fields of endeavours in which investors, whether local and foreign, are engaged. For they cannot be left their own devices nor that of their local handlers.
