Unam deputy dean and leader of the Affirmative Repositioning Dr Job Amupanda has said that there will never be reconciliation without addressing the land question.
Amupanda said the key to restorative justice and amicable relations between the black and white community within the context of finding closure to years of black subjugation lay in property and economics.
“How are we going to deal with the problems we have with each other? If we had taken the land, if we have reformed our country in terms of social-economic imbalances, we wouldn’t have these problems that we are having,” he said.
Amupanda was speaking on a panel of discussants unbundling whether reconciliation had been a success story in Namibia.
The motion was introduced by SWANU president, Dr Tangeni Ijambo, in parliament which took the house an entire week debating the topic.
Huge tracts of land remain in the hands of the white minority, locals and foreigners and so far, the political leadership has on its table mere recommendations on what to do with the land issue.
These stemmed from a national land conference which some political parties snubbed.
“Thirty years later we still have places within Windhoek that do not have running water. We have people finding it difficult to get an education, especially now when more pressure is coming with Covid-19. Reconciliation could never have occurred if we had never paid attention to the people that need it the most,” said Lifalaza Simata, a political scientist.
Political science lecturer Connie Herselman said reconciliation should focus not only on the racial lines that divide society but tribes as well.
She added that in Namibia amnesty was granted to all and sundry which was much to the favour of the white community.
“This is an ongoing process which we continuously deal with until we reach an adequate level. I am a result of the decision to keep white people in this country. The previous generation of white people was not held accountable in this hope that we will have reconciliation by giving everyone the opportunity of leaving the past behind,” she said.
