Mbumba calls on genocide-affected communities to speak with one voice

WINDHOEK: President Nangolo Mbumba has urged the affected communities to unify their voices in demanding reparations for the genocide carried out by the Germans. He was responding to concerns regarding the exclusion of affected communities from the reparations negotiations raised by SWANU of Namibia president Evilastus Kaaronda during a meeting with the party leadership at State House on Thursday. Mbumba said the affected communities are divided over their expectations from the Germans in terms of reparations. 'I think the number one thing is not for you or for me as political people, in my humble view, it is for our traditional leaders to give us one message,' Mbumba said, adding, 'if we want everybody or not is a question of a referendum. But we must decide and tell the government that this is what we want to be done.' During the meeting with the SWANU leadership, Kaaronda said there have been consistent requests from the Ovaherero and Nama communities to be at the centre of the negotiations. 'Our comm unities feel excluded,' said the SWANU president, adding that inclusivity should not depend on which traditional authority is recognised by the government. 'As long as these are organised communities led and spoken for by their chosen leaders… We would want them to be involved in the negotiations. We also feel that the government has a claim against the German government because of the atrocities committed here. Had the Germans not committed the genocide, our development trajectory would not have been retarded as it is. We have to have a place at the table where everybody who feels excluded is brought to the table and can have a say directly,' Kaaronda said. He lamented the current situation in which the affected communities seem to be fighting both the Namibian and German governments. 'It is clear that the joint declaration in its current form does not speak to what the affected communities would really want,' he said, referring to the 2021 joint agreement in which Germany offered to fund projects worth o ver N.dollars 22 billion over 30 years. Source: The Namibia News Agency