No land, no vote – Swartbooi

SWAPO parliamentarian Bernadus Swartbooi said he will not vote for any political party in 2019 unless government handles the land issue according to the expectations of those who lost ancestral land during the colonial and apartheid periods.

Addressing a meeting of the Landless People's Movement (LPM) at a fully packed Karasburg town hall on Saturday, Swartbooi said the topic of land was a “political issue”. He also said any political party that fails to address the land issue adequately should not be voted for. “I will not be voting for any political party in 2019 if things remain unchanged,” Swartbooi stressed. President Hage Geingob axed Swartbooi as land reform deputy minister for defying an order to publicly apologise for comments he made about minister Utoni Nujoma's handling of land reform. The outspoken Swartbooi said party membership was not more important than history, referring to the land dispossession suffered by the Nama, San, Ovaherero and Damara ethnic groups during colonial times. “God will guide us where to tick our cross on the ballot paper when the time comes,” he stated. However, he was quick to emphasise that the LPM was a movement advocating ancestral land restitution, and was not a political party.