Lie #3: Commemorating Erf 2014 - The famous land grab that never happened
Documentary series on the lies of Job Amupanda
Social media in Namibia went wild in early November 2014 when news broke that our dear and militant comrade Job Amupanda and a few friends famously “grabbed land” at a place they marked out in Kleine Kuppe — Erf 2014, perhaps the most famous place in Windhoek to never have existed.
The Namibian Sun reported with breathless excitement on 9 November that ‘Swapo youth leader Job Amupanda this morning occupied a piece of land in Windhoek's Kleine Kuppe’ under the headline Job grabs Kleine Kuppe land.
The lads apparently took (camera… and) action because the ‘”rent in Windhoek is too expensive” and Job’s application for land was ”ensnared in municipal bureaucracy.'’ New Era also claimed that it was real: Amupanda initiates land grab. Job, still basking in the afterglow of all the media attention did not deny the lie, but let it stand.
Can’t stand the heat
Now to be sure, for the record, the historic effort by Job at land redistribution in Kleine Kuppe did not last long. There was in fact no land grab, as claimed by the papers, only a Sunday afternoon photo session with some tools, because after the first call from the party leaders, Job abandoned his claim to Erf 2014, long before the sun had even set.
He thus offered zero resistance and fled the scene after a quick photo session that demonstrated his great courage.
Confidente reported that Inspector General Sebastian Ndeitunga said they wanted to “pick” Amupanda up on Monday for questioning but he was not at his newly acquired… ERF 2014", and that they had been looking for the resident of Erf 2014. ’
We must on the evidence conclude that Kleine Kuppe Erf 2014 was a piece of property that existed primarily in the imagination of Job and his friends and followers and that the claim that Job grabbed land must on the evidence be treated as an obvious lie.
Thousands of needy people are occupying urban land across the country without getting a fraction of the media attention that Job’s fake “land-grab” got. The fact is that our hero ran from the scene at the first warning sign, and having failed in his resolve to grab the land that day, instead — with the help of his peers and pals in the media — grabbed the headlines instead. But it is still a lie.