Lie #4: We will Grab Land on 31 July 2015
Documentary series on the lies of Job Amupanda
What Job Said
Early in March 2015, Job Amupanda and friends held a presser to say their patience was running thin and they had given the government four months, but ‘If the land issue were not resolved by 31 July, the three suspended Swapo rebels would resort to taking “the land by force” and that "The masses will occupy land wherever it is.”"
Amupanda threatens mass land occupations, New Era cried.
At the March briefing in Windhoek the leaders of the land revolution announced that the total applications submitted after the call for a nationwide ‘land mass action’ stood at 50 157 applications.’The City admin staff said they were overwhelmed.
New Era’s ‘Staff Reporter’ (which typically means the piece was written by the editor Toivo Ndjebela) cited the uncouth youth from Omaalala village as threatening to put sand in others’ food.
“Even their [Swapo’ leaders’] children have houses. So please let’s not joke around with one another. We see who is eating and we see where they are eating, so we just want to eat and if we are not going to eat, we are going to put sand in their food. So what we are basically saying is that on 31 July 2015… We are not zigzagging about it. We are simply going to occupy the land wherever it is.”
Later that month, the same ‘Staff Reporter’ wrote that ‘Amupanda has reiterated an earlier threat to occupy vacant land come July 21 if the various municipalities do not process the mass applications submitted for residential plots.’
“If these [peaceful] efforts fail, we will be left with no choice but to go directly into the antagonistic episode where we will occupy the land that is available in abundance,”
What Job Did
When it came to the moment of truth, Job capitulated to the government =within an hour of negotiations, knowing he did not have the fortitude to make good on his threats of grabbing land, so he found a way to weasel out of his earlier pledge to seize land by force, by making an “agreement” with Hage Geingob on a vague and empty promise of servicing hundreds of thousands of erven and building houses..
Job tried thus to save face by convincing the youth who had filed land applications to support his campaign that it was actually a victory. He even got many to volunteer to clear open land in the hopes of getting erven. But the promise never materialised.
Outsmarted
Hage outsmarted Job by getting him to climb down from his ultimatum and work of his own free will at no cost in the hot sun based on a vague and unrealistic promise, as well as to mobilise the free labour of his followers, by selling the supposed deal to the public as a real thing. The media presented it as a triumph of statesmanship but nothing came of it, yet it gave Amupanda an off-ramp and a way out of his embarrassing dilemma – which stems from the gap between words and deeds.
On the evidence we must conclude that Job Amupanda was lying when he said AR would lead urban land seizures on 31 July 2015, for it simply did not happen.