Namibia country report

the land question did not occupy as central arole in SWAPO’s political programme as it didin the programmes of political parties whichrepresented the dispossessed more broadly, anexample being the South West Africa NationalUnion (SWANU). The latter came to representpredominantly the Otjiherero-speaking peoplewho were directly affected by land dispossession.As Tapscott (1995: 155) observed, manyof the demands of SWAPO related instead tothe “disadvantaged position of their constituentmembers”. In its early stages the movementcampaigned for the abolition of the migrantlabour system and the opening of the commercialsector in former Owamboland to blacks.PoliceZone /RedLineThis pattern of land dispossession formed the foundation of colonial rule and shaped whatwas known as “native policy”. Indigenous black communities’ access to land was restrictedto “native reserves” in their different guises: bantustans, homelands and communal areas.However, the first stirrings of national resistance against continued South African rule inSouth West Africa in the late 1950s drove the South African government to embark on areform programme that not only laid the foundation of its despised bantustan strategy, butalso sought to strengthen and promote an incipient black middle class. It sought to bringabout these reforms by providing the latter with access to private agricultural land in thecommunal areas.The first nationalist movement, being SWANU, came into existence in 1957, and SWAPO’sformation followed. With these developments, the South African colonial state was faced forthe first time with “organised mass resistance to its political domination” (Innes 1980: 576).South Africa followed a broadly dualistic strategy in its attempts to counter opposition toits rule. On the one hand it sought to smash any nationalist organisation through increasedphysical repression, while on the other hand it set out to split up Namibia into a number ofseparate, tribally demarcated bantustans (ibid.).The broad concept for these reforms was laid out by the Commission of Enquiry into SouthWest Africa Affairs (RSA 1964) appointed under the chairmanship of FH Odendaal in 1962. 2 Itwas required to come up with “recommendations on a comprehensive five year plan for theaccelerated development of the various non-White groups of SWA”, and –… ascertain how further provisions should be made ... for their social and economicadvancement, ... proper agricultural, industrial and mining development in respect oftheir territories and for the best form of participation by the Natives in the administrationand management of their own interests (ibid.: 3).2This commission is commonly referred to as the “Odendaal Commission” after its chairman.Section Livelihoods A ● 2. Land after Reform Land and Reform: Poverty: Namibia National country Policy report Context (2010) ● 15