Chief whip Utaara Mootu on communal land bill

[PODCAST]

Lawmakers in the National Assembly blocked agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein’s last-minute tabling of the communal land bill, which aimed to establish land boards and restrict foreign ownership of commercial agricultural land.

Opposition leader McHenry Venaani and the Swapo Party’s Tjekero Tweya led the charge, citing insufficient time before the new parliament’s swearing-in on 21 March 2025. The move echoes past debates, like the 2016 Land Bill’s foreign ownership ban, which faced similar resistance.

Landless People’s Movement chief whip Utaara Mootu unpacked and dissected this contentious issue