Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said genocide money will not go to Government, but that a “Special Purpose Vehicle” will be set up outside government for the funds to be used exclusively on programmes for affected communities.

The premiere said this on Tuesday while contributing to the debate on the motion on the 1904-1908 genocide in Parliament.

She said some people are concerned that the payment from Germany will be used by Government to fund general development programmes at the expense of the affected communities. However, the draft declaration provides for periodic impact assessments and evaluation of proposed interventions to ascertain whether objectives of improving the livelihoods of the affected communities have been achieved, which is government’s objective.

‘Governance of the fund will be on trilateral basis with participation of representatives of the two governments and affected communities. Notwithstanding immense challenges we faced in these negotiations, such as that payment offered by the Germans is indeed inadequate, we succeeded to get Germany to make important concessions by agreeing to the fact that it committed Genocide on our soil, and that it will render an apology to be followed by payments for the tremendous loss of life and untold suffering and humiliation of Ovaherero, Nama communities and other Namibians,” said Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.

She added that there has been apprehension that the Swapo party intends to use its majority in the National Assembly to get Parliament to ratify the joint declaration in spite of concerns raised about the declaration, which is not true.

“I wish to indicate that there is no intention to impose this declaration. Swapo party and the government have from the beginning, viewed the genocide issue as an issue that should not be politicised and one which we should deal with as Namibians in unity. It is for this reason that the 2006 genocide motion has received unanimous support in this house, where the Swapo party held a two thirds majority, although the motion was moved by the opposition,” stated Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.

She added that government has taken an inclusive approach during the negotiations to ensure that the inputs of the affected communities are taken on board during negotiations, so that the outcome of the negotiations takes into consideration the expectations of the affected communities.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency