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Windhoek – About 35,000 young Namibians have peacefully submitted their written applications countrywide for urban land at municipal offices during the biggest civil mass action since the country’s independence in 1990, the organisers say.“The mass action on Friday was very successful with preliminary figures from 15 of nearly 50 municipalities so far confirming 35 000 applications,” organiser Job Amupanda said yesterday.

“The youth of this country stood together…young white Namibians also handed in their applications.”

Co-organiser Dimbulukeni Nauyoma said so far the highest number of applications was submitted at the port of Walvis Bay.

“Some 9,500 applications were verified and this means that about a third of the approximately 30,000 inhabitants of Walvis Bay require a plot.”

At Okahandja, a small town some 60km north of Windhoek, about 4,000 applications were received by midday on Friday.

About 50 percent of the applications came from soldiers of the Namibia Defence Force stationed there, Nauyoma said.

“We expect the final figures for Okahandja to be quite high.”

In the capital Windhoek, about 2 500 applications were submitted, although the municipality initially refused to accept them as a first mass application exercise – only for Windhoek – took place last November, where 14 200 applications were received.

After negotiations between Amupanda and the municipal officials, the municipality accepted them.

According to Amupanda, his group of activists will engage all municipalities over the coming months to discuss the way forward.

“We are hoping for a positive response from them, if there is no satisfactory solution by July 31, we will take the [urban] land; we are at a point of no return,” he said.

In another development, Namibia’s media sector will undergo a review to see if it is an essential service, a special committee told a public hearing last week.

“There was an application by the national broadcaster Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in December 2013 to declare the media sector as essential services,” John Kwedhi chair of the Essential Services Committee (ESC) told the hearing.

“The ESC was established last year and had its first meeting last August, where the application of the NBC was discussed. It was felt that we look at the whole media sector in total and conduct a public hearing which takes place on Thursday,” Kwedhi added.

Employees in essential services are forbidden to legally strike.

On the programme for Thursday’s hearing, the category media was described as “media services – including print, electronic, television and radio”.

“There is nothing on record and not a single Government Gazette published which has categorised the media sector as essential services,” Veteran journalist Eberhard Hofmann told the hearing.

Hofmann chairs the Namibia Editors’ Forum.

“The Forum is not in favour of having the media sector designated as essential services because it impacts on media practitioners’ right to unionisation and the right to go on strike. The ILO [International Labour Organisation] does not have media categorised as essential services”, he added.

According to Kwedhi, the ESC will study the oral and written submissions, compile a report with recommendations and send it to Labour Minister Doreen Sioka. — Sapa