Nama Traditional Leaders Association warns against exclusive development

The Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA) has cautioned that Namibia’s push for development risks repeating historical patterns of exclusion if affected communities remain sidelined from ownership and decision-making. Reflecting on the government’s genocide remembrance programme held at Lüderitz on Wednesday under the theme ‘Genocide to Renaissance’, NTLA secretary general Lazarus Kairabeb on Thursday said the slogan raises critical questions about whether Namibia is genuinely transforming its economy or simply modernising inherited systems of inequality. The association said concerns raised by traditional leaders and indigenous communities are often dismissed as “misinformation” instead of being acknowledged as legitimate structural and historical grievances.