By Risco Lumamezi
Exiled Chief of the Mafwe Tribe, Boniface Bwimo Bebi Mamili currently residing in Denmark is calling for peaceful talks to bring the issue of Caprivi to an end.
In a telephonic interview with the Caprivi Vision, through his son Prince Rodney Sibeso Bebi , he made a clarion call to all residents of the Caprivi Strip ( Zambezi Region ) starting from Divundu to Impalila Island to remain calm , united in purpose without looking on tribal affiliations in order to bring the burning issue of the Caprivi to an end.
“Am asking all people at home from Divundu to Impalila to unite together with those who returned back home without any tribal differences with solidarity to liberate the Caprivi Strip” said Chief Bebi Mamili VI.
He added that he is ready to discuss the issue of the Caprivi with the government of the Republic of Namibia saying that “the Namibian authority they are afraid to discuss the issue of Caprivi, since the independence of Namibia in 1990, Namibia has been governing Caprivi illegally up to June 24, 1999 when the annexation of the application of laws to the Caprivi Strip were gazetted”
The law under dispute was promulgated under the auspices with the applicable legislation to extend powers and responsibilities to all cabinet ministers of the government of Namibia to have mandate in execution of polices and laws of Namibia to the Caprivi Strip now called Zambezi Region.
According to the constitution of the former South West Africa now Namibia prohibits and forbids ministers to have powers and authority in the Caprivi in its amendment Act of 1951.
“Am ready to sit around table, with a referendum supervised by the United Nations” he stressed.
He however expressed concerns to the Liselo community whose Communal land has been taken by government with dubious projects saying the land belongs to Liselo community.
Why Namibia passed the law called the application of laws to the Eastern Caprivi Strip?
After the Namibian parliament passed a bill called the Application of Laws to the Eastern Caprivi Strip signed by former president Sam Nujoma into the law on 24 June 1999, was gazetted and became effective on July 12, 1999.
However, according to section 38(5) of the South-West Africa Constitution Act, 1968 (Act No. 39 of 1968) provided that no Act of the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa and no Ordinance of the Legislative Assembly of the then Territory of South-West Africa passed on or after the first day of November 1951 would apply in that part of the said Territory that was demarcated and known as the Eastern Caprivi Zipfel, unless it was expressly declared so to apply.
“The repeal of that section by Article 147 of the Namibian Constitution, that provision presently still has effect by virtue of section11(2) of the Interpretation Proclamation,1920 (Proclamation No. 37 of 1920); and whereas it is considered necessary to empower Ministers to extend to the said Eastern Caprivi Zipfel the operation of laws which by virtue of the South-West Africa Constitution Act, 1968, presently do not apply in that part of Namibia” quoted the Caprivi Zipfel Act of 1999.
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