Namibia: Changes Coming to Tobacco Law

Source from:  namibian 07/02/2015

The Tobacco Act has loopholes which need to be plugged, health minister Bernard Haufiku said.

Haufiku, who has been fighting to stop the planned Chinese tobacco project in the Zambezi region, says he will take the issue to Cabinet for possible ways to stop it.

In March, the Ministry of Land Reform called for objections to Namibia Oriental Tobacco cc's application for land at Liselo.

Speaking to The Namibian, Haufiku said the Tobacco Act does not stop anyone from growing tobacco, a gap he said is being exploited by the Chinese company.

"They are taking advantage of that. The act does not say anything about not growing tobacco. I do not know if it was done deliberately or if it was an oversight," Haufiku said.

The minister said he was reviewing the Act, and would submit suggested amendments to Cabinet soon. Thereafter it will be taken to parliament for debate and authorisation.

The review, Haufiku said, "will include not growing tobacco at all or it should be grown on one hectare piece of land." The Chinese company has applied for 10 000 hectares. The minister said there is no point in him condemning the plantation publicly and not doing anything to stop it. "Its all about health, nothing else."

Haufiku stated that he will also pay President Hage Geingob a visit to get his support to stop the tobacco plantation.

Last week, the Namibian Sun reported Haufiku as describing the project as a "chemical weapons" factory, urging residents of the region to choose health above toxins.

"My plea to the youth, who apparently support the planting of chemical weapons in the name of tobacco in that great region is: Let us choose health above toxins; choose life above death! No amount of money can be worth even a single human life," Haufiku was quoted as saying. He echoed the sentiments expressed by former health minister Richard Kamwi who said the tobacco plantation was nonsense.

Meanwhile, Geingob on Monday refused to be drawn into the debate about the project when he addressed the media on his 100 days in office. When questioned what his position on the project was, Geingob said, "My views are not there. If people do not want it, why force it on them?"

The President has a close relationship with Swapo Oshikoto regional coordinator Armas Amukwiyu who admitted to The Namibian in March that the project is his brainchild.

So far the project has received environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, an export processing zone status from the trade ministry, while the Mafwe Traditional Authority has given the land.

The project still needs to receive authorisation for clearing of a state forest from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry.

Authorisation for water extraction should also be obtained from the department of water affairs in the same ministry.

In environmental clearance reports submitted to the ministry of environment, Amukwiyu and partners claim that at full production, an estimated N$14 billion will be invested in the project. Enditem