Erongo Region Governor, Natalia |Goagoses, has raised concerns over the issuing of Exclusive Prospecting Licenses (EPLs), which she said are issued without proper consultation with targeted communities.

|Goagoses was speaking at the capacity-building training on reviewing international treaties of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs and Petitions.

She stressed that EPLs are often issued without proper consultation with traditional leaders as custodians of the land.

To address this, she called for the legal framework governing EPLs to be mainstreamed to ensure harmony between licence holders and land custodians in areas earmarked for exploitation.

"Although you are dealing with international treaties and so on, even back home, we have some legal issues that need to be looked into and streamlined, particularly, I was told, the EPLs, which is fine. Sometimes we need to explore mining businesses in our region, but sometimes these licences that are issued are being operated in our regions, in our constituencies, on our land, where the traditional leaders are the custodians of this land and would be kept in the dark. They would come with a pair of licences issued to them, and the traditional communities and the leadership of the region sometimes feel excluded in this process, so I was asked for this honourable leader to see how this very important legal instrument can look into it."

On the matter of natural resources, |Goagoses said there is a need for greater national understanding of conservational provisions of resource ownership.

She called for support in interpreting these provisions so that Namibians fully understand their implications.

Another matter is misalignment of financial year endings between local authorities, regional councils, and national government.

|Goagoses also urged Parliament to review certain pieces of legislation, such as the Public Service Act, which she said contains gaps that hinder effective governance and social harmony.