Group recommends solutions to land woes

WINDHOEK, 05 OCT  – The group tasked with deliberating on commercial land reform programmes and related matters at the National Land Conference has proposed a plethora of recommendations to address the plight of Namibians.
The group’s position was presented by James Uerikua Thursday evening, after the five groups concluded their closed-door sessions.
The recommendations amongst other things focused on land acquisition, expropriation of agricultural land, resettlement policy and criteria, pre- and post-resettlement support, the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme and women, youth and persons with disabilities’ access to land.
A bone of contention in the group’s recommendations is the ratio in which land for resettlement purposes is to be allocated to land dispossessed communities and the general pool to cater for the rest of the country.
The group proposed that the resettlement programme be structured in a 70:30 or 60:40 ratio.
The 70:30 ratio would mean if 10 farms are bought, seven should be given to land dispossessed Namibians, while the remaining three should be divided among other Namibians.
“There should be a difference between a settlement programme and resettlement programme,” he said.
On land acquisition, the group called on Government to abolish the ‘willing-buyer willing-seller policy’ and replace it with “something that will result in accelerated land acquisition and suitable prices”.
They also called on Government to implement a uniform land valuation model that will ensure harmonised land prices.
“What is currently happening is that there are different ways of evaluating land and of course different prices are coming out of these evaluations,” Uerikua explained.
On the front of the expropriation of agricultural land, the group noted that foreigners own vast tracts of land.
Under this topic, the group tackled the issue of absentee landlords, foreign-owned farms, underutilised land, farm size and the number of farms an individual in Namibia can own.
“As strategic intervention, a new accelerated land acquisition and deliverance strategy should be developed and implemented,” Uerikua proposed, adding “we need a mechanism that allows for the expropriation of underutilised and absentee agricultural land”.
To this effect, they proposed that a stand-alone legislation on expropriation be developed that will guide the process in Namibia going forward.
As for the amount of farms an individual is allowed to own, the group could not reach a consensus, with some saying “one Namibia, one farm” while others say it should be unlimited as long as someone can afford it.
This has now been left to the rest of the delegates to decide.
On Government’s resettlement programme, the group noted that it is outdated, discriminatory and does not represent the current needs of Namibians.
As such, all related legal and policy frameworks pertaining to the programme should be reviewed so as to cater for Namibians’ contemporary needs, they recommended.
The group also proposed that the resettlement policy make provision for security of tenure to allow those resettled to use the land as collateral when they approach banks for loans.
The group’s draft resolutions will be discussed and adopted Friday. It will then be submitted to Cabinet and tabled in the National Assembly.
(NAMPA)