The Namibian has learned that the list, published in some newspapers last week, is riddled with errors and outdated information.

Some pieces of land smaller than a normal sized room were also listed as "farms".

The farms were apparently those of people who had failed to submit their land data verification forms.

Many of the "commercial farms" are actually properties situated on town land while the Rehoboth District accounts for more than half of the farms on the list.

Jan de Wet, President of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), said 95 per cent of the union's members had already completed and returned their verification forms as requested by the Lands Ministry.

De Wet said the list of "farms" released by the Ministry was outdated, while 2 160 "commercial farms" on the list, from the Rehoboth district, were not actually commercial farms.

In the Rehoboth district some farms are sub-divided into smaller units of up to 10 but Government listed the single units as farms, explained NAU Executive Manager Sakkie Coetzee.

He said the NAU was aware of cases where plots on town land were listed as commercial farms while a hotel, shop and service station at Helmeringhausen in the South was each listed as a farm.

Another case was Farm Pretorius in the Omaheke Region, which was sub-divided into about 16 units but which has been listed as 16 farms.

"The whole thing was blown out of proportion.

It is not true that 40 per cent of the commercial farmers have not submitted their land data verification forms," said Coetzee.

Last Friday, Government extended the deadline for the completion of the forms to October 30, saying only 60 per cent of the expected 12 684 forms were completed and returned to the Directorate of Valuation and Estate Management.

The Ministry needs the information for a provisional valuation roll of agricultural properties in the country.

It was supposed to be released on February 1 but had to be postponed to the end of July because of the non-availability of the completed forms.

Earlier, Government threatened commercial farmers with five-year jail terms if they failed to complete their land data verification forms by the end of February.

The deadline was extended to the end of July.

NAU said because some of the plots on town land was not regarded as "farms", the owners did not see the need to register them as "commercial farms".

Nonetheless, De Wet appealed to landowners whose names appeared on the list to complete the verification forms and to forward them to the Ministry before the end of this month.

He said that was the only way in which Government would be able to determine the size of commercial land in the country.

Government said the data would be used to determine the amount of money farmers will pay under a land tax which was introduced at the beginning of April.

Commercial farmers have been exempt from this type of tax since Independence because of a lack of legislation.

The main aim of the proposed land tax is to discourage farm owners, especially foreign land barons, from owning excessive land.

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