Lawyer Dirk Conradie, whose law firm forms part of a consortium undertaking a study on the issue, was severely criticised by farmers for not having any concrete proposal and not even a presentation of the work done already, the way forward or a time frame for the process.

"All the previous meetings in the other regions with the consortium were like that - no structure, no agenda points and no information documents for us here," an irritated farmer told Conradie.

"We, the producers, suspect a hidden agenda behind this whole process.

Government probably wants to get involved in a highly successful company and take the profits," the farmer charged.

"The examples of Air Namibia and the Government newspaper New Era, which like many other State-owned enterprises receive subsidies, are examples.

If the State interferes with Meatco, that company will go under," another farmer said.

Conradie's firm, Shikongo Law Chambers and a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) company, Shangelao, partly owned by Zimbabweans, won the tender, although it is alleged they submitted a much higher bid than another company, KPMG.

Meatco's dilemma dates from pre-Independence legislation, which does not clearly define its ownership status except that it is a co-operative.

"We were appointed by Cabinet," Conradie said yesterday, although it was actually the Ministry of Agriculture that issued the tender.

"The legal basis of Meatco is a law printed in paper and Government could pull the carpet any time under the feet of Meatco and change things," he said.

Meatco was established about 25 years ago as a co-operative owned by its members, the meat producers, although the law passed at incorporation has some loopholes regarding ownership.

In 2001, Government amended some parts of the law and regarded the company as a parastatal.

One amendment was that the Minister of Agriculture would appoint the board of directors.

Meatco obtained two Government loans and duly paid them back.

Conradie said that Government wanted to establish the ownership of Meatco and put it on a legal basis and all meat producers, including communal farmers, should financially benefit from Meatco.

"You do not appear to be informed about how Meatco works and how all the meat producers benefit by means of bonuses paid out to them on top of the money they earn by selling their livestock for slaughter to Meatco," a frustrated farmer told the consortium.

"All producers earn the same price per kilogram meat and that includes communal and emerging farmers," he added.

"Government has the perception that Meatco is only there for white farmers, but that is not true ...

."

The approximately 150 attendees pointed out that in the past years five proposals for restructuring had been submitted to Government and rejected - the latest one in 2007.

"The former Agriculture Minister Dr Nickey Iyambo received that proposal and indicated to us that it was very good, but it was (again) rejected by Cabinet," the farmers told the consortium.

"We hoped the consortium had studied the five proposals and had come up with concrete recommendations today about the restructuring of Meatco.

This is not the case, so we should just end this meeting or talk about the weather," a farmer of the Omaheke Region criticised.

Others said they were happy with the way Meatco was run.

"But don't you want more (money)? Meatco should be run according to a corporate structure and producers should know where each dollar (of Meatco) goes," Conradie said.

Meatco has obtained an independent legal opinion on its ownership status, which stated that it belonged to the co-operative members.

Vehake Katjimune of Meatco told Conradie that it was Government's responsibility to develop rural areas.

One way to trigger that was to enable market access for communal meat producers.

"Meatco is not the only player in Namibia's meat production sector," Katjimune said.

Conradie assured the meeting that they would be given a chance to discuss the draft report to Government before the final version is submitted.

Local News Headlines Of The Last 48 Hours

•  Hishongwa hits out at 'newcomers'
•  Doctors to court over dispensing rights
•  Project money missing
•  N$20 000 fine for computer corruption
•  Police kill suspect after 'struggle'
•  Union wants NHE bosses' heads
•  2008 a year of political violence: DTA
•  Gender violence takes centre stage
•  Employers of disabled people awarded
•  Closure of copper mines adds gloom to Nam mining outlook
•  78 Zim farmers win land case
•  Floodgates open over Windhoek
•  Everyone except Swapo to blame for the violence, claims President