Not Much Can Be Done

I REFER to an SMS in today’s (October 22) paper, in which the author alleges that the advertisement of resettlement farms is slow.

The resettlement programme is implemented as per the provisions of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act of 1995 (Act No.6 of 1995) and the Resettlement Policy of 2001 which mandates the Ministry Lands and Resettlement with the sole purpose of distributing land to previously disadvantaged Namibians.
Once a farm has been acquired and transferred to the government’s name, only then can such a farm be advertised for resettlement purposes. The advertisement runs for 30 days. Within the stated period, prospective applicants are then invited to apply for a farming unit of their choice.
This, therefore, means an advertisement is determined by the availability of farming units. If there are no farms available, there is nothing to advertise and there is nothing to apply for. The ministry understands the plight of the Namibian citizens regarding access to land, and strategies have been put in place to accelerate the acquisition programme.
Given our limited budgetary provisions and bearing in mind other competing national priorities, it is therefore our hope to achieve our set targets by acquiring a sizeable number of hectares in order to address the land discourse in our country.
I hope the author will find this information helpful.

Chrispin Matongela
Public Relations Officer
Ministry of Lands and
Resettlement

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