An urgent review of land reform needed, says MP

LAND REFORM in Namibia must be revisited, as apartheid South Africa’s 1966 Odendaal Plan still casts “a shadow” over the concept of resettling landless Namibians.

Seventy per cent of the population still live in communal areas as they did 40 years ago, a Member of Parliament has said. Arnold Tjihuiko of the National Unity Democratic Party (Nudo) tabled a motion in the National Assembly on Tuesday, asking the House to critically evaluate the performance of the land reform programme in both the commercial and communal sectors.”We need a national conference to review Government land reform again,” Tjihuiko proposed in his motivation.He further suggested that the entire geographical area of Namibia should be owned by Government and should only be available on leasehold for 99 years.He said at Independence Namibia inherited the “homeland concept” of the Odendaal Plan, when hundreds of white-owned farms were bought up by the then South African administration and different indigenous groups were resettled.”Thousands of Damara-speaking Namibians were then resettled on 223 farms previously owned by whites, acquired for the Bantustan for the Damara people and they still live there today,” Tjihuiko stated.In 1980, the Administrator General’s Proclamation No 8 increased ethnic second tier administrative organs from 10 to 11, and these areas remained in existence today, the Nudo politician said.”This status quo remains until today: almost all of the freehold land owners are whites, mainly Germans, and all of the communal land holders, living in what was formerly known as Bantustans, are black, the very same people from whom land was taken away,” he added.People living in communal areas were entitled to only 20 hectares of land, which was the land of their forefathers; whites still lived on the best agricultural land and enjoyed the same benefits as before Independence, while “their hands (are) still dripping with the blood of our forefathers, the blood that waters our freedom”, Tjihuiko said.In his contribution to the debate, McHenry Venaani of the opposition DTA said the criteria for resettlement beneficiaries had to be revisited.Beneficiaries were selling the corrugated iron sheets off roofs, and window and door frames in order to make living, he said.”Some even use the fencing poles for firewood.”Venaani claimed that 199 farms belonging to foreigners, and covering 1,9 million hectares, were all lying idle but the Deputy Lands Minister Isack Katali disputed this.Arnold Tjihuiko of the National Unity Democratic Party (Nudo) tabled a motion in the National Assembly on Tuesday, asking the House to critically evaluate the performance of the land reform programme in both the commercial and communal sectors.”We need a national conference to review Government land reform again,” Tjihuiko proposed in his motivation.He further suggested that the entire geographical area of Namibia should be owned by Government and should only be available on leasehold for 99 years. He said at Independence Namibia inherited the “homeland concept” of the Odendaal Plan, when hundreds of white-owned farms were bought up by the then South African administration and different indigenous groups were resettled.”Thousands of Damara-speaking Namibians were then resettled on 223 farms previously owned by whites, acquired for the Bantustan for the Damara people and they still live there today,” Tjihuiko stated.In 1980, the Administrator General’s Proclamation No 8 increased ethnic second tier administrative organs from 10 to 11, and these areas remained in existence today, the Nudo politician said.”This status quo remains until today: almost all of the freehold land owners are whites, mainly Germans, and all of the communal land holders, living in what was formerly known as Bantustans, are black, the very same people from whom land was taken away,” he added.People living in communal areas were entitled to only 20 hectares of land, which was the land of their forefathers; whites still lived on the best agricultural land and enjoyed the same benefits as before Independence, while “their hands (are) still dripping with the blood of our forefathers, the blood that waters our freedom”, Tjihuiko said.In his contribution to the debate, McHenry Venaani of the opposition DTA said the criteria for resettlement beneficiaries had to be revisited.Beneficiaries were selling the corrugated iron sheets off roofs, and window and door frames in order to make living, he said.”Some even use the fencing poles for firewood.”Venaani claimed that 199 farms belonging to foreigners, and covering 1,9 million hectares, were all lying idle but the Deputy Lands Minister Isack Katali disputed this.