Angula says land reform on track despite minor hitches

MINISTER of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development Helmut Angula has accused opposition parties of using a parliamentary report on resettlement farms as a basis to slate Government’s land reform efforts.

While acknowledging that access to finances and training were lacking for resettled farmers, Angula said the programme was one of phases, and that Government first had to overcome acquiring land for the desperate before helping them in other ways. A report tabled in Parliament this month, cites the settlement of people without the means and skills for them to become productive farmers as a major obstacle in Government’s land reform programme.Angula told the National Assembly last week that critics should consider the impressive number of people who had been resettled to date.He said the work of the Land Reform Technical Committee, which was concluding its investigations, would inform Government on the second phase.The Minister was hopeful that the land reform programme would be even more aggressively pursued once Lands Minister and Swapo Presidential candidate Hifikepunye Pohamba assumed power next year.”The process is on.It’s going to be much more vigorous,” remarked Angula, saying that as President, Pohamba would be in a position to follow through on his policies of land reform.Angula said it was Government’s intention to issue resettled farmers with 99-year leases so that their access to finances would be improved.Still, despite these explanations, the Director General of the Central Intelligence Service Peter Tsheehama did not think that the land reform programme was achieving its aims quickly enough.He felt that Government, as a matter of urgency, needed to pump more finances into assisting those resettled to enable them to make a success of farming.”Giving them land means nothing if their plight is not taken care of.Output will go down.Where are you going if you have no money,” he said.Tsheehama said farmers were successful during the colonial era because they were heavily supported by the government of the time.Angula retorted that Government was not in a position to generate the kind of finance needed to care for the needs of all those resettled.But Tsheehama insisted that a budget be set up to assist the resettled financially.”Do you think your own Government is keeping a lump sum of money somewhere and not doing anything to help these people,” Angula asked.Minister without Portfolio Ngarikutuke Tjiriange suggested that Government should first consider a person’s position before resettling them.”He doesn’t have a cat let alone cattle.It is not logical to resettle someone who has absolutely nothing,” he said.The debate continues.A report tabled in Parliament this month, cites the settlement of people without the means and skills for them to become productive farmers as a major obstacle in Government’s land reform programme.Angula told the National Assembly last week that critics should consider the impressive number of people who had been resettled to date.He said the work of the Land Reform Technical Committee, which was concluding its investigations, would inform Government on the second phase.The Minister was hopeful that the land reform programme would be even more aggressively pursued once Lands Minister and Swapo Presidential candidate Hifikepunye Pohamba assumed power next year.”The process is on.It’s going to be much more vigorous,” remarked Angula, saying that as President, Pohamba would be in a position to follow through on his policies of land reform.Angula said it was Government’s intention to issue resettled farmers with 99-year leases so that their access to finances would be improved.Still, despite these explanations, the Director General of the Central Intelligence Service Peter Tsheehama did not think that the land reform programme was achieving its aims quickly enough.He felt that Government, as a matter of urgency, needed to pump more finances into assisting those resettled to enable them to make a success of farming.”Giving them land means nothing if their plight is not taken care of.Output will go down.Where are you going if you have no money,” he said.Tsheehama said farmers were successful during the colonial era because they were heavily supported by the government of the time.Angula retorted that Government was not in a position to generate the kind of finance needed to care for the needs of all those resettled.But Tsheehama insisted that a budget be set up to assist the resettled financially.”Do you think your own Government is keeping a lump sum of money somewhere and not doing anything to help these people,” Angula asked.Minister without Portfolio Ngarikutuke Tjiriange suggested that Government should first consider a person’s position before resettling them.”He doesn’t have a cat let alone cattle.It is not logical to resettle someone who has absolutely nothing,” he said.The debate continues.