Govt confirms slow pace of land reform

THE pace of land reform through Government’s buying of commercial farmland for the purpose of resettling landless Namibians remained as slow as ever last year, according to figures that the Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation provided to the National Assembly.

Lands Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba revealed figures on Government’s purchase farms for resettlement when he introduced his Ministry’s budget for the 2004-05 financial year in the National Assembly last Friday. The Assembly approved the Lands Ministry’s 2004-05 budget, which totals N$157 million, with little discussion on Wednesday evening.Pohamba told the Assembly that Government had bought 10 farms through the willing-seller, willing-buyer principle in the past financial year (April 2003 to end of March 2004).In the same time, a total of 150 farms that were offered to Government for sale were found unsuitable for resettlement purposes, with the result that their owners were issued with certificates of waiver that enabled them to sell their farms to other interested Namibians on the open market, Pohamba said.He added that his Ministry had also issued 123 letters of exemption in the 2003-04 financial year in favour of previously disadvantaged Namibians wanting to buy their own farms in the commercial farming area of the country – a mechanism through which commercial farm land being put up for sale can be sold directly to previously disadvantaged Namibians without the Lands Ministry itself buying the land for resettlement purposes.The figures quoted by Pohamba indicate that the pace at which land ownership reform had progressed in Namibia over the past financial year had not shown any significant increase, despite an increase in the portion of the Lands Ministry’s budget meant for buying land for resettlement.That part of the Lands Ministry’s budget was increased from N$20 million to N$50 million last year.Another N$52 million for the buying of land for land reform and for the resettlement of previously disadvantaged Namibians was approved by the Assembly this week.According to Lands Ministry statistics that were quoted in a recent report on land reform by the Institute for Public Policy Research in Windhoek, Government had bought 15 farms for resettlement in 2003, eight farms in 2002, 24 in 2001, 16 in 2000 and 6 in 1999.It had turned down 125 farms that were up for sale in 2003, 102 in 2002, 96 in 2001, 118 in 2000 and 142 in 1999.According to other figures on land reform and resettlement in Namibia that were contained in a recent report of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it is estimated that some 243 000 landless people in Namibia are deemed to be in need of being resettled on land from which they would be able to make a living.By the end of 2003, the same report states, only some 30 720 people had actually been resettled in that way yet.The Assembly approved the Lands Ministry’s 2004-05 budget, which totals N$157 million, with little discussion on Wednesday evening.Pohamba told the Assembly that Government had bought 10 farms through the willing-seller, willing-buyer principle in the past financial year (April 2003 to end of March 2004).In the same time, a total of 150 farms that were offered to Government for sale were found unsuitable for resettlement purposes, with the result that their owners were issued with certificates of waiver that enabled them to sell their farms to other interested Namibians on the open market, Pohamba said.He added that his Ministry had also issued 123 letters of exemption in the 2003-04 financial year in favour of previously disadvantaged Namibians wanting to buy their own farms in the commercial farming area of the country – a mechanism through which commercial farm land being put up for sale can be sold directly to previously disadvantaged Namibians without the Lands Ministry itself buying the land for resettlement purposes.The figures quoted by Pohamba indicate that the pace at which land ownership reform had progressed in Namibia over the past financial year had not shown any significant increase, despite an increase in the portion of the Lands Ministry’s budget meant for buying land for resettlement.That part of the Lands Ministry’s budget was increased from N$20 million to N$50 million last year.Another N$52 million for the buying of land for land reform and for the resettlement of previously disadvantaged Namibians was approved by the Assembly this week.According to Lands Ministry statistics that were quoted in a recent report on land reform by the Institute for Public Policy Research in Windhoek, Government had bought 15 farms for resettlement in 2003, eight farms in 2002, 24 in 2001, 16 in 2000 and 6 in 1999.It had turned down 125 farms that were up for sale in 2003, 102 in 2002, 96 in 2001, 118 in 2000 and 142 in 1999.According to other figures on land reform and resettlement in Namibia that were contained in a recent report of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it is estimated that some 243 000 landless people in Namibia are deemed to be in need of being resettled on land from which they would be able to make a living.By the end of 2003, the same report states, only some 30 720 people had actually been resettled in that way yet.