Govt taken to court to pay out for expropriated farms

THE former owner of two Otjiwarongo area farms that were expropriated by Government late last year asked for the High Court’s help yesterday to get some money out of the State to compensate her for the loss of the land that had belonged to her family for most of the past century.

Heide-Marie Lacheiner-Kuhn, the former owner of Marburg and Okorusu some 40 kilometres north of Otjiwarongo, formally handed over control of the two farms to Government on December 5, when she vacated the two properties that had belonged to her family for 91 years, in the case of Marburg, and 78 years, in the case of Okorusu. In the two months since then, she has been waiting fruitlessly to receive the compensation that the State was supposed to pay her for the land.Yesterday, she and her 85-year-old mother, Sophie Lacheiner, who held legal rights of use and enjoyment (a usufruct) over Marburg, brought an urgent application in the High Court to ask that the Minister of Lands and Resettlement be ordered to carry out his obligations in terms of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act in order to get the compensation process under way.Confronted with the urgent application, the Minister – represented at court by Lands Ministry Permanent Secretary Frans Tsheehama – agreed to settle the case mere minutes before Judge Mavis Gibson was set to start hearing legal arguments.In terms of the settlement, a Government cheque of N$2,965 million was to be handed to Lacheiner-Kuhn and her mother before the end of yesterday.That represents 80 per cent of the amount that the Lands Minister offered as compensation for the expropriation of the land and their rights over it.In the expropriation notices that Land Minister Jerry Ekandjo sent to Lacheiner-Kuhn in mid-August last year, and to Lacheiner in early September, he offered Lacheiner-Kuhn N$3,33 million for the two farms, totalling 8 521 hectares.Lacheiner was offered compensation of N$375 800 for the expropriation of her usufruct over Marburg.Having had a valuation done of both the land and the projected income from it that Lacheiner-Kuhn and her mother expect to lose because of the expropriation, they however informed the Minister on December 6 last year that their asking price for the farms and their rights over it totalled N$9,56 million.The value of the land alone, according to the valuation that they had done, was set at N$4,64 million, while the actual financial losses that they further wanted to be compensated for, was set at N$4,89 million.Monthly payments that Lacheiner-Kuhn had received from the Okorusu Fluorspar Mine, which has mining rights over the two farms, made up the bulk of these projected losses in income.In an affidavit that was filed with the court in support of yesterday’s urgent application, Lacheiner-Kuhn stated that in terms of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act, the Lands Minister was supposed to make a written counter-offer of compensation to her and her mother within 60 days after the date when they indicated to him what amount they would claim as compensation.That deadline passed on February 6, but it came and went without any indication from the Minister – and without any payment – of what amount they would be offered.In terms of the Act, the Minister also has the discretion to decide whether the State would in the meantime pay 80 per cent of the compensation that it had offered to the former owners of the land.It is this amount that Lacheiner-Kuhn and her mother were offered yesterday, while the dispute over the compensation continues in the meantime and may be heading to the Lands Tribunal, which would then have to determine how much the compensation should be.”(F)arming was my main income,” Lacheiner-Kuhn informed the court yesterday.”Since I left the farm on December 5 2005, I have lost my property, my source of income, and did not receive any income.”Lacheiner-Kuhn told the court in her affidavit that a major concern was the fate of a community-based needlework project, the !IKhoba Textiles Farm Project, which was started in 1983 and had been based at Marburg.The project, which produces high-quality hand-made embroidered textile products mostly for the export market, provided a regular income to more than 400 women and their families who live on farms and in settlements in a 150 km radius from Marburg.”We left the farm on 5 December 2005.Behind us lay a lifetime.We were concerned about our future, but most of all I was worried about the future of those 400 people who I came to know personally over the years, and the future of the !IKhoba project,” Lacheiner-Kuhn states in the affidavit.She related that an attempt was being made to relocate the project to Otjiwarongo, but that some N$100 000 was needed to set up a new base for it at the town.”I do not have the N$100 000 at this stage to save the project,” she stated.”If something desperate is not done in respect of the project, I estimate the project will come to a devastating end within the next six months.”That issue was clearly also a matter of concern for Judge Gibson when the case was called before her so that she could be informed of the settlement and be asked to make it an order of court.Judge Gibson asked Government attorney Ray Goba, who represented the Minister, whether nothing was being said or offered from his client’s side about the 400-odd families that are being affected directly by the expropriation.With their dependants, they could represent thousands of people who are being affected, she remarked.He had no instructions from the Minister on that score, Goba replied.Raymond Heathcote, Otjiwarongo lawyer Charles Bodenstein, and Francois Erasmus represented Lacheiner-Kuhn and Lacheiner.In the two months since then, she has been waiting fruitlessly to receive the compensation that the State was supposed to pay her for the land.Yesterday, she and her 85-year-old mother, Sophie Lacheiner, who held legal rights of use and enjoyment (a usufruct) over Marburg, brought an urgent application in the High Court to ask that the Minister of Lands and Resettlement be ordered to carry out his obligations in terms of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act in order to get the compensation process under way.Confronted with the urgent application, the Minister – represented at court by Lands Ministry Permanent Secretary Frans Tsheehama – agreed to settle the case mere minutes before Judge Mavis Gibson was set to start hearing legal arguments. In terms of the settlement, a Government cheque of N$2,965 million was to be handed to Lacheiner-Kuhn and her mother before the end of yesterday.That represents 80 per cent of the amount that the Lands Minister offered as compensation for the expropriation of the land and their rights over it.In the expropriation notices that Land Minister Jerry Ekandjo sent to Lacheiner-Kuhn in mid-August last year, and to Lacheiner in early September, he offered Lacheiner-Kuhn N$3,33 million for the two farms, totalling 8 521 hectares.Lacheiner was offered compensation of N$375 800 for the expropriation of her usufruct over Marburg.Having had a valuation done of both the land and the projected income from it that Lacheiner-Kuhn and her mother expect to lose because of the expropriation, they however informed the Minister on December 6 last year that their asking price for the farms and their rights over it totalled N$9,56 million.The value of the land alone, according to the valuation that they had done, was set at N$4,64 million, while the actual financial losses that they further wanted to be compensated for, was set at N$4,89 million.Monthly payments that Lacheiner-Kuhn had received from the Okorusu Fluorspar Mine, which has mining rights over the two farms, made up the bulk of these projected losses in income.In an affidavit that was filed with the court in support of yesterday’s urgent application, Lacheiner-Kuhn stated that in terms of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act, the Lands Minister was supposed to make a written counter-offer of compensation to her and her mother within 60 days after the date when they indicated to him what amount they would claim as compensation.That deadline passed on February 6, but it came and went without any indication from the Minister – and without any payment – of what amount they would be offered.In terms of the Act, the Minister also has the discretion to decide whether the State would in the meantime pay 80 per cent of the compensation that it had offered to the former owners of the land.It is this amount that Lacheiner-Kuhn and her mother were offered yesterday, while the dispute over the compensation continues in the meantime and may be heading to the Lands Tribunal, which would then have to determine how much the compensation should be.”(F)arming was my main income,” Lacheiner-Kuhn informed the court yesterday.”Since I left the farm on December 5 2005, I have lost my property, my source of income, and did not receive any income.”Lacheiner-Kuhn told the court in her affidavit that a major concern was the fate of a community-based needlework project, the !IKhoba Textiles Farm Project, which was started in 1983 and had been based at Marburg.The project, which produces high-quality hand-made embroidered textile products mostly for the export market, provided a regular income to more than 400 women and their families who live on farms and in settlements in a 150 km radius from Marburg.”We left the farm on 5 December 2005.Behind us lay a lifetime.We were concerned about our future, but most of all I was worried about the future of those 400 people who I came to know personally over the years, and the future of the !IKhoba project,” Lacheiner-Kuhn states in the affidavit.She related that an attempt was being made to relocate the project to Otjiwarongo, but that some N$100 000 was needed to set up a new base for it at the town.”I do not have the N$100 000 at this stage to save the project,” she stated.”If something desperate is not done in respect of the project, I estimate the project will come to a devastating end within the next six months.”That issue was clearly also a matter of concern for Judge Gibson when the case was called before her so that she could be informed of the settlement and be asked to make it an order of court.Judge Gibson asked Government attorney Ray Goba, who represented the Minister, whether nothing was being said or offered from his client’s side about the 400-odd families that are being affected directly by the expropriation.With their dependants, they could represent thousands of people who are being affected, she remarked.He had no instructions from the Minister on that score, Goba replied.Raymond Heathcote, Otjiwarongo lawyer Charles Bodenstein, and Francois Erasmus represented Lacheiner-Kuhn and Lacheiner.