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Govt warned against ‘punitive expropriation’

Govt warned against ‘punitive expropriation’

A LEGAL expert at the University of Namibia has warned Government against ‘punishing’ farmers where labour disputes occurred by expropriating their land.

Dr Christina Treeger did a legal analysis on expropriation in Namibia in which she warned Government that it could be challenged if it applies punitive measures to identify and ultimately buy farms where labour disputes had taken place. She said the current Government expropriation policy seemed to target farms where there were “excessive disputes between management and employees” and where the owners failed to solve the issue in a satisfactory manner.Although the policy was there to protect farmworkers, Treeger said it failed to distinguish between labour and land reform – “two politically and legally distinct and unrelated fields”.”Instead of strengthening the labour inspectorate and introducing stronger provisions into the labour laws to protect farmworkers from arbitrary eviction, it now appears that the Government wants to solve labour disputes by expropriating land from land owners who are perceived to be problematic,” Treeger wrote in a paper released by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung on Wednesday.She called on the Government to apply expropriation in the public interest without discrimination.Treeger said expropriation was in line with national and international laws but it was up to the Government to abide by such rules.”It is therefore important for an expropriation policy to be transparent,” she said.In April this year, the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation issued a statement confirming that expropriation could also be used to punish farmers who evict and dump workers, even though poor labour relations were not official criteria for the latest move in Namibia’s land reform.The Ministry’s statement contains a list of criteria for expropriation and, under ‘Abandoned land’, states that ” … this therefore means that aspects of eviction and dumping of labourers – though not a criterion to expropriate a farm – can be considered in a reactive manner, because of the social aspect such action poses to the Namibian people.”Previously, the slow pace of land reform was touted as the main reason, though some leaders have, in the same breath, criticised the continued maltreatment of farmworkers.Treeger said the Government’s discretion on what constituted ‘serious grievances’ and thus justified expropriation opened the door to arbitrary expropriation.”It could have the effect of reducing the expropriation process to a punitive measure, rather than a means of achieving just redistribution of land in the public interest.Such measures would therefore clearly be contra legem (against the law),” she said.She added that an amendment of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act to cover such a scenario “would also be unlawful”.Government has used public interest and just compensation as the two key guidelines when it identified close to 20 farms for expropriation.Treeger posed the question whether large farms or second or third farms belonging to formerly disadvantaged people could also be targeted for expropriation in the public interest.She expressed the hope that compensation will reflect the actual market value of the expropriated property.She said the current Government expropriation policy seemed to target farms where there were “excessive disputes between management and employees” and where the owners failed to solve the issue in a satisfactory manner.Although the policy was there to protect farmworkers, Treeger said it failed to distinguish between labour and land reform – “two politically and legally distinct and unrelated fields”.”Instead of strengthening the labour inspectorate and introducing stronger provisions into the labour laws to protect farmworkers from arbitrary eviction, it now appears that the Government wants to solve labour disputes by expropriating land from land owners who are perceived to be problematic,” Treeger wrote in a paper released by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung on Wednesday.She called on the Government to apply expropriation in the public interest without discrimination.Treeger said expropriation was in line with national and international laws but it was up to the Government to abide by such rules.”It is therefore important for an expropriation policy to be transparent,” she said.In April this year, the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation issued a statement confirming that expropriation could also be used to punish farmers who evict and dump workers, even though poor labour relations were not official criteria for the latest move in Namibia’s land reform.The Ministry’s statement contains a list of criteria for expropriation and, under ‘Abandoned land’, states that ” … this therefore means that aspects of eviction and dumping of labourers – though not a criterion to expropriate a farm – can be considered in a reactive manner, because of the social aspect such action poses to the Namibian people.”Previously, the slow pace of land reform was touted as the main reason, though some leaders have, in the same breath, criticised the continued maltreatment of farmworkers.Treeger said the Government’s discretion on what constituted ‘serious grievances’ and thus justified expropriation opened the door to arbitrary expropriation.”It could have the effect of reducing the expropriation process to a punitive measure, rather than a means of achieving just redistribution of land in the public interest.Such measures would therefore clearly be contra legem (against the law),” she said.She added that an amendment of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act to cover such a scenario “would also be unlawful”.Government has used public interest and just compensation as the two key guidelines when it identified close to 20 farms for expropriation.Treeger posed the question whether large farms or second or third farms belonging to formerly disadvantaged people could also be targeted for expropriation in the public interest.She expressed the hope that compensation will reflect the actual market value of the expropriated property.

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