Land reform does not reach poor

LAND reform, including the expropriation of white-owned commercial farms, is very slow in reaching its targets, leaving over one million black Namibians in overcrowded and overgrazed communal areas compared to 3 800 mainly white commercial farmers occupying 6 000 farms, comprising just under half of the country’s agricultural land, a new report says.

While this social order was inherited from the apartheid days of South African rule, nearly 18 years after Independence at the current land reform pace the process will take a hundred years to complete, states the report, titled ‘No resettlement available – an assessment of the expropriation principle and its impact on land reform in Namibia’. The report was compiled by the Legal Assistance Centre with Willem Odendaal and US Law Professor Sidney Harring as authors and was launched on Friday.”The political reality of Namibian democracy is that the Government must meet a popular demand for land reform in a timely way: it cannot wait 100 years without losing its own legitimacy.While the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) may solve a small part of the problem of black land ownership, it cannot be a substitute for land reform because it does nothing to ameliorate poverty or to meet the legitimate political demands of nearly one million poor blacks,” the authors stated.Government has bought only 209 out of a possible 6 000 commercial farms for resettlement purposes on the willing seller, willing buyer principle, at a cost of well over N$200 million, the report states.”It may be that a little over 9 000 people are actually resettled on these farms, but the record keeping is so poor that we cannot determine the actual number,” Odendaal and Harring criticised.”Many (resettled people) have already left the rural poverty of the resettlement farms, and more leave every day.We do not doubt the honest intentions of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, nor does any responsible party oppose land reform in Namibia as a necessity to counter the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.Even the Namibia Agricultural Union, the organised voice of the commercial farmers, officially supports land reform.To oppose it would be both reactionary and politically suicidal.”The reasons for expropriation were also questioned, as the farmworkers hardly benefited, let alone being resettled on their former working place.Ongombo West was the first farm to be expropriated, but because of a dispute between labourers and the farm owners.At least the farm labourers were resettled on some parts of the farm, but were left without equipment or funding.The farms Marburg and Okorusu were about to be sold to a mine operating on Okorusu, but Government withdrew the waiver and bought the farms for resettlement.However, the farm workers were still waiting to be resettled, living on Okorusu in limbo, surviving on their meagre pensions.”Land expropriation will have an adverse impact on the lives of farmworkers and their families, who will be both displaced and impoverished if the programme proceeds as presently planned,” the LAC report stated.”Specific legal provisions are needed to ensure that farmworkers such as those on Marburg and Okorusu are not displaced by expropriation.The simplest legal requirement would be to include farmworker resettlement and support for their own farming initiatives as a component of each expropriation plan.Arguably, this is required by an emerging international common law concerning the rights of displaced and forcibly resettled persons, who are entitled to be resettled with dignity under conditions that are no worse than their previous living conditions.”Farmworkers were not even assured of resettlement, but could apply to be placed at the bottom of the long and slow-moving waiting list.”But even prioritising displaced farm workers for resettlement is inadequate because they will still be displaced and forced into squatter camps as soon as expropriation occurs, and be left there for months,” the report said.”Sorting out all these matters is the role of law – a challenge that would strain the legal order of any country.”Even the first expropriations have demonstrated the need for an evaluation and amendment of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act 6 of 1995,” the authors said.Changes were needed in the Act to provide for a transparent process of selection of farms for expropriation and allocating land to beneficiaries.A well-defined legal role for the Land Advisory Board was necessary, simplified acquisition processes and a comprehensive land reform plan against which those criteria could be measured.”The land reform and expropriation processes are grounded in eradicating the vestiges of apartheid and racism but they have to be clearly connected to a programme of poverty eradication for Namibia’s poorest people, who form a substantial proportion of the population.This is a difficult task, but it has to be accomplished if land expropriation for such purpose is to succeed.”The plan for the recommended poverty eradication programme would have to provide for, at least, empowerment and training, and substantial social and economic support.This effort would cost as much as or more than land acquisition,” the report noted.The report was compiled by the Legal Assistance Centre with Willem Odendaal and US Law Professor Sidney Harring as authors and was launched on Friday.”The political reality of Namibian democracy is that the Government must meet a popular demand for land reform in a timely way: it cannot wait 100 years without losing its own legitimacy.While the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) may solve a small part of the problem of black land ownership, it cannot be a substitute for land reform because it does nothing to ameliorate poverty or to meet the legitimate political demands of nearly one million poor blacks,” the authors stated.Government has bought only 209 out of a possible 6 000 commercial farms for resettlement purposes on the willing seller, willing buyer principle, at a cost of well over N$200 million, the report states.”It may be that a little over 9 000 people are actually resettled on these farms, but the record keeping is so poor that we cannot determine the actual number,” Odendaal and Harring criticised. “Many (resettled people) have already left the rural poverty of the resettlement farms, and more leave every day.We do not doubt the honest intentions of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, nor does any responsible party oppose land reform in Namibia as a necessity to counter the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.Even the Namibia Agricultural Union, the organised voice of the commercial farmers, officially supports land reform.To oppose it would be both reactionary and politically suicidal.”The reasons for expropriation were also questioned, as the farmworkers hardly benefited, let alone being resettled on their former working place.Ongombo West was the first farm to be expropriated, but because of a dispute between labourers and the farm owners.At least the farm labourers were resettled on some parts of the farm, but were left without equipment or funding.The farms Marburg and Okorusu were about to be sold to a mine operating on Okorusu, but Government withdrew the waiver and bought the farms for resettlement.However, the farm workers were still waiting to be resettled, living on Okorusu in limbo, surviving on their meagre pensions.”Land expropriation will have an adverse impact on the lives of farmworkers and their families, who will be both displaced and impoverished if the programme proceeds as presently planned,” the LAC report stated.”Specific legal provisions are needed to ensure that farmworkers such as those on Marburg and Okorusu are not displaced by expropriation.The simplest legal requirement would be to include farmworker resettlement and support for their own farming initiatives as a component of each expropriation plan.Arguably, this is required by an emerging international common law concerning the rights of displaced and forcibly resettled persons, who are entitled to be resettled with dignity under conditions t
hat are no worse than their previous living conditions.”Farmworkers were not even assured of resettlement, but could apply to be placed at the bottom of the long and slow-moving waiting list.”But even prioritising displaced farm workers for resettlement is inadequate because they will still be displaced and forced into squatter camps as soon as expropriation occurs, and be left there for months,” the report said.”Sorting out all these matters is the role of law – a challenge that would strain the legal order of any country.”Even the first expropriations have demonstrated the need for an evaluation and amendment of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act 6 of 1995,” the authors said. Changes were needed in the Act to provide for a transparent process of selection of farms for expropriation and allocating land to beneficiaries.A well-defined legal role for the Land Advisory Board was necessary, simplified acquisition processes and a comprehensive land reform plan against which those criteria could be measured.”The land reform and expropriation processes are grounded in eradicating the vestiges of apartheid and racism but they have to be clearly connected to a programme of poverty eradication for Namibia’s poorest people, who form a substantial proportion of the population.This is a difficult task, but it has to be accomplished if land expropriation for such purpose is to succeed.”The plan for the recommended poverty eradication programme would have to provide for, at least, empowerment and training, and substantial social and economic support.This effort would cost as much as or more than land acquisition,” the report noted.