Land’s Punitive Aspect

I WOULD like to give my opinion on the land issue.

After reading your article, “Farmers clique defiant”, June 10, 2004, I become worried about the way in wich farmers are handling this problem. We must watch out that we, as farmers or whites, are not shooting ourselves in the foot.I must confess that I do not own land and am not a farmer but I too am opposed to the way in which the government is handling the problem.I also feel that the whole process lacks transparency and to me it is clear that the government uses land expropriation as a punitive measure to act against farmers whom it believes treat their workers unfairly.As much as this is enough reason to rebel against the government, we must still look at the consequences that this small, verbal rebellion might have.For now the government is prepared to pay farmers for their land.I fear that within a couple of months the government will start to merely expropriate “problem farmers” without compensation.We must accept that land expropriation is something that will happen.We must therefore rather ensure that we as Namibians are as well off as possible after this tragedy, rather than trying to stop the unstoppable and be worse off than we could have been.I am not saying that we as whites and as farmers should merely accept the government’s actions, we must rather watch out that we do not anger this emotional and impulsive government of ours without having a proper plan of action for our defence first.We know that the government would rather go the Zimbabwe route than to think of their own country.We must therefore take the responsibility upon ourselves to save our country.Lets meet with the government and see how we can settle this problem so that it is a win-win situation for all.Let’s Talk Via e-mailNote: Name and address provided – EdWe must watch out that we, as farmers or whites, are not shooting ourselves in the foot.I must confess that I do not own land and am not a farmer but I too am opposed to the way in which the government is handling the problem.I also feel that the whole process lacks transparency and to me it is clear that the government uses land expropriation as a punitive measure to act against farmers whom it believes treat their workers unfairly.As much as this is enough reason to rebel against the government, we must still look at the consequences that this small, verbal rebellion might have.For now the government is prepared to pay farmers for their land.I fear that within a couple of months the government will start to merely expropriate “problem farmers” without compensation.We must accept that land expropriation is something that will happen.We must therefore rather ensure that we as Namibians are as well off as possible after this tragedy, rather than trying to stop the unstoppable and be worse off than we could have been.I am not saying that we as whites and as farmers should merely accept the government’s actions, we must rather watch out that we do not anger this emotional and impulsive government of ours without having a proper plan of action for our defence first.We know that the government would rather go the Zimbabwe route than to think of their own country.We must therefore take the responsibility upon ourselves to save our country.Lets meet with the government and see how we can settle this problem so that it is a win-win situation for all.Let’s Talk Via e-mailNote: Name and address provided – Ed