8 October 2026.
Statement by Honourable Inge I. Zaamwani, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform, at the welcoming of four new members of the Land Reform Advisory Commission.
The Director of Ceremonies;
Honourable Ruthy Masake, Deputy Minister;
Mr Petrus Canisius Nangolo, Acting Chairperson of the Commission and Acting Executive Director (Vote 37);
Commissioners of the Land Reform Advisory Commission;
Newly appointed Commissioners;
Senior staff members;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
This morning, we are gathered here to welcome four new members to the Land Reform Advisory Commission, as the other members of the Commission have already been inaugurated. From today, the Land Reform Advisory Commission is now fully constituted.
I extend a warm welcome to Commissioners Cardini Corinda Corinne Roman, Jeaneth Kuhanga, Mona-Lisa Nicoletta McKay and Ermelinda L. Tjimune. Your appointments, which will run until 30 April 2029, bring additional experience and perspectives to the Commission, and we look forward to your contributions to its work.
We also acknowledge the other twelve Commissioners who have already been inaugurated. I encourage you to support your new colleagues and share your perspectives and experiences to help them contribute effectively from the outset.
Allow me to briefly outline, for the benefit of our four new members, the functions of the Commission, as provided for in Section 3 of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act, Act No. 6 of 1995, as amended. These functions include:
- Making recommendations or advising the Minister on any power conferred upon the Minister by the Act that must be exercised upon the recommendation of, or after consultation with, the Commission;
- Investigating and considering, either on its own initiative or at the request of the Minister, any other matter relating to the exercise of the Minister’s powers under the Act, and making recommendations to the Minister on such matters; and
- Performing any other functions assigned to it by the Act.
To our four new Commissioners, you are joining an institution entrusted with advising on matters that directly affect people’s livelihoods and Namibia’s development. Land reform must address historical inequalities while enabling beneficiaries to use land productively and improve their living conditions.
This responsibility calls for sound judgement, integrity and an understanding of the circumstances facing communities and farmers. I urge you to make regular community engagements and field visits an integral part of your work. Listen directly to beneficiaries, examine conditions on resettlement farms and understand the constraints affecting production. Your recommendations will be stronger when informed by both reliable data and first-hand knowledge of realities on the ground.
The Commission provides an important link between the Ministry and the public. It helps bring the expectations and concerns of communities into our deliberations and supports informed decisions on land reform. I expect you to strengthen this role through constructive engagement and practical recommendations.
In fulfilling your mandate, I expect you to exercise independent judgement, scrutinise evidence and provide constructive advice. You should question assumptions, identify weaknesses in proposed interventions and advise me when an approach is unlikely to achieve its intended results. Your value lies in the quality of your analysis and the practical solutions you recommend. Uphold the highest ethical standards and ensure that your recommendations serve the public interest.
We must assess the success of land reform through the productive use of allocated land and the improvements it brings to people’s lives. The area of land acquired and the number of beneficiaries resettled are important measures of progress. However, these must be accompanied by evidence of increased agricultural production, employment, household income and food security.
I therefore urge the Commission to advise on how we can strengthen monitoring and evaluation after land has been acquired and allocated. We need a clear understanding of which farms are performing well, where beneficiaries face difficulties and what interventions are required. This will help us identify problems early and direct support where it can make the greatest difference.
Land remains one of the most pressing issues in our country, and many landless Namibians yearn for a place they can call home. They look to us to enable them to gain access to land. The demand for land far exceeds its availability. To this end, I charge you to review the current resettlement model and advise whether there is room for improvement to accommodate more people.
Similarly, among your first priorities, I direct you to conduct an audit of farms acquired during the past five years. The audit should establish how many people have been resettled, the productivity of those farms, how many farms acquired during this period remain unallocated, the condition of those farms and what would be required to restore them to habitable conditions before allocation.
Furthermore, your advice on land acquisition should consider the prospects for productive use, the needs of intended beneficiaries and the support required after allocation. This approach will help connect access to land with lasting development outcomes.
During the debate on your appointments in the National Assembly, members requested that the Commission modernise and digitise the land acquisition and allocation processes. As you will come to experience, most of these processes are manual and cumbersome. Members also called for greater transparency and fairness, with due regard to the resolutions of the Second National Land Conference. These included prioritising descendants of those who were dispossessed of land, in line with the 70/30 allocation approach resolved at the Conference.
The Ministry will continue to provide the administrative and technical support required for the Commission to carry out its work. I look forward to recommendations that strengthen implementation, improve support for resettlement beneficiaries and reinforce a land governance framework that serves present and future generations.
To our four new Commissioners, welcome. I look forward to working with you, alongside the members who have already been inaugurated, in a spirit of cooperation and shared responsibility. I expect to hold quarterly meetings with you, during which you will provide feedback and confer on challenges and policy reforms that may be required.
I thank you.
