MILLIONAIRE Gert Joubert, who is the owner of a 65 000-hectare game lodge near Omaruru, is still on a mission to turn the whole of Namibia into a vast game park where animals can roam freely and the only fences are around towns and villages.
Joubert reckons that “two or three million tourists” would come to Namibia each year, at a rate of 1 000 per day, to enjoy the vast open spaces. “I can see in the future a Namibia with no internal fences except around the cities and villages where the game, like in the Serengeti, can migrate freely from the North … right down south to the Orange River.Millions of game migrating freely over our country with the cities and villages becoming super rest camps,” Joubert told a press conference in Windhoek yesterday.”Five minutes out of Windhoek, it should be possible for a foreign tourist to see a lion kill, or predators catching a zebra and on the big north-south highway Namibians and foreign tourists will daily experience the fantastic African wildlife opera or play of nature taking its course,” the millionaire illustrated his dream.He would need investment partners to raise the necessary N$10 billion over the next 15 years to turn his own Erindi Game Lodge into such a place as a first stepping stone, Joubert said, but banks were not keen to finance tourism development on a farm.”Banks are afraid another Zimbabwe might happen in Namibia with regard to land reform.Foreign investors are also not keen to invest in development initiatives on farmland.I would only raise a measly N$20 million through loans,” Joubert lamented.In his view, the present system of land reform was “a failure” since all commercial farms had to be offered to the Government first and could not be bought and sold like houses.Foreigners did not want to invest if they could not sell the land in which they had invested for the highest price possible, Joubert added.Should all the land of a nation belong to the government, or if laws and regulations hindered free trade in land, the real monetary value of the land could not be unlocked by selling it or bonding it at the bank for money, he said.Consequently, the largest amount of capital available and necessary for a country’s prosperity was locked away in untradable land, or “frozen”, as the millionaire called it.If one took all the commercial farms in Namibia, about 5 000 farms at 5 000 hectares each at a price of N$500 per hectare, their value was only N$12,5 billion.”If ownership of this land could trade freely without land reform or any hindrance towards any willing seller and any willing buyer from anywhere, the same land should sell at a minimum of N$2 000 per hectare, that equals N$50 billion.A farm of 5 000 hectares should fetch N$10 million and not N$2,5 million,” said Joubert, who is also a property developer in South Africa.”N$37,5 billion lies locked in the commercial areas, money that cannot be utilised by the owners for economic development by unlocking the capital, by selling or bonding the land and investing the proceeds in farming or other economic investments.”Joubert said he would try and convince Government during scheduled meetings today and Friday to unlock the “enormous potential” of farmland for what he calls eco-tourism to bring in “a couple of million tourists to Namibia from abroad.”Joubert confirmed a rumour that he had received an offer from a Russian businessman who wanted to buy Erindi for N$100 million.”That is too low, Erindi is not for sale but it surely is worth N$500 million,” he stated.”I can see in the future a Namibia with no internal fences except around the cities and villages where the game, like in the Serengeti, can migrate freely from the North … right down south to the Orange River.Millions of game migrating freely over our country with the cities and villages becoming super rest camps,” Joubert told a press conference in Windhoek yesterday.”Five minutes out of Windhoek, it should be possible for a foreign tourist to see a lion kill, or predators catching a zebra and on the big north-south highway Namibians and foreign tourists will daily experience the fantastic African wildlife opera or play of nature taking its course,” the millionaire illustrated his dream.He would need investment partners to raise the necessary N$10 billion over the next 15 years to turn his own Erindi Game Lodge into such a place as a first stepping stone, Joubert said, but banks were not keen to finance tourism development on a farm.”Banks are afraid another Zimbabwe might happen in Namibia with regard to land reform.Foreign investors are also not keen to invest in development initiatives on farmland.I would only raise a measly N$20 million through loans,” Joubert lamented.In his view, the present system of land reform was “a failure” since all commercial farms had to be offered to the Government first and could not be bought and sold like houses.Foreigners did not want to invest if they could not sell the land in which they had invested for the highest price possible, Joubert added.Should all the land of a nation belong to the government, or if laws and regulations hindered free trade in land, the real monetary value of the land could not be unlocked by selling it or bonding it at the bank for money, he said.Consequently, the largest amount of capital available and necessary for a country’s prosperity was locked away in untradable land, or “frozen”, as the millionaire called it.If one took all the commercial farms in Namibia, about 5 000 farms at 5 000 hectares each at a price of N$500 per hectare, their value was only N$12,5 billion.”If ownership of this land could trade freely without land reform or any hindrance towards any willing seller and any willing buyer from anywhere, the same land should sell at a minimum of N$2 000 per hectare, that equals N$50 billion.A farm of 5 000 hectares should fetch N$10 million and not N$2,5 million,” said Joubert, who is also a property developer in South Africa.”N$37,5 billion lies locked in the commercial areas, money that cannot be utilised by the owners for economic development by unlocking the capital, by selling or bonding the land and investing the proceeds in farming or other economic investments.”Joubert said he would try and convince Government during scheduled meetings today and Friday to unlock the “enormous potential” of farmland for what he calls eco-tourism to bring in “a couple of million tourists to Namibia from abroad.”Joubert confirmed a rumour that he had received an offer from a Russian businessman who wanted to buy Erindi for N$100 million.”That is too low, Erindi is not for sale but it surely is worth N$500 million,” he stated.
