Over N$4 billion needed to buy 243 foreign-owned farms — minister

The Namibian government will need more than N$4 billion to forcefully buy 243 farms from foreign absentee owners, the minister of land reform says.

Minister of africulture, fisheries, water and land reform Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi said this last week in the parliament, where she also revealed that eight foreign nationals have applied to buy Namibian land.

Zaamwani-Kamwi said the ministry has conducted an exercise to identify foreign-owned land and identified 243 farms with a combined size of 1 159 826 hectares (football fields) of commercial agricultural land as foreign owned.

“On average, the price of commercial agricultural land per hectare in Namibia nowadays is no less than N$3 500 per hectare. To expropriate 1.2 million hectares will cost the state over N$4 billion,” the minister said.

She was responding to questions of Swanu of Namibia president Evilastus Kaaronda.

Once the land bill is passed, the ministry’s first action would be to target unproductive farms owned by absentee landlords, the minister said.

Zaamwani-Kamwi, who is also the presidential adviser on constitutional affairs and private sector interface, said some lawmakers believe expropriation is the best solution to the land reform question in Namibia.

She, however, cautioned that “our experience as a ministry has taught us that expropriation takes a long time because of litigation, and it is very expensive and does not necessarily provide results at the time you need the land”.

During the last financial year, the ministry acquired a total of 11 farms with a combined size of 41 291 hectares at a cost of over N$115 million.

HIDE-AND SEEK

The government currently follows a ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ policy, under which landowners must first offer the government the option to buy farmland. The state can then acquire the land and redistribute it.

This policy has, however, been criticised for being too slow in advancing land reform. There have also been allegations that politicians and their families have exploited the scheme to acquire prime farmland, often while they are only known to be ‘weekend’ farmers.

Zaamwani-Kamwi last week told parliament that 26 farms were withdrawn in the last financial year just before the state could exercise its preferential right to buy them.

“Again, this current financial year, a total of 27 farms were withdrawn by the owners in the same fashion. This happens when the state offers a lower price than what they want,” she said.

According to the minister, rather than selling at a low price, the owners would withdraw their farm and put it back on the market for a better deal.

Zaamwani-Kamwi also revealed that the government received eight applications from foreigners to buy Namibian farms.

The current law states that foreign nationals are not allowed not acquire or lease agricultural commercial land without the minister’s prior written consent.

Out of the eight applications received, six were fully assessed, while two remain pending, the minister said.

“Of the six that have been fully assessed, three are for the leasing of land, while three are for the acquisition of land,” she said.

Among those individuals seeking to acquire land, one intends to mine uranium, two plan to build a green steel factory and a green hydrogen production facility, while another wants to buy an operating lodge, she said.

Zaamwani-Kamwi said farms that are in full production and provide employment to a greater number of Namibians would initially not be targeted for expropriation.

‘NOTHING NEW’

Kaaronda has rubbished the minister’s response, saying she is pushing the same narrative Swapo has perpetuated since colonial times, which is apologetic.

“That very position is the one that the Swapo government has had for the past 35 years. There is nothing new, it is very apologetic and a position that seeks to perpetuate the very same patterns of land ownership we inherited from colonial times. It must be rubbished,” he said.

Kaaronda said landowners should determine the market value of their property, and the law does not prohibit the ministry from determining this. He proposed that compensation only be offered for land improvements, such as fencing or installing boreholes, and not for the actual land.

“We cannot argue in the same manner that perpetuates the advancement of ownership,” he said.

UNPRODUCTIVE LAND

Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) president McHenry Venaani said foreign landowners who are not using their land productively but do not want to make their farms available should be targeted.

He said no land should be used for luxuries, such as trophy hunting, while Namibians remain disadvantaged.

During her contribution to the land bill last week, PDM parliamentarian Inna Hengari said the bill must address the gaps of systemic failures that continue to undermine restorative justice.

“Take, for instance, the recent revelation in August 2025 that over 30 resettlement farms in the ||Kharas region lie idle and unoccupied.

“Farmers have rightly expressed concern, noting that these farms, allocated to previously disadvantaged Namibians, remain unproductive due to misleading promises and inadequate support,” she said.

A glaring omission, Hengari said, is the absence of a comprehensive national land audit to evaluate the successes and failures of the resettlement programme.

She said the government has resettled over 5 518 beneficiaries so far this year, yet without a rigorous, data-driven audit, “we legislate in the dark”.

“There can be no true restorative justice without meaningful data to back our law-making process,” Hengari said.

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