THE Popular Democratic Movement still argues that the agreement between the government and the Russian billionaire to lease four farms for 99 years was illegal and a deliberate violation of the law.
PDM filed an application in the High Court on Friday to have the lease agreement that saw the government leasing four farms to a Russian billionaire, Rashid Sardarov, in October this year reviewed and nullified.
In an affidavit filed in the High Court, PDM’s leader, McHenry Venaani, said they want the court to declare the scheme through which the government became the registered owner of the farms by donation to lease them to the Russian billionaire unlawful and consequently set aside. PDM also wants an interdict to stop the perceived “massive developments” on the farm before the court hears their case.
The affidavit seen by further shows that the party also wants the Russian billionaire and his employees evicted from the farms.
The government recently leased four farms for 99 years to a company, Comsar Properties SA, owned by Sardarov.
The farms, valued at N$43 million and measuring a combined 17 000 hectares, were paid for by the Russian and registered as state property by the land reform ministry.
The transaction was done two days before the second national land conference, which took place from 1-5 October 2018.
Government officials, including land reform minister Utoni Nujoma, finance minister Calle Schlettwein and prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila have defended the deal, stating that it was in the best interest of the country.
Nujoma at the time said those who are unhappy with the deal are free to approach the courts to challenge it because “it is their constitutional right to do so”.
The minister also stated that the government did not violate any law and that the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act of 1995 allowed any person to lease commercial agricultural land for more than 10 years as long as they had written consent from the minister.
He said although there has been a public outcry over land ownership by foreigners, the government allowed the deal to go through because current laws had not been amended yet to prohibit such transactions.
Venaani, in the papers filed at the High Court, however, argued that the deal was ultra vires of the powers of the land reform minister regarding the Agricultural Act and that it was a deliberate circumvention of the law and therefore was unlawful.
He said the oral agreement purportedly to have been entered between Nujoma and Comsar to effect the acquisition of the four farms was unlawful.
“It shall also be illustrated that the first respondent had no authority to lease the farms to the second respondent in terms of the act. The leasehold of 99 years is reserved solely, in terms of the act, for previously disadvantaged Namibians.
The 99-year lease period to a foreigner is unreasonable and not rationally connected to the purpose of the act or any public purpose,” Venaani said.
The PDM leader also stated that the land ministry also violated the law because it is only required to purchase agricultural land for re-settling landless Namibians by the Agricultural Act, “especially those who have been socially, economically or educationally disadvantaged by past discriminatory laws”.
“I am concerned that if these developments are allowed to proceed, the farms cannot eventually be used for the lawful purposes contemplated under the act. These developments could effectively undermine this public interest goal. Consequently, it should be stopped pending the outcome of the question of the validity of the lease,” the affidavit reads.
