Pre-poll payout bonanza: Govt to shell out millions for town land ‘clearances’

AFTER years of stonewalling on paying adequate compensation to residents for land and assets in north-central Namibia, those affected are now set to receive handsome cash payouts.

The compensation is detailed in the latest Cabinet decisions, and comes barely two months ahead of this year’s national and presidential elections.It is not known when the increased payouts will be implemented.At least one opposition party has already labelled the move an ‘election ploy’.For two decades, municipalities gobbled up the land of families living on the outskirts of Oshakati, Ondangwa and Ongwediva, or newly proclaimed towns like Outapi and Nkurenkuru, in the name of development.In the past they have been paid a pittance for the loss of the land on which their homesteads had been erected, as well as their mahangu fields and grazing areas. In terms of a new policy announced yesterday:* Cash payouts for cultivated fields will be as high as N$5 000 a hectare.* ‘Mature’ marula trees will fetch N$15 000 each.* Owners of makalani or omulunga palm trees will miss out on the cash, but anyone with a mango or a pawpaw tree can count on N$3 750 and N$1 000 respectively, according to the latest Cabinet decision.
* Compensation for cultivated land will amount to N$5 000 per hectare compared to the N$600 paid so far.* People holding land rights to grazing and uncultivated areas will receive N$2 500 a hectare, up from the N$250 per hectare paid in the past.* Owners will receive N$90 per square metre for a homestead built from wooden poles, up from N$60 previously paid. * A hut ‘built with cement brick walls, grass (thatched) roof and earth floor’ will fetch N$260 per m², which is N$80 more than the amount paid at present. * To top it all, a ‘disturbance allowance’ of 15 per cent of the total compensation will also be paid out. Filemon Moongo, Vice President of the DTA opposition party, who has repeatedly campaigned for rightful compensation in Parliament over the past 19 years, yesterday said ‘this sudden and enormous increase is just an election ploy’.’The Swapo-led Government is only doing that to lure people to vote for them,’ Moongo charged, when The Namibian approached him for comment. ‘These huge payouts will only benefit the few who have so far refused to be relocated. All the hundreds of people who since 1990 were moved and lost their land, were paid peanuts.’Moongo also said he wondered if the new compensation policy was only tailor-made for communities in north-central north-eastern Namibia. ‘There are no marula trees growing in the Erongo, Karas or Hardap regions and rural communities there are usually unable to cultivate land there due to the arid conditions and lack of water. So if towns in these regions expand and have to compensate rural households there, they will be at an unfair advantage,’ Moongo noted. Opposition parties have repeatedly criticised Government and municipalities for the low payouts since shortly after Independence and several motions to that effect were tabled in Parliament by the DTA and CoD.However, up until yesterday’s announcement Government had refused to budge.Yesterday’s press release on Cabinet decisions said the Cabinet committee on land and social issues ‘was tasked to review the old compensation policy guidelines. The committee produced a new compensation policy that takes inflation, inconvenience and the future economic conditions of those to be relocated into consideration.’’In all cases a Government valuer shall determine exact values and the proposed amounts shall be reviewed regularly to keep track with market values,’ Cabinet decided. In the past, communities in the North started resisting relocation in the North if their land was needed to make way for urban expansion or other public-sector development.They said the payments were not adequate to cover their losses and to afford them the same quality of life after relocation.Cabinet further found that different Government institutions were using different rates and methods to compensate people for the loss of communal land rights. brigitte@namibian.com.na