State takes over two more farms Lands Tribunal dispute launched

THE first Lands Tribunal claim has been filed to question Government’s valuation of farms that are targeted for expropriation.

The State officially took possession of two expropriated farms in the Otjiwarongo district, Okorusu and Marburg, on Monday. The owner of the farms, Heide-Marie Lacheiner-Kuhn, whose family has owned one of the farms for the past 91 years, the other for the past 78 years, received notices that the two farms were to be expropriated in late August.She did not resist the expropriation – but on the matter of the price to be paid for the two farms about 40 kilometres north of Otjiwarongo, she is now set to challenge Government.NO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS As with the first farm that Government expropriated and took possession of on December 1, Ongombo West in the Windhoek district, neither Okorusu nor Marburg is owned by an absentee landlord – Lacheiner-Kuhn was living at Marburg, which is adjacent to Okorusu.Nor are the farms owned by foreigners – Lacheiner-Kuhn is a born Namibian – or unproductive land – they were used for cattle farming, and Marburg was also the base of a successful community-based needlework project that has been providing an income to over 400 women from farms and settlements in that area.Ten farmworkers were employed at Marburg, and two at Okorusu.Six pensioners are also living at Marburg.The !IKhoba Textiles needlework project that Lacheiner-Kuhn and her sister had set up at Marburg 22 years ago was employing a further seven people.With their former employers now off the farms, and with the !IKhoba Textiles project having lost its base at Marburg, all of these people are now facing an uncertain future.In terms of the expropriation notices from the Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Jerry Ekandjo, the expropriation took effect on September 5.Lacheiner-Kuhn was also informed that the State was to take possession of the farms on December 5.TALKING MILLIONS The title deeds of the two farms were delivered to the Ministry of Lands on Tuesday afternoon – together with a letter from Lacheiner-Kuhn’s lawyer, Charles Bodenstein, informing the Minister that Lacheiner-Kuhn had, “in accordance with your commands”, vacated the two properties on Monday, but was not accepting the prices that Ekandjo had offered for the two farms in his expropriation notice.At the same time, a claim was filed with the Lands Tribunal, which in terms of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act would have to determine what amount the State has to pay for the land that it is expropriating from Lacheiner-Kuhn.In its nine-year existence to date, disputes between Government and the sellers of farmland over the price to be paid for land bought by the State have never progressed to such a stage that the Lands Tribunal has had to make a ruling to settle the dispute, the Tribunal’s Chairperson, lawyer Dirk Conradie, said yesterday.According to documentation on the expropriation in The Namibian’s possession, Ekandjo informed Lacheiner-Kuhn that she was being offered N$750 155,20 as compensation for the expropriation of Okorusu, which is 3 409 hectares in size.Ekandjo further offered her N$2 581 321,08 for Marburg, which is 5 111 hectares in size, but has substantially more improvements on it than the neighbouring farm.Having sent those expropriation notices to Lacheiner-Kuhn, Ekandjo also addressed a letter to her 85-year-old mother, Sophie Lacheiner, on September 2, to inform her that he, as Lands Minister “and the owner of the property” Marburg over which Lacheiner holds a usufruct (legal right of use and enjoyment), had decided to expropriate her rights over the land.Ekandjo offered her N$375 800 as compensation for the loss of her usufruct.However, according to a professional valuation of the two farms that was done for Lacheiner-Kuhn, the market value of the farm Marburg was determined as N$2,94 million, while the market value of Okorusu was set at N$1,7 million.In addition to that, valuers determined that Lacheiner-Kuhn would be suffering financial losses amounting to N$4,891 million through the expropriation.In the claim to be heard by the Lands Tribunal – if the dispute over the financial side of the expropriation continues to a hearing – Lacheiner-Kuhn would also be asking to be compensated in that amount, in addition to her N$4,64 million asking price for the two farms.MINING TROUBLES The bulk of Lacheiner-Kuhn’s claim for financial losses is a claim in the amount of N$3,85 million for lost income from mining activities at the farms.The Okorusu Fluorspar mine has mining and exploration rights over the two farms – and it may be that fact that led to the end of the Lacheiner family’s almost century-long ownership of the two farms.In June last year, Lacheiner-Kuhn filed a case with the High Court in which she asked the court to order the Land Minister to issue a certificate of waiver – a document certifying that Government was not interested in buying commercial agricultural land that was being offered for sale – to her for the two farms.In a statement in which she set out her case to the court, she related that ongoing conflicts had arisen between herself and Okorusu Fluorspar, and that it was decided that the only sensible and durable solution to that problem would be for the mining company to buy the farms.As required by the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act, she first offered the two farms for sale to the State, but after receiving no answer for four months, she decided to approach the court for an order that a certificate of waiver be issued to her.The court indeed made such an order on July 12 last year – but then the Lands Minister appears to have decided that Government should buy Okorusu and Marburg after all.On August 4, Ekandjo announced to a meeting of Namibian diplomats in Windhoek that Government was set to intensify efforts to expropriate up to 18 farms in the following months.Okorusu was set to be among the first, he was quoted as saying.The Lands Ministry has not yet made any public announcements about its plans for the two farms.Efforts to get comment from either Ekandjo or his deputy or the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary yesterday afternoon were unsuccessful, with all of them said to have been engaged in meetings.In her initial offer of the farms to the State, Lacheiner-Kuhn stated her asking price for Marburg to be N$3,89 million, while she asked N$2,6 million for Okorusu.Those prices were based on what the Okorusu Fluorspar mining company had offered to pay at that stage.Documents that Lacheiner-Kuhn filed with the High Court in June last year indicate that Marburg was first registered in the name of a member of the Lacheiner family, Gustav Lacheiner, who was born in 1878, in May 1914.Okorusu was registered in his name in May 1927.Lacheiner-Kuhn became the owner of the farms in 1989.The owner of the farms, Heide-Marie Lacheiner-Kuhn, whose family has owned one of the farms for the past 91 years, the other for the past 78 years, received notices that the two farms were to be expropriated in late August.She did not resist the expropriation – but on the matter of the price to be paid for the two farms about 40 kilometres north of Otjiwarongo, she is now set to challenge Government.NO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS As with the first farm that Government expropriated and took possession of on December 1, Ongombo West in the Windhoek district, neither Okorusu nor Marburg is owned by an absentee landlord – Lacheiner-Kuhn was living at Marburg, which is adjacent to Okorusu.Nor are the farms owned by foreigners – Lacheiner-Kuhn is a born Namibian – or unproductive land – they were used for cattle farming, and Marburg was also the base of a successful community-based needlework project that has been providing an income to over 400 women from farms and settlements in that area.Ten farmworkers were employed at Marburg, and two at Okorusu.Six pensioners are also living at Marburg.The !IKhoba Textiles needlework project that Lacheiner-Kuhn and her sister had set up at Marburg 22 years ago was employing a further seven people.With their former employers now off the farms, and with the !IKhoba Textiles project having lost its base at Marburg, all of these people are now facing an uncertain future.In terms of the expropriation notices from the Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Jerry Ekandjo, the expropriation took effect on September 5.Lacheiner-Kuhn was also informed that the State was to take possession of the farms on December 5.TALKING MILLIONS The title deeds of the two farms were delivered to the Ministry of Lands on Tuesday afternoon – together with a letter from Lacheiner-Kuhn’s lawyer, Charles Bodenstein, informing the Minister that Lacheiner-Kuhn had, “in accordance with your commands”, vacated the two properties on Monday, but was not accepting the prices that Ekandjo had offered for the two farms in his expropriation notice.At the same time, a claim was filed with the Lands Tribunal, which in terms of the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act would have to determine what amount the State has to pay for the land that it is expropriating from Lacheiner-Kuhn.In its nine-year existence to date, disputes between Government and the sellers of farmland over the price to be paid for land bought by the State have never progressed to such a stage that the Lands Tribunal has had to make a ruling to settle the dispute, the Tribunal’s Chairperson, lawyer Dirk Conradie, said yesterday. According to documentation on the expropriation in The Namibian’s possession, Ekandjo informed Lacheiner-Kuhn that she was being offered N$750 155,20 as compensation for the expropriation of Okorusu, which is 3 409 hectares in size.Ekandjo further offered her N$2 581 321,08 for Marburg, which is 5 111 hectares in size, but has substantially more improvements on it than the neighbouring farm.Having sent those expropriation notices to Lacheiner-Kuhn, Ekandjo also addressed a letter to her 85-year-old mother, Sophie Lacheiner, on September 2, to inform her that he, as Lands Minister “and the owner of the property” Marburg over which Lacheiner holds a usufruct (legal right of use and enjoyment), had decided to expropriate her rights over the land.Ekandjo offered her N$375 800 as compensation for the loss of her usufruct.However, according to a professional valuation of the two farms that was done for Lacheiner-Kuhn, the market value of the farm Marburg was determined as N$2,94 million, while the market value of Okorusu was set at N$1,7 million.In addition to that, valuers determined that Lacheiner-Kuhn would be suffering financial losses amounting to N$4,891 million through the expropriation.In the claim to be heard by the Lands Tribunal – if the dispute over the financial side of the expropriation continues to a hearing – Lacheiner-Kuhn would also be asking to be compensated in that amount, in addition to her N$4,64 million asking price for the two farms.MINING TROUBLES The bulk of Lacheiner-Kuhn’s claim for financial losses is a claim in the amount of N$3,85 million for lost income from mining activities at the farms.The Okorusu Fluorspar mine has mining and exploration rights over the two farms – and it may be that fact that led to the end of the Lacheiner family’s almost century-long ownership of the two farms.In June last year, Lacheiner-Kuhn filed a case with the High Court in which she asked the court to order the Land Minister to issue a certificate of waiver – a document certifying that Government was not interested in buying commercial agricultural land that was being offered for sale – to her for the two farms.In a statement in which she set out her case to the court, she related that ongoing conflicts had arisen between herself and Okorusu Fluorspar, and that it was decided that the only sensible and durable solution to that problem would be for the mining company to buy the farms.As required by the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act, she first offered the two farms for sale to the State, but after receiving no answer for four months, she decided to approach the court for an order that a certificate of waiver be issued to her.The court indeed made such an order on July 12 last year – but then the Lands Minister appears to have decided that Government should buy Okorusu and Marburg after all.On August 4, Ekandjo announced to a meeting of Namibian diplomats in Windhoek that Government was set to intensify efforts to expropriate up to 18 farms in the following months.Okorusu was set to be among the first, he was quoted as saying.The Lands Ministry has not yet made any public announcements about its plans for the two farms.Efforts to get comment from either Ekandjo or his deputy or the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary yesterday afternoon were unsuccessful, with all of them said to have been engaged in meetings.In her initial offer of the farms to the State, Lacheiner-Kuhn stated her asking price for Marburg to be N$3,89 million, while she asked N$2,6 million for Okorusu.Those prices were based on what the Okorusu Fluorspar mining company had offered to pay at that stage.Documents that Lacheiner-Kuhn filed with the High Court in June last year indicate that Marburg was first registered in the name of a member of the Lacheiner family, Gustav Lacheiner, who was born in 1878, in May 1914.Okorusu was registered in his name in May 1927.Lacheiner-Kuhn became the owner of the farms in 1989.