Its principal aim is to consolidate and amend the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act 6 of 1995 (ACLRA) and the Communal Land Reform Act 5 of 2002 to ensure that all land in Namibia has the same status. The bill was eventually tabled in 2016 in the National Assembly but soon withdrawn to incorporate resolutions to be taken at the second national land conference, announced by the then minister of land reform.This conference finally took place in October 2018 and a total of 40 resolutions were passed. A revised version of the land bill was circulated in September 2020, which appears to reference some resolutions taken at the 2018 conference. The land bill focuses on communal land reform and provides for the establishment of communal land boards, setting out their powers and functions. It also provides for the demarcation and extent of communal land areas, the allocation of rights in respect of communal land and the powers of the chiefs, the minister and traditional authorities. It focuses on commercial land reform, and establishes the Land Reform Advisory Commission. It gives the state a preferential right to purchase agricultural land, and provides for the compulsory acquisition and alienation of agricultural land by the state. It also prohibits the acquisition of agricultural land and regulates its leasing by foreign nationals.The bill would establish a Lands Tribunal and set up a Land Acquisition and Development Fund, and provide for the allocation of unsurveyed state land, as well as impose land tax and leasehold fees. It also retains the policies in the current law mandating that agricultural land is provided by the state for the purposes of land reform, to be allocated to Namibian citizens who do not own or otherwise have the use of adequate agricultural land – with priority being given to Namibian citizens who were socially, economically or educationally disadvantaged by past discriminatory laws or practices. The principle behind land reform is to make land available to those who were previously disadvantaged, rather than focusing on those who are currently marginalised or disadvantaged. How Would the land bill change the existing land reform institutions? Under the proposed bill, communal land boards and traditional authorities would retain their functions of the allocation of customary and leasehold rights. The granting of occupational land rights for public services also features and it includes new sections that prohibit the granting of customary land rights to foreign nationals, and the acquisition of leaseholds by foreign nationals would be restricted, not prohibited.The prohibition against illegal fencing on communal land remains, as this is clearly still a huge challenge. Conservancies would not be represented on land boards under the proposed bill. It's not clear what led to this decision, as conservancies have a vested interest in the use of communal land. A new member to serve her land boards would be a representative from the Ministry of Justice. The bill retains the key features from the ACLRA that gives the minister the right to acquire commercial agricultural land for purposes of land reform and the vesting in the state of the preferential right to purchase such land.Key institutions established by the ACLRA would also remain in place. The commission's functions would remain purely advisory, and include making investigations and recommendations to the minister. The bill would give the Lands Tribunal jurisdiction to rule on any land related matter or dispute – including those relating to communal land – a welcome step as far as communal land dispute resolution is concerned, because the tribunal would have several experts on board.Finally, the Land Acquisition and Development Fund established under the current law would also retain its current functions. It consists of appropriations from parliament as well as other sources of income. It is earmarked to cover the acquisition or development of agricultural land, the payment of compensation in connection with any termination or cancellation of a lease, compensation for improvements on both communal and agricultural commercial land, agricultural infrastructure on both commercial and communal lands, capacity building for land reform beneficiaries and farming inputs.Efforts to merge the ACLRA and the Communal Land Reform Act into a single Land Act have been in the making for over 10 years. While the idea to create one uniform Land Act for the whole of Namibia carries certain political mileage, the reality of Namibia's land administration often tells a different story. Namibia's communal and commercial land reform processes have different applications, challenges and intended outcomes – the ACLRA deals mainly with facilitating a land reform process, where commercial agricultural land is made available to those Namibians who have been disadvantaged by past discrimination. In contrast, the Communal Land Reform Act deals mainly with land tenure reform for the purpose of promoting the economic and social development of the people of Namibia. While these ideals are not mutually exclusive, they serve different purposes. This makes the merger of the two existing laws seem rather superficial. It would make more sense to focus on how the provisions under both the current laws could be improved to bring about the necessary socio-economic changes that both these laws seek to achieve. This process should include an honest assessment of the shortcomings of the existing laws and a review of the accompanying land policy frameworks to identify changes that could strengthen the performance of the current land reform institutions. – This column was produced with support from Bread for the World and the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
