Land reform becomes an urgent policy

Land reform has been a piecemeal affair since Namibia gained independence sixteen years ago, and those who have been given land are often left without the means to develop it.

Elias Hoebeb, one of two farm labourers allocated 1,391ha on an expropriated farm 40km east of the capital, Windhoek, told IRIN: "We have no money, no fuel to get the water pump running and no farming implements, let alone a vehicle - some of us now work on neighbouring farms to earn some cash."

The government is launching a long-term N$3.7 billion ($US528 million) land redistribution strategy after a World Bank report last year warned that the society's inequalities represented a "threat to national cohesion, peace and political stability", and said Namibia had failed "to realise the productive potential of a large proportion of the [1.7 million] population."

The cabinet recently adopted the recommendations of a comprehensive 2004 study funded by Britain, Germany and the United States to resettle 6,277 families on 10.3 million hectares of land.

"The recommendations will guide us over the next decade and a half to address the land hunger of our citizens," said land minister Jerry Ekandjo. "If the land issue is not resolved, it can have political, economic and social implications for Namibia's socioeconomic development."

About 69 million hectares of Namibia is suited for agriculture, of which 36 million hectares is freehold land owned by approximately 4,000 commercial farmers, including 700 from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. The remainder of the agriculturally viable land, 33 million hectares, is communal or non-freehold land.

"In addition to the planned purchase of commercial land, five million hectares of communal land will be portioned off into small farming units, which will cost another N$53 million (US$7.5 million) per annum to develop," Ekandjo said.

In the past decade 1,616 families have been resettled and the government has acquired nearly 200 commercial farms, comprising 1.2 million hectares, through the willing-seller, willing-buyer process. Three farms were expropriated and their owners paid compensation.

However, the political temperature has risen in the past few months, with a group claiming to represent thousands of former fighters of the liberation war demanding that the ruling South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) pay compensation for the veterans' contribution to achieving independence.

The National Committee on the Welfare of ex-Combatants has called for, among other things, lump sum payments of N$500,000 (US$71,000) for each ex-fighter and equity in the fishing and mining industries. The standoff is reminiscent of what occurred between Zimbabwe's liberation war veterans and President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF government: war veterans pressured Mugabe for compensation, which led to financial concessions, farm invasions and the subsequent meltdown of the economy.

The Land Reform Report and Strategic Action Plan said 270,000 hectares of commercial farmland would be purchased annually until 2020 and stressed that "developing communal land is a crucial component to land reform".

One of the action plan's authors, Oliver Horsthemke, said support packages for land beneficiaries would form an important component of the programme, and recommended "that beneficiaries should in future have skills and knowledge about agriculture".

Gero Diekmann, a white farmer who teaches holistic farming methods to emerging black farmers, said the new farmers should be allocated loans, with their land as collateral, so they could start production, and "these bank loans should be tailor-made to suit the beneficiaries."

The study also recommends better co-ordination among government ministries, increased extension services for beneficiaries, more involvement of non-state actors, and a sound monitoring system to oversee implementation of the plan until 2020.

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