From Africa Recovery, Vol.12#3 (December 1998), page 12

Namibia moves cautiously on land deals

Redistribution programme seeks to preserve property rights

By Peter Mwaura

Eight years after independence, thousands of Namibians remain landless and poor. The problem of access to land is so sensitive that President Sam Nujoma recently said that failure to immediately address the need for land redistribution could lead to a second revolution in the country. But in face of conflicting social and political pressures, the government is pursuing a careful and measured course. Anxious to avoid chaos during the process of land distribution, it has been devising clearly-defined and systematic programmes of land acquisition and distribution, although President Nujoma has acknowledged that these have been "painfully slow."

Namibia inherited from its colonial past a landholding system in which 74 per cent of the best arable land is owned by some 4,000 white farmers, while the majority of Namibians live on crowded communal lands. However, the Namibian constitution -- widely hailed as a model for other African countries -- entrenches property rights, including the right of all people to own land and bequeath it to their heirs. Therefore, land can only be expropriated by the state "in the public interest" and "subject to the payment of just compensation, in accordance with requirements and procedures to be determined by Act of parliament."

Accordingly, the government has been buying land from white farmers on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis, to resettle poor and landless Namibians. The process has been slow and expensive, as prices of land have tended to go up and not enough white farmers are willing to sell their farms to the government at reasonable rates. At the end of 1997, the Deputy Lands Principal Secretary in the Namibian Ministry of Lands, Mr. John Mbango, complained that the ministry is experiencing difficulties buying enough land due to "inflated and unrealistic" prices set by white farmers.

Such difficulties have fueled sharp criticisms of the government's methodical approach. Mr. Mike Venaani, Secretary-General of the opposition Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, has warned that the land issue has whipped up enormous emotions since independence in 1990. If incorrectly handled, he said, the problem could transform a peaceful Namibia into "a sea of flames overnight."

Trade unions associated with the ruling party, the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), also have urged the restitution of land. They have called on the government to seize land without paying compensation, since the land was "stolen" by the colonizers. This would require changing Article 16 of the constitution. National Union of Namibian Workers President Ponhele ya France says the constitution was made by the people and should be changed by the people. "To pay for our own land is a waste of money," he says. "We are opposed to it. The land was given to generals of the [colonial occupation] wars as compensation. We also have our generals. The land must be appropriated." (SWAPO fought for nearly three decades in a guerrilla war to free Namibia from illegal occupation by South Africa.)

'We have to be leaders'

The government, however, is averse to grabbing land, Prime Minister Hage Geingob told Africa Recovery in an interview. "I ask people who are saying change the constitution: What constitution are you going to change? The constitution talks about property rights. We are honouring property rights. I ask them: Do you want me to come to your house and grab your suits?

"The moment you bring it down to the basics, they don't know what they are talking about. We are honouring property rights. And we are going to have lawlessness the moment you start dishonouring property rights. You grab today from this one, tomorrow we grab from you."

Mr. Geingob emphasized: "We have to be leaders, even when people are shouting about grabbing land. Leaders have to be fair, provide justice. They must lead."

He added: "You should know that some people are shouting because they want to come into power. They are failing to see weaknesses in the government, so they must pick up something to get us. They just want to make noise so that they may be voted in."

Thorny issues

Soon after independence, Prime Minister Geingob organized a land conference with participants from all sections of Namibian society. "We debated and debated and came to a very good understanding," he said. The conference agreed that land belonging to absentee landlords would be seized and redistributed to the poor and landless. Land that was idle or underutilized would be the next target.

But grabbing underutilized land was not a straightforward matter, Mr. Geingob noted. "How do you determine something is underutilized? This year you had rain, therefore the land is utilized. The following year you have drought, and it is not utilized. Are you going to grab it?"

The conference also could not resolve the problem of ancestral land. "Those who claim ancestral land say they are the original owners of the country, as their ancestors lived in certain areas," the prime minister said. "Now, who do we give it to? To the Hereros? To the San people? Land in Windhoek [the capital] did belong to some people. Do we give it back to them? Certain things are impractical."

The Namibia Society for Human Rights (NSHR) argues that it would be difficult to determine who are the rightful owners. Most Namibians moved into the country from the Great Lakes region around the 14th century; while others arrived in the 16th and 19th centuries. If anything, the NSHR says, the San people are the rightful owners of the land, since "they have been living here for at least 30,000 years, but they are discriminated against by everyone." The San, were driven into the arid lands by the newcomers and today only about 70,000 or so have survived in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and Namibia. Of the 30,000 San in Namibia, the bulk are landless, except for some 2,000 who live in Bushmanland.

The conference faced similar problems with "stolen land" -- farms acquired by white colonists. "People say stolen land cannot be bought; grab it," Mr. Geingob noted. "Now, we took an oath as leaders to do justice. Everybody has human rights, including the whites. If a white person 100 years ago stole the land, is it fair to grab that land from [the descendant of] that white person because it happens to be stolen land? Are you going to visit the sins of the father on the child?"

Appeals to white farmers

President Nujoma has called on white farmers to be "bold and sincere" in how they offer their land for sale. "It will not contribute to the success of equitable land redistribution if farmers and other land owners are only prepared to offer land that is less economical, or when prices for the farms or the improvements made to the land are inflated beyond their real cost." Such actions, he said, are hindering the government's efforts to acquire land, and thus hinder the government's policy of national reconciliation.

Mr. Geingob too has been appealing to white farmers to voluntarily give up their underused or unused lands for resettlement. "To the white people we say: Look, we talk about reconciliation. You are also in this country, you must do something, meet us half way. Why don't you also give up some land voluntarily?" One rich man, after talking to President Nujoma, gave six farms to the government for settlement. "So sometimes it's a question of convincing people to do the right thing," Mr. Geingob remarked.

However, the main organization of commercial farmers, the Namibia Agricultural Union, has remained critical of the resettlement programme, accusing the government of turning productive commercial farming land into communal areas. It says this not only destroys the fragile ecology of the land, but also exacerbates poverty. Productivity, it argues, would not be achieved by expanding the land farmed under conditions similar to those in the communal areas.

The government agrees that productivity is crucial to the success of resettlement. Prime Minister Geingob said that the government must convince "those who are land hungry that it is not just a question of having the land and sitting and saying, aha, I have land now -- but of working on it. Productivity is very important."

Preserving access to communal lands

In fact, the problem of land redistribution also involves the communal lands, which are under the control of chiefs who traditionally allocate land to their subjects. Before the government stopped the practice, however, well-to-do individuals were fencing off large chunks of land, thereby excluding other users. Some government ministers were accused of this practice.

"If a minister goes back home, he can get a piece of land from the chief," Mr. Geingob explained. "Not only ministers, everybody. But of course, there is the pretension that ministers getting anything is corruption. We have solved the problem of fencing off communal land by saying only a maximum of 10 hectares can be fenced -- if you want to have a little place you can call your own. That is reasonable. But if you want to get rich, get a big farm, then go and buy commercial land."

Given the numerous unresolved questions about land resettlement in Namibia, a committee, chaired by President Nujoma himself, has been set up. According to Mr. Geingob, this is so that "the land question can be revisited again, involve all the players and come up with some solutions."

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