Alvenus F. Dreyer
The need for upgrading and maintaining communal fences is a national call going out to all role-players, stakeholders and especially decision makers; in particular the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, traditional authorities (TAs) and development aid funders (partners).
Why in particular the three key important role-players? To start with, the ministry must see to it that a conducive enough environment is created for producers to add more value to their produce.
Traditional authorities are the custodians of communal land and are entrusted by the government to look after such land for the benefit of current and future generations.
Development aid funders (partners), in this instance Namibia’s former colonial master Germany together with the European Union, must not be selective when providing infrastructure on communal land.
Just to refresh our memories, there is a Programme for Communal Land Development (PCLD) which since its inception in 2015, never reached some parts of Namibia’s communal areas; thus, once again this national call on German development aid administrators to also engage local traditional communities and identify existing fences for the purpose of upgrading such fences.
The Communal Land Reform Act which is the legal guiding tool in communal land administration according to Sections 18 and 44 is giving clear direction on how to keep existing fences.
These are fences that were there before the enactment of the Communal Land Reform Act in March 2003. These fences are of so much importance to communal farmers.
The ministry of agriculture and TAs are aware of the predicament communal farmers, especially livestock producers find themselves in as a result of non-existing and or completely dilapidated fences. If infrastructure development on communal land was/is perhaps done on regional needs, there are decades-old records of fencing needs in all Namibian communal areas, including regions like the Zambezi, Kavango and other northern regions where various infrastructure development worth millions of Euros took place.
All stakeholders, role-players and decision makers must seriously start investing in communal land fencing. Those with power (political), money and influence have fenced off land in communal areas, knowing why fencing is important. So why not also extend a “better helping hand” to the poor and willing communal farmer for him/her to sustainably and productively engage in Namibia’s agriculture sector?