Lahja Nashuuta
OUTJO – Ndapandula Nelumbu is one of the beneficiaries of the government land resettlement programme.
While sharing a family house with many other siblings in Oshakati, owning a piece of land was not something she ever dreamt of.
Today, the 54-year-old is among hundreds of farmers residing at the Queen Sofia farm, owning houses with electricity and running water.
The farm also has a clinic and school.
Besides that, the mother of four was given a piece of land for gardening, and to farm her seven cows and other livestock.
The farm, nestled at the heart of the Outjo district, is one of the beacons of the Namibian government’s resettlement programme.
It consists of five government farms with a total area of 21 000 hectares, about 75km between Outjo and Otavi in the Kunene region. The farm is named after the Spanish Queen as a token of appreciation to the Spanish government for not only donating the farm, but for also investing N$14 million worth of infrastructure.
This arrangement included houses, a school, farm equipment as well as cattle and livestock.
Ever since 2000, about 400 beneficiaries have been resettling at the farm, and accorded opportunities to create livelihoods for themselves, which would eventually become commercially viable.
“We are well settled here – better than where we were,” Nelumbu told New Erawhen they visited the farm recently.
Besides farming, she said it was also easy for most of the residents to find employment, especially when there is construction, installation or renovation carried out at the farm.
She said most of the residents are either working for a school, clinic or by the community garden.
Thriving
Chronicling her journey, Nelumbu said being resettled at Queen Sofia was by the grace of God, as she applied without a clear understanding of what the resettlement programme was all about.
“I submitted my document with the hope of finding employment – and not land,” she said.
“I first heard of the resettlement programme through radio when the officials from the lands ministry encouraged people to apply for resettlement purposes,” she recalled.
“By then, my focus was to find a job, and when I heard the announcement, I just forwarded our details, hoping to be called for a job,” she said.
To her surprise in 1999, she was called to the lands ministry in Oshakati, and they informed her that she was among the successful candidates.
“In 2000, all beneficiaries were transported to the resettlement farm.
“When we got there, I noticed that it was not only me who didn’t understand the resettlement processes, and thought we were going to be offered jobs,” she said.
Upon arriving at the farm, they were met by some government officials, who again tried to explain that there was no employment, but it was a resettlement programme, and people had to be patient because the government had to clear the land, and divide it into portions for everyone to be allocated her plot.
They were also told that the government had procured livestock for everyone to start farming.
“Most of the people were not impressed and had to turn down the resettlement offer. The farm was very bushy and thorny. All we could hear were birds chirping. There was only one structure, which was now the previous owner’s house. We had to squad in one tent, and wait for land,” she narrated.
She said that most people, especially her agemates by then, demanded to be taken back from where they had come from.
Patience
Nelumbu said it took them about two years to be settled. All the beneficiaries were allocated a two-bedroom house with a huge garden and cows.
Everyone was also allocated a farming unit for grazing purposes, equipped with boreholes.
Besides that, they were also given training in livestock farming and horticulture.
“We were first given temporary shacks while our houses were being built. The contractor who was hired to build those houses was instructed to make use of the residents, hence all of us were hired while the elders were running the community garden, which last became the main source of food for the residents. The surplus, we used to sell it to the Outjo community,” she said.
She currently owns about 40 cows and a couple of small livestock after selling out some a year ago.
“We have been instructed to sell some of our livestock to avoid overgrazing. I would have more livestock by now,” she said.
“I am grateful for what the government has done for us. Although some of the people have lost opportunities due to lack of understanding, most beneficiaries have gained lots of fortunes,” she said.
Challenges
Nelumbu said ever since the Spanish handed over the farm to the government, they experienced some challenges.
“We used to get a lot of assistance and farming guidance from the Spanish government. Everything, ranging from the community garden to our garden and farms, was moving smoothly. But after the government took over, things became a bit difficult. Services were no longer reaching us on time, and we were left to run our farm,” she said.
She pointed out poaching and stock theft as well as the deterioration of infrastructure, such as roads, fences and water supply infrastructure as some of the challenges the area is faced with.
With a population of 800, the area is currently faced with an acute shortage of water, hampering the success of some of the income-generating projects at the farm.
Nelumbu said the water shortage has affected their home gardens and that of the community.
“It is unfortunate that our once-thriving garden is no longer functioning. That garden used to be the source of income for many residents here, especially for youth. Gone are the days when every weekend we were in Outjo or Otjiwarongo, selling our produce,” she recalled.
She said in the absence of gardens, most people are now faced with financial challenges, and do not have the means to maintain the facilities, such as repairing leaking taps, tanks and pipelines, cleaning blocked sewage systems and collecting refuse,” she said.
She stressed that the unregulated influx of new settlers and natural population growth in the resettlement led to new informal neighbourhoods in which sewage facilities were not available.
To address the water shortage in the area, the Outjo council, in conjunction with the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, has drilled community boreholes in the regions, and is working around the clock to install new water pipes for household use.
The Outjo constituency council control administrative officer, Helmut Fillemon, told New Era that plans are in place with assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform to drill and install water pipes that will cater for all houses in the area.
The water scarcity is attributed to the breakdown of the main pipe that distributes water to households.
He said the government is struggling to fix it, as the parts are no longer on the market.
“We communicated with the agriculture ministry, but they have indicated that it requires a special reducing connector.
“There is no water scarcity at Queen Sofia. They just want the newly drilled borehole to be connected to the main pipeline that supplies water to each house, and for Cenored to convert the prepaid meter box from commercial to residential because the borehole is for the community and not for the clinic as they claim,” he said.
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