Windhoek
Promises made by the ruling party in its 2014 election manifesto were on Tuesday given the greenlight by Cabinet to become government policies, of which much attention will be premised on the promises relating to land matters.
Although the ruling Swapo Party has been at the helm since independence, its land policies have not yielded the desired results as more and more Namibians continue to cry for land.
The promises include, among others, the development of integrated land use plans where the resources, infrastructure and possibilities are established and captured and the acquisition of 417 000 hectares of land by 2020.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology Stanley Simataa made the announcement yesterday at a press briefing convened to announce resolutions taken by Cabinet on Tuesday and indicated Cabinet directed all offices, ministries, agencies, regional councils and state-owned enterprises to incorporate the 2014 manifesto into their strategic plans.
“All government agencies will draw from the manifesto the programmes that are relevant to them for implementation. The manifesto was not compiled just to lure voters to the party, now that we are in power we must go the extra mile to fulfill our promises,” said the deputy minister.
Thousands of Namibians continue to decry the high house prices and unavailability of serviced land in urban areas, with the housing backlog breaching the 100 000 mark while farm prices continue to skyrocket.
Since independence, the Swapo-led government acquired and redistributed about 2.5 million hectares of commercial agricultural land to about 5 007 formally disadvantaged Namibians.
According to the manifesto, “It is evident from current practices that the Swapo Party government has committed itself to acquiring freehold agricultural land on the basis of willing buyer-willing seller, with market-related compensation.”
The party also indicated in its internal promise document that since the imposition of land tax on commercial agricultural land in 2002, revenue generated amounting to N$258.6 million was channelled towards land acquisition.
By the end of last year, the State spent N$900 million on land acquisition. This was mainly farm land under the national resettlement programme.
Despite constant efforts to push for the acquisition of land, government has over the years conceded that policies such as the willing-buyer, willing-seller are not working and that there is a need to engineer new land acquisition methods.
Private land owners are reluctant to sell their farms to the State while those who are ready to sell inflate the farm prices.
The lack of land in the country, especially urban land, coupled with high house prices has driven thousands of young Namibians to the point of no return after they joined a mass land activism movement christened Affirmative Repositioning (AR).
The movement is fronted by suspended Swapo Party Youth League members Job Amupanda, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and George Kambala and has threatened to take the land by July 31, 2015, along with its more than 10 000 supporters.