WINDHOEK – The sensitive and fiercely debated issue of the proposed amendments regarding land tax in the commercial land reform programme is about to take a first step toward constructive dialogue between the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement and commercial farmers.
This will take place on Valentine’s Day during a special meeting of the sub-working group of the National Land Reform Forum (NLRF) under the chairmanship of the former president of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), Ryno van der Merwe, as requested last week by the Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Alpheus !Naruseb, during an urgent meeting with the NAU. The meeting will take an in-depth look at the issue of valuations and land tax.
The latest development follows a meeting between the president and the executive manager of the NAU, Derek Wright and !Naruseb, the Permanent Secretary, Lidwina Shapwa and the Valuer General Rudolf !Nanuseb. Namibia inherited a discriminatory colonial division of land under which about half the agricultural land is owned by 3 500 white farmers. Farms average about 5 000 hectares in the north of the country and 10 000 hectares in the south, while nearly 1 million black Namibians live on ‘heavily overgrazed’ communal lands. The latest development comes just after the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ)’s Support to Land Reform team leader Martina Roemer said during a presentation on the Farmers’ Support Project (FSP), that Namibia has done comparatively well in its land redistribution programme. Germany, through the GIZ, has been involved in the FSP since 2009, and has helped to enhance the competencies, knowledge, skills and cultural farming behaviour of farmers in the country. “If you look into commercial land reform, we say this is a success story for the country in that 50 percent of the land is redistributed so far. Many people, however, say the process is too slow,” Roemer noted. She said Namibia is doing well thus far, compared to other countries in the region.
The Namibian government aims to redistribute at least 15 million hectares of commercial farmland from previously advantaged white farmers to previously disadvantaged black farmers by 2020. At the end of 2012, 7.5 million hectares of commercial farmland had been redistributed, which represents a 50 percent success rate. Several reforms are also taking place in communal areas, which includes the demarcation and registration of land holdings. However, some observers are doubtful whether Namibia will be able to reach its goal to redistribute the 15 million hectares of land by 2020, as such processes take time.
By Deon Schlechter