WINDHOEK – President-elect, Dr Hage Geingob, yesterday said availing land to the landless masses remains a priority for his incoming administration, but warned a solution would not be found in the snap of a finger.
It would also require a massive cash injection for acquired land to become productive, the incoming president warned.
“Things cost money. Let’s not create lawlessness,” Geingob, who is currently the country’s prime minister, said at a press conference yesterday.
The outgoing prime minister said land scarcity is not a generational issue as many – especially advocates of youth empowerment – make it to look like.
“It’s a common problem for all Namibians. It’s everyone’s concern – the young, the old, blacks and whites,” Geingob, himself a farmer of repute, said.
He pleaded to be given a fair chance to commence his presidency and deal with the land issue once sworn in.
“Give me a chance. Allow me to be sworn in first and I’ll then deal with all issues as president, including land.”
Affirmative Repositioning, a land campaign spearheaded by suspended Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) central committee member Job Amupanda, has been on a collision course with government and the ruling party over the skewed ownership of land in the country.
Geingob yesterday acknowledged the land crisis, but warned that lawlessness among those applying for land would not be entertained.
“We are aware of the land need in the country but we have laws. People say leaders are not taking the land issue seriously because they have land, but that’s not true.
“I have a farm, which I bought from the late [Gert] Hanekom with a loan from Nedbank. I [hate] farming, but I needed a place to call home because I was born under a tree. I bought a farm in an area where I was born. Others have villages where they were born, but I was born under a tree.”
He said the willing-seller, willing-buyer system of acquiring land has not been a success, and might be amended to make it workable.
“Otherwise we will explore what the constitution says, which is land expropriation. We might, as a start, target farms owned by absentee landlords,” he said.
Geingob – a father of five – also took exception to perceptions that white Namibians should return land stolen by their forefathers from blacks during years of foreign occupation.
“If land was stolen 100 years ago, is it really fair to demand its expropriation from the children of those who stole it?” he asked.
“Let’s not make third-generation whites feel guilty that they stole land. We need harambee, which in Swahili means pulling in the same direction.”