The latest statistics from the land reform ministry reaffirms government’s refined internal systems and the continued delivery of productive land to previously disadvantaged Namibians, with over 5 480 beneficiaries resettled across the country to date.
Despite a few systematic hiccups here and there, government has over the past three decades spent close to N$2.5 billion to acquire a total of 494 commercial farms through its resettlement programme and as of July 2023, it had managed to achieve the 5 000-mark by resettling more than 5 480 previously disadvantaged and displaced Namibians on those farms.
By its intent and design, government’s resettlement programme is aimed at correcting past colonial wrongs, as well as achieving social and economic equity for all citizens, through equitable land distribution and access to means of production.
The country’s land reform programme is based on three strategies, as refined and outlined in the Agricultural Land Reform Act of 1995; which are that government will buy farms from commercial farmers and allocate them to previously disadvantaged Namibians.
The second strategy is that Agribank, a state-owned bank, will grant loans with interests below market level to previously disadvantaged Namibians to acquire land.
The third approach is at communal land level, which all belongs to the State, where it is parceled into small units and redistributed by traditional leaders to displaced farmers.
Touching on the success of the resettlement programme, the ministry’s spokesperson, Jona Musheko, said government is satisfied with the production output of most resettled farmers and how they continue to make good use of the allocated land despite facing many challenges.
“We are proud of how our beneficiaries are putting the land to use and contributing to food production. Last year, we commenced an initiative to visit various beneficiaries of the resettlement programme in different regions. The idea was for the beneficiaries to tell their own stories and how the programme has improved their livelihood,” said Musheko.
He added that besides allocating farms to displaced farmers for food production and improving their living standards, the ministry also places special emphasis on rectifying historical injustices through the resettling programme.
“We should be cognizant of the fact that there are groups of our communities that are resettled and we do not necessarily expect them to engage in commercial production, but rather resettled as a corrective measure of past injustices; hence land is a means to a dignified living. The ministry will continue with various interventions to assist resettled persons to enable them engage in production at different levels.”
Historically, particularly during the colonial era, land dispossession had serious repercussions for the indigenous people, who did not only lose their land but were also introduced to a new type of land tenure, that is, private holding or ownership of land, which effectively replaced communal land usage.
The inequitable distribution of land inherited at independence, which entrenched structural inequalities, prompted the newly elected government to undertake measures to redress the past injustices of land dispossession by successive colonial governments.
– ohembapu@nepc.com.na