Since its introduction, land tax has raised over N$400 million in revenue for the Land Acquisition and Development Fund (LADF), and is currently adding about N$10 million annually to the fund’s coffers. This is according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) publication, authored by economist Robin Sherbourne, that stated the revenue raised compares with approximately N$55 million spent on the national resettlement policy’s farm purchases during the 2021/22 financial year.
Land tax rates were first gazetted in September 2004 and then adjusted and gazetted in November 2017 following protracted legal disputes about the valuation roll upon which the tax was based. “Of Namibia’s 39 728 364 hectares of commercial farmland, approximately 8% has been redistributed to previously disadvantaged Namibians through the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) and the NRP (National Resettlement Policy) apiece,” stated Sherbourne in the Namibia quarterly economic review for April to June 2023.
However, the economist expressed concerned over the quality of land reform statistics, citing them as generally poor, uneven, and inconsistent.
“No track is kept on private commercial land purchases by previously disadvantaged Namibians or purchases by foreigners. Around 23% of commercial farmland now rests in the hands of previously disadvantaged Namibians. It is likely that a proportion of land waived and then sold privately also belongs to previously disadvantaged Namibians but the data does not exist to be certain about the magnitude,” he stated.
Moreover, through the research institute, Sherbourne added that land reform statistics focus on inputs, primarily the cost and size of the farms purchased, and completely ignore outputs and outcomes.
He said no data seems to exist on what is actually being produced on the farms that have changed hands, noting this applies to both the AALS and the NRP.
Taking the numbers on the NRP at face value implies that the average cost of land purchase amounts to N$436 460 per beneficiary, according to Sherbourne.
“No one seems to have examined costs in any detail. If this amount of N$436 460 was instead given to each beneficiary in cash and invested in the bank at 10% interest this would yield an average yearly income in excess of N$40 000. Are resettled farmers succeeding in generating incomes higher than this? No one knows. It is almost as if no one wants to know,” Sherbourne stated.