Last year, London-based weekly magazine New African, ran a headline “Namibia, the African country not owned by Africans”.
The article shocked the world with sharp facts about the land issues in Namibia and how embarrassingly skewed our land ownership is.
It was a damning account of how Namibians, especially the so-called natives, have been pushed to the periphery of land ownership in a country with large tracts of land – some owned by absentee landlords.
It spoke about how 90 percent of arable land is owned by only six percent of Namibians, mostly white, and that 40 percent of this land is commercial and fenced off, and considered private property.
For a 34th largest country in the world, but with 2.1 million inhabitants, it is unspeakable that we dedicate time to talk about how scarce land is. Yet critical analysis would inform everyone that land is not scarce in Namibia – it simply is hardly accessible.
This week in Gibeon, leaders in the Hardap Region met to kick-start the year with concerted plans on how the delicate land situation may be addressed.
Frustration was apparent on these leaders’ faces, with the constituency councillor of Gibeon, Jeremias van Neel, quipping that this country’s liberation struggle was about land. He expressed frustration that there was barely any tangible progress on land acquisition.
Namibian politician often talk about the country having won the liberation struggle, but if land was the key means of production over which missiles were unleashed in the direction of the enemy, how can we possibly brag about independence which hasn’t eased access to land.
The recent weeks have been dominated by anarchical land grabs in major urban centres such as Windhoek and, lately, Swakopmund. Government has admitted time and again that the existing land redistribution policies have not yielded the desired fruits.
Well, that’s not breaking news. We all know the existing policies are not working. But are we going to fold our hands as land-related problems escalate or are we going to take this as a matter or urgency that calls for bold and speedy reforms to keep everyone equitably happy?
The Namibian survivors of the German genocide were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation and discrimination.
The genocide, plus racist laws and sheer brutality, was used to deprive the black Namibians of their land. This land was “given” to the white settlers. These are historical facts that no one can dispute.
How, then, do we reverse what has happened without destroying the economy and social stability that our country enjoys? There is surely a way to amicably resolve this centuries-long debacle that has haunted successive generations of this country.
Wishing away the land impasse without decisively lifting a finger will not help anyone. The land question must be answered in our lifetime.
We can moan day and night that land grabbers have political motives, but such allegations – real or imagined – will never rectify the situation. It is the rectification of laws and their eventual implementation that will deliver us from this quandary.
The incoming parliament, and indeed Cabinet, will fail in their duty if they do not come up with bold policies and key reforms aimed at rectifying the land situation.
The anarchic behaviours of land grabbers are largely our own doing because the pace at which we are supposedly handling this crucial matter is appalling. It is hard to convince anyone, 25 years after independence, to still be patient.
In fact, those with ulterior motives will hide behind this frustration to execute their ill-intended plans.