Windhoek
A resettlement farm currently used by deputy works minister and Okorukambe Councillor Kilus Nguvauva is set to be registered in his name, but he is aggrieved at the slow pace at which the process is being handled.
The process was so cumbersome that he could not secure a bank loan, Nguvauva – who is set to lose his ministerial job after next month’s regional council and local authority elections – told New Era recently.
He did not get re-elected as Swapo candidate for Okorukambe and would, therefore, have to vacate his seat in parliament, and by extension his job as deputy minister.
Nguvauva and former education deputy minister Clara Bohitile are among the hordes of beneficiaries of 23 farming units that would soon be recognised and registered by the land reform ministry. The information is contained in a newspaper advert placed by the Ministry of Land Reform last week, through which it called for any objections from the public.
“I have been on that unit for long now, since 1993, but I could not get an allotment certificate. Is it because I am a deputy minister or councillor or what?” Nguvauva asked rhetorically as he spoke to New Era.
The deputy minister cried foul over the fact that the lands ministry took more than 20 years to register the farming unit in his name, adding that the situation prevents him from accessing credit facilities. Nguvauva said other farmers resettled close to his unit have already received their allotments, but he is yet to get his.
“They even went to the bank and got loans, but when I went to the bank for a loan I was turned away, because I do not have an allotment certificate and I ended up suffering,” he said.
Nguvauva, who is also chief of the Ovambanderu, is one of four people set to get farming units at Farm Zimnick No. 678 at Ombakaha in the Otjinene district. His unit measures 839 hectares, the biggest chunk of the 2 678 hectares to be allocated on the farm.
The lands ministry’s public relations officer Chrispin Matongela said there is a huge backlog that the ministry needs to attend to, hence the delay.
As for Bohitile, the ministry is in the process of registering in her name a 698 hectare unit on farm Ben-Hur No.484. Bohitile already owns a commercial farm in the same region. She bought Farm Tennessee in 1999, according to official records.
She is one of the most successful farmers in Namibia and has in the past won several awards for her farming activities. It was reported in The Namibian yesterday that permanent secretary in the Ministry of Land Reform Peter Amutenya recently confirmed that – at a cost of N$78 million – government has bought 23 farms since 1990 for resettlement purposes. The farms include 43 units earmarked for 41 families.