WINDHOEK – The Swapo Party Elders’ Council (SPEC) wants government to revoke the “willing buyer, willing seller” policy, which it says has spectacularly failed to deliver desired results for the nation.
The Swapo elders say this policy was forced onto the Swapo government by the West, presumably as part of the deal that ushered Namibia into independence.
SPEC’s call is part of its position paper on land, titled “The Standpoints of the Swapo Party Elders’ Council on Land Reform and Agrarian Reform Issues in Namibia”, crafted ahead of the second national land conference slated for October.
“Due to the political situation of that time, the Soviet Union and other socialist countries collapsed.
Those were ready to support Swapo Party to establish socialism system in Namibia. Cuba alone was small,” they said.
“Then there were western countries, the gang of five - USA, UK, Canada, Germany and France - who were threatening the genuine independence of Namibia with Turnhalle and other puppets governments,” read the document by the SPEC.
Due to the pressure, the document says, Swapo and its government were left with no other alternative but to introduce the “willing buyer, willing seller” policy to avoid the exodus of white farmers in preventing what had happened in Zimbabwe.
Therefore, SPEC called on the land conference to come up with a radical land reform resolution to change the current situation for the benefit of future generations, so that they do not endure the same suffering.
Furthermore, the elder’s council called on government to limit individuals and companies not to own more than 12, 000 hectares of land in the country.
They also called for the removal of the northern veterinary cordon face, dubbed the red line, saying the fence was created to disadvantage blacks from nature reserves to compete with white farmers.
The position paper similarly called for the expropriation of land from “absentees landlords” at a value determined by the government to turn into state agricultural schemes or to resettle landless Namibians.
Furthermore, they want resettled farmers to be assisted with technical advice, skills training and to be provided with agricultural tools and better seeds for agriculture, animal husbandry and horticulture.
The elders also called for resettled farmers to be assisted with loans, with a starting capital at a two percent charge rate.
SPEC also called on municipalities to service land and allocate it to residents for free.
It says in most cases shack dwellers are poor and cannot afford to buy land, and must thus be given land for free so that they can build their own houses.