Foreign citizens owning land in Namibia are entering into partnerships with mainly black Namibians in order to fend off government efforts to expropriate such farms, according to the lands minister.
The government has prioritised farms owned by foreign absentee landlords for the resettlement of landless Namibians.
However, the State’s hands are tied when such land owners form partnerships with Namibians, says Minister of Lands and Resettlement Alpheus !Naruseb.
“What is happening now is that people who own land but who are not staying here form partnerships with Namibians. And Namibians for reasons of economic empowerment are using these partnerships optimally.”
!Naruseb said this makes it difficult for his ministry to target absentee landlords. Although there is nothing unlawful about such partnerships, !Naruseb said under the latest legal framework the ministry will be informed before such partnerships are signed. The new law has passed through parliament and will come into effect once it is signed by President Hifikepunye Pohamba.
“In the case that we need to go on any awareness campaign regarding land expropriation our first target will be absentee landlords,” the minister said. The ministry has set a land acquisition target of 15 million hectares by the year 2020, of which 5 million hectares will taken up by the National Resettlement Programme while the rest will be acquired through affirmative action loans.
Asked whether the N$64 million set aside for purchasing agricultural land in the 2014/15 financial was enough to reach those targets, !Naruseb said he cannot comment about the matter in the media. “All I will say is that in order for us to reach our 2020 target we will need between N$370 million and N$420 million per annum in order to purchase 280 000 hectares per annum,” he said.
By April last year a total of 2.3 million hectares of commercial farmland had been acquired by the ministry.
In 2006 three German absentee landlords took the then Minister of Lands, Jerry Ekandjo, to court after their farms were expropriated.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba, during his tenure as Minister of Lands in 2004, warned that the government would target absentee landlords in the implementation of land reform.
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