Namibian farm expropriations have not alleviated poverty

The expropriation of white-owned farms by Namibia as part of its land reform programme, while necessary in principle, had done little to alleviate poverty so far, a report has found.

Namibia's independent Legal Assistance Centre, in a study entitled "No Resettlement Available," accused the state of a lack of transparency and proper planning in expropriating white-owned commercial farms for transfer to poor black communities.

Authors Sidney L. Harring and Willem Odendaal found that the three farms expropriated in central Namibia since 2005 were "convenient targets for expropriation for opportunistic and political reasons that have nothing to do with the success of any land reform programme." The farms cost the government nearly 12 million Namibian dollars ($1.9 million). "It is impossible to imagine that the 12 resettled families will ever see benefits justifying this cost," the report said. The fact that one farm was expropriated following a labour dispute and two others were handed to local communities despite evidence of pollution from a neighbouring mine did little to inspire confidence in Namibia's land reform programme, it found.

In principle, however, expropriation was found to be an necessary tool to redress the imbalances of past white minority rule and maintain social stability. "Colonialism and apartheid have rendered this one of the most unequal societies in the world," the study said. "The poor and black farmers of Namibia are entitled to some return of their lands as a fact of fundamental social justice." The large white commercial farms in the heart of the country remained a highly visible symbol of white rule and white wealth, especially to poor black Namibians, Harring and Odendaal said.

So far, 209 of 6,000 odd commercial farms have been bought up by government - a pace of about 1 per cent of farms changing hands each year the two judged as too slow. The government needed to pick up the pace but first it needed to first boost public confidence that land reform was being successfully implemented and was clearly connected to a programme of poverty eradication. Successful implementation required more transparency in the selection of farms for resettlement and people to be resettled; a simplified process of land acquisition and a comprehensive land reform plan against which progress could be measured.

Harring and Odendaal also noted the government's failure to make any serious attempt at providing technical and financial support to new farmers. The only support new farmers are receiving is through ... two farm unions and supported by private institutions and the German development agency, GTZ.

The Namibian government has spent 22 million Namibian dollars (US$3.3 million) on land for redistribution since independence from South Africa in 1990. The state intends buying up 15 million of the 36 million hectares of commercial farmland in the next 13 years to resettle 27,000 families disadvantaged under apartheid rule. In the past four years 26 farmers have been furnished with letters indicating their farms are to be expropriated against compensation (forced sales). So far only three have actually been expropriated, while another three, all of them German citizens, are currently fighting the expropriations in the Windhoek High Court.

Earth Times