Mootu calls for radical land redistribution

Landless People's Movement (LPM) member of parliament, Utaara Mootu, said anything less than radical land redistribution is simply a continuation of colonial conquest by other means.Contributing to the budget allocation for agriculture and land reform in parliament, Mootu said the budget is inadequate considering the scale of land inequality, food insecurity, and economic exclusion that the sector should address. The agriculture ministry received N$2.569 billion, barely 3.6% of the national budget. She said it amounts to less than 10% of the N$10.9 billion recommended annually under the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), a treaty Namibia has formally committed to. Misallocation of fundsMootu further said that the misallocation of funds only compounds the problem, pointing out that only six people were resettled in the past year. “The land bill is stuck in limbo with no explanation. There is no strategy for mass redistribution or post-settlement support.” She said that at the same time, millions of hectares are still controlled by absentee foreign landlords, while most Namibians remain landless. “That contradiction should be politically unacceptable. This ministry must decide whether it exists to serve the landless rural poor or to protect foreign capital.” Mootu further said that the refusal to confront the stranglehold of foreign landownership exposes a deep structural conservatism at the heart of the state. She said that these absentee landlords, protected by distance and law, have enriched themselves on stolen land for generations, while native communities have remained dispossessed and impoverished. BetrayalShe said a government that defends its holdings cannot claim to be post-colonial. "It is complicit in a form of neo-colonialism that sustains settler capitalism,” Mootu said, adding that land reform without expropriation is not reform. “It is betrayal," she said. Mootu said that the deeper issue lies in the lack of a coherent, well-funded plan to drive land reform. “Only N$250 million has been set aside for land acquisition, which reflects a penny-wise, pound-foolish mentality,” Mootu said.She added that this amount is nowhere near enough to purchase land on a meaningful scale. “The Ueitele Report estimates the value of land lost during German colonial occupation at N$235 billion, yet the budget response amounts to a symbolic gesture that can barely buy a handful of farms,” she charged. According to Mootu, even worse is that the government continues to emphasise 100-hectare plots for resettlement, which shows a fundamental misunderstanding of agricultural viability and economic justice. “In a semi-arid country plagued by droughts and poor soil quality, what is a 100-hectare plot supposed to achieve? "The current approach effectively traps black Namibians in low-productivity, subsistence farming, which is worlds apart from commercial viability and ancestral restoration,” she said.

Mootu calls for radical land redistribution

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-17

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Mootu calls for radical land redistribution

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-17

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