Chinese on San resettlement farm

The ministry of land reform is investigating allegations that a San resettlement farm is being illegally sublet to Chinese nationals.

However, a former unionist has denied allegations that he is illegally subletting the piece of land to a Chinese company.

The ministry has been investigating the claims since last September and it is expected that a report will be discussed by the end of March.

The report is yet to be finalised.

“There is no illegal subletting here. Allegations are just allegations. One has to be very careful about allegations,” commented Alfred Angula, former secretary-general of the Namibian Farm Workers Union (Nafwu).

The Chinese company Aochen Farming (meaning 'good hope') has since April last year installed 20 greenhouses of 1 800 square metres each on Portion 14 of Ludwigshafen No. 480, about 13 kilometres north of Tsumeb, on which nine San families were resettled in 2009.

It is producing a variety of vegetables that are sold at supermarkets in Windhoek, Walvis Bay, Tsumeb, Otjiwarongo and Ondangwa.

The rub is that members of the resettled community claim that they were never informed of the project and that they do not benefit from it.

“We do not have a problem with the project or the Chinese, but how did they get here and what is going on? We are the resettled and we have the right to know what is going on here,” says one of the resettlement beneficiaries, Matheus Kauswoab.

Another member, Moses Gaeseb, says he feels positive about the project, “as long as things are going right”.

Sources preferring anonymity say the ministry has instructed the enterprise to cease all operations because infrastructure has been installed without permission.

Operations, however, continue undisturbed.

Angula acknowledges that he did not seek permission from the ministry before the greenhouses were installed. He says there is no formal agreement or partnership between him and Aochen Farming since the enterprise is in its pilot phase.

“I said for now let us concentrate on a pilot project and once we are happy with the development we can apply,” Angula says.



Resettlement

When the Ohlthaver & List Group sold the farm to the government in 2008 Angula, presumably in his capacity as Nafwu representative, reportedly intervened and insisted that the farm labourers be resettled there.

The nine families of Gaeseb, Kauswoab, Festus Harabib, Johannes Aap, Booitjie Koebeb, Markus Kamati Sosa, Andreas Kamati, Elifas Haraseb, and Jan Tsam were resettled there in 2009.

A 2009 supplement of the lands ministry indicates that the farm was awarded to the Ludwigshafen Worker Trust.

Angula says he formed this trust in his personal capacity, not as a Nafwu representative, with the trustees being the resettlement beneficiaries.

Angula has also installed himself as the chairperson of the trust.

He is still the chairperson of the trust and insists that the farm was in fact not allocated to the San community, but to the trust.

“The farm belongs to the trust,” he insists. “There are San people who used to work there who are beneficiaries of the trust.”



Enter Aochen Farming

Tao Wang says he is the sole owner of Aochen Farming because he was the sole investor in the project. So far he has invested more than N$6 million in the project.

He realises that it is government land on which the project is run, but seemed perplexed when asked if he knew that a San community was settled on the farm.

Wang said he had so far only dealt with Angula. He would, however, not say what Angula's cut in the deal is.

Nafwu's current general secretary, Roco Nguvauva, is under the impression that Nafwu has some stake in the Aochen project and feels that the union should be paid dividends.

Wang says no dividends have so far been paid to anyone because the project is not making a profit yet.

Wang also does not know if money has to be paid for the use of the land, only saying that Angula is taking care of that part of the business.

Wang, who says he was a former United Nations peacekeeper in Liberia, first visited Namibia in 2015 to explore business opportunities.

He says he has similar projects with the same name in South Africa and China.

In Namibia he was introduced to the Ludwigshafen farm by fellow Chinese nationals who are running a crusher business in the Tsumeb area.

How he met Angula is not clear but Angula says he travels the world in search of ways to modernise agriculture in Namibia.

Wang is currently cultivating 20 hectares of land and intends to expand the project to 100 hectares.

Ten members of the San resettlement community are working on the project, but complain that they are paid peanuts. Sixty other workers are from neighbouring farms and Tsumeb.

According to Angula the workers on average receive N$1 200 per month.

Wang, who says he wants to be part of Namibia's prosperity, says he and his team have brought production, electricity and water to a farm that had been lying fallow for nearly a decade.

“I have no doubt in my mind it was a good decision and we are on the right track,” said Angula of the project.

Angula added: “It hurts the most when you want to start something positive and people turn it into a tribal, negative thing. No one asks how much effort you have put into it. The end product is the most important thing.”

CATHERINE SASMAN