Kambazembi loses land tax urgency bid
The urgent application by Kambazembi Guest Farm to have the provisional valuation roll for landowners declared null and void has been found disingenuous and consequently, the application for urgent redress was refused.
Acting Judge Collins Parker found Kambazembi Guest Farm, trading as Waterberg Wilderness, disingenuous and said they attempted to delay conclusions of numerous cases before the court on similar issues and involving the same parties.
The applicants last month approached the High Court with an urgent application to declare the provisional valuation roll for landowners null and void.
The respondents in the matter are Ministers of Land Reform, Agriculture, and Finance, as well as the Land Advisory Commission, the Commissioner for Inland Revenue, the Attorney-General and the Valuation Court.
The application followed the 1 June notice by the land reform ministry that the provisional valuation roll would be available for public perusal from 1 June to 1 July at certain offices across the country.
The notice included sessions of the valuation court to be held between 10 August and 19 September at Grootfontein, Gobabis, Mariental, Keetmanshoop, Outjo, Otjiwarongo, Omaruru and Windhoek. During these sessions, landowners will be able to object to the roll but they could not object to the valuation of their land or the rate of land tax.
Kambazembi Guest Farm has not paid any tax on its land since 2007 as required by the Agricultural Commercial Land Reform Act.
They have instituted approximately five applications in the court and additional interlocutory applications in all manners of challenges to the land tax regime and the collection of land tax.
The numerous and interlocutory applications are to a very large extent the same or a similar cause of action and against almost the same respondents.
In one application the Kambazembi Guest Farm seeks an order to have certain provisions of the Agricultural Commercial Land Reform Act declared inconsistent with certain provisions of the Namibian Constitution.
They further seek to have regulations published in the Government Gazette No. 2678 of 29 December 2001 declared invalid on the basis that such regulations are published under the impugned provisions. And they further challenge the regulations on various other grounds. Under this application two interlocutory applications were brought.
Another application seeks to have land tax assessment for the 2013/14 financial year and which was payable on 28 February 2015 to be reviewed and set aside or alternatively to have the decision to assess such taxes declared null and void or be unconstitutional and invalid.
They further challenge the 2014/15 land tax assessment which was due for payment on 30 August 2015 on the basis that the assessment was not made and served by the Minister of Land Reform as required by the Act.
The applicant also seeks to have amendments of the provisions of the Land Valuation and Taxation Regulations made under the Act and published in terms of the Government Gazette No. 185 of 17 August 2015 be declared null and void.
In another application they want an order prohibiting Minister of Land Reform from imposing land tax pending the final determination of the pending litigations.
They further want an order prohibiting the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance and the Land Advisory Commission from participating in the imposition and collection of the land tax.
The applicants also want the declaration of the orders referred to all land owners who received assessment for the 2015/16 tax year declared null and void.
They wanted, in the present case, the court to hear the matter on an urgent basis.
The respondents told the court the applicant instituted all these applications for no other reason but to thwart government’s efforts at land reform.
According to them, land reform is aimed at redistribution of land fairly in order to redress past practices of racial discrimination and injustice in land distribution. This is aimed at concretising Article 23 of the Namibian Constitution.
They said it ought to be remembered that the present situation which the act aims curing to cure “has its origin in European colonisation which alienated nearly all the arable and grazing land on the southern plateau and most of the productive land in the country to minority whites”.
The respondents reminded the court that the efforts of the government at land reform are aimed at preventing land invasions by the landless majority that are commonplace in some jurisdictions in the region.
“All these various applications and interlocutory applications are efforts aimed at refusing to pay land tax according to the law. These are dishonest efforts and I epithelise them as disingenuous,” Nazeer Cassim South African Senior Counsel appearing for respondents argued.
FRED GOEIEMAN
Acting Judge Collins Parker found Kambazembi Guest Farm, trading as Waterberg Wilderness, disingenuous and said they attempted to delay conclusions of numerous cases before the court on similar issues and involving the same parties.
The applicants last month approached the High Court with an urgent application to declare the provisional valuation roll for landowners null and void.
The respondents in the matter are Ministers of Land Reform, Agriculture, and Finance, as well as the Land Advisory Commission, the Commissioner for Inland Revenue, the Attorney-General and the Valuation Court.
The application followed the 1 June notice by the land reform ministry that the provisional valuation roll would be available for public perusal from 1 June to 1 July at certain offices across the country.
The notice included sessions of the valuation court to be held between 10 August and 19 September at Grootfontein, Gobabis, Mariental, Keetmanshoop, Outjo, Otjiwarongo, Omaruru and Windhoek. During these sessions, landowners will be able to object to the roll but they could not object to the valuation of their land or the rate of land tax.
Kambazembi Guest Farm has not paid any tax on its land since 2007 as required by the Agricultural Commercial Land Reform Act.
They have instituted approximately five applications in the court and additional interlocutory applications in all manners of challenges to the land tax regime and the collection of land tax.
The numerous and interlocutory applications are to a very large extent the same or a similar cause of action and against almost the same respondents.
In one application the Kambazembi Guest Farm seeks an order to have certain provisions of the Agricultural Commercial Land Reform Act declared inconsistent with certain provisions of the Namibian Constitution.
They further seek to have regulations published in the Government Gazette No. 2678 of 29 December 2001 declared invalid on the basis that such regulations are published under the impugned provisions. And they further challenge the regulations on various other grounds. Under this application two interlocutory applications were brought.
Another application seeks to have land tax assessment for the 2013/14 financial year and which was payable on 28 February 2015 to be reviewed and set aside or alternatively to have the decision to assess such taxes declared null and void or be unconstitutional and invalid.
They further challenge the 2014/15 land tax assessment which was due for payment on 30 August 2015 on the basis that the assessment was not made and served by the Minister of Land Reform as required by the Act.
The applicant also seeks to have amendments of the provisions of the Land Valuation and Taxation Regulations made under the Act and published in terms of the Government Gazette No. 185 of 17 August 2015 be declared null and void.
In another application they want an order prohibiting Minister of Land Reform from imposing land tax pending the final determination of the pending litigations.
They further want an order prohibiting the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance and the Land Advisory Commission from participating in the imposition and collection of the land tax.
The applicants also want the declaration of the orders referred to all land owners who received assessment for the 2015/16 tax year declared null and void.
They wanted, in the present case, the court to hear the matter on an urgent basis.
The respondents told the court the applicant instituted all these applications for no other reason but to thwart government’s efforts at land reform.
According to them, land reform is aimed at redistribution of land fairly in order to redress past practices of racial discrimination and injustice in land distribution. This is aimed at concretising Article 23 of the Namibian Constitution.
They said it ought to be remembered that the present situation which the act aims curing to cure “has its origin in European colonisation which alienated nearly all the arable and grazing land on the southern plateau and most of the productive land in the country to minority whites”.
The respondents reminded the court that the efforts of the government at land reform are aimed at preventing land invasions by the landless majority that are commonplace in some jurisdictions in the region.
“All these various applications and interlocutory applications are efforts aimed at refusing to pay land tax according to the law. These are dishonest efforts and I epithelise them as disingenuous,” Nazeer Cassim South African Senior Counsel appearing for respondents argued.
FRED GOEIEMAN
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