Why don't we care about land reform?
Land ownership in Namibia remains a highly emotive subject more than 28 years after our independence. The issue of land resettlement and government's inconsistent policy of dishing out land, especially to the well-connected, has divided opinion, while it has frustrated eligible farmers who also want a stake in land. This week the Office of the Ombudsman confirmed that it will investigate allegations of unfair allocation of farming units as part of the land resettlement programme. Calls to investigate the beneficiary list of all those who have benefited from land resettlement were highlighted by former deputy land reform minister Bernadus Swartbooi following a fallout with his seniors in both government and Swapo. Swartbooi subsequently left his honourable job as deputy minister, while he also quit the ruling party to form the Landless People's Movement, which is advocating for the return of ancestral land to its rightful owners. A decision to allocate a farm measuring over 2 000 hectares to the widow of former liberation struggle stalwart Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo opened a whole new can of worms. Vicki Ya Toivo was resettled on unit A of Farm Joyce, measuring 2 376 hectares in the Omaheke Region. The Ya Toivos had already been resettled on a piece of land near Omaruru in 2015 and which Vicki claimed it was not conducive given the condition it was given to them as well as the travelling distance. This has irked many Namibians who have questioned the policy of fairness in the allocation of the limited land resources to this already privileged family. Vicki was not the only one had submitted an application for the piece of land in question, numerous farmers, especially those residing in Omaheke were also eyeing the farming unit, yet they were overlooked for reasons only known to the land reform ministry. Government has already set a bad precedent when it comes to land allocation and we have seen instances where Namibians by birth are denied these limited opportunities to benefit from what their ancestors fought for. There is clearly no redistribution of land on equitable basis and the authorities seem to condone this. It is sad.
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Namibian Sun
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