Posted on 03/03/2004 5:38:51 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
The Namibia Agricultural Union, says the announcement that farm expropriations will take place in the country has sent shockwaves through its agricultural community.
"It is shocking. It causes sorrow and disturbances in the farming community," said the union's president, Jan de Wet.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab said on state television that a number of white-owned farms would be expropriated to accelerate land reform.
This was because the existing policy of "willing seller, willing buyer" was not delivering results.
"The process has become too slow because of arbitrarily inflated land prices and unavailability of productive land," observed Gurirab.
Like many other countries in the region, Namibia is saddled with racial imbalances in land ownership that date back to the colonial era.
Fourteen years after independence, more than 240 000 people are still in need of land. The Namibian parliament in 2003 passed a land reform act allowing the government to acquire properties in the public interest, with the payment of just compensation.
Although the prime minister did not say which land would be expropriated, it is believed that farms belonging to absentee landlords are likely targets.
De Wet called on the government to make clear the criteria that would be used to select properties, as the current situation was creating uncertainty that could lead to unrest.
"The situation also affects the surety of the farms, because financial institutions now regard them as risky investments, and farmers might in future struggle to get loans. The question is: Are we going the Zimbabwe way?"
At the start of 2000, Zimbabwe embarked on a violent land reform programme that has seen about 4 000 white-owned farms confiscated. A number of black peasant farmers have been resettled on the properties.
However, several choice farms are also reported to have been taken over by government officials.
Discontent over land ownership in Namibia has been stirred up in recent months by the dismissal of some farmworkers who have stayed on the properties for decades.
The layoffs have led to clashes between farm owners and unions, and angered the government.
"Committed to seeing the 'willing buyer, willing seller' approach work, the government has witnessed with dismay and outrage how farm workers are left destitute and dumped with their families and belongings on the roadsides by their employers," said Gurirab.
The secretary-general of the Namibia Farm Workers Union, Alfred Angula, welcomed the government's announcement - and highlighted the need for further reforms.
"Farmers need to realise that they do not pay pensions or any other compensation to their workers, who sometimes work on such farms for decades, and when they become old they want to evict them and make it the government's problem," he said.
In 2003, Angula's union called for farm occupations in those areas where the evictions were taking place.
Gurirab has cautioned both landowners and the landless to co-operate with the government and refrain from engaging in unlawful action during the implementation of the redistribution process. He said the "willing seller, willing buyer" policy would continue alongside expropriations.
Various opposition parties have described Gurirab's announcement as a ploy to gain favour for the government ahead of presidential elections scheduled for December, when President Sam Nujoma is expected to step down. - Sapa-IPS
It's a bit late to fear it.
this is only "half of the truth".
the "other half of the truth" is people are starving...
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