Posted on 08/02/2004 1:34:07 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Windhoek - NATIONAL Union of Namibian Workers' (NUNW) President Risto Kapenda says the government should expropriate as much land as possible in a short period of time, and without any compensation.
He suggested that calls for an orderly expropriation were tantamount to dancing to the tune of Europeans and would be an insult to the people land was taken away.
This contradicts government statements that land will be expropriated with just compensation. More than 15 farmers have so far been served with notices of intent to expropriate.
Kapenda said in an interview on Friday with a journalist from a German radio station, that the right criterion for expropriation would be to target farms that have bad relations with farm workers. "Anyone who maltreats workers, their land must be taken," he said.
He added that by compensating farmers for their expropriated land, the government would be trespassing its own laws through purchasing things that were originally stolen from its own people.
He also said farmers are humiliating their workers and treating them like trash, giving as examples recent events at Ongombo, Kalkpan and Outjo.
"People are called monkeys every day and yet they live on farms that belonged to our forefathers," he said.
Without land, added Kapenda, black people could never dream of controlling the economy.
The NUNW president also scoffed at suggestions that the agricultural industry would crumble and affect the economy of the country negatively, if the government expropriated farms.
He said it is a myth that white farmers are carrying the economy because when Europeans set foot on Namibian soil, Namibians were already farming.
"How many of them have degrees in agriculture?" he asked, adding that the farm workers are doing all the work on the farms.
A commercial farmer who preferred anonymity said people lived in a given system and they bought land from others that had it. Expropriating land without compensation, said the farmer, would be making them pay for the sins of someone else.
Meanwhile, commercial farmers are said to be hesitant to invest on their farms for fear that their farms may be expropriated next.
"They cannot repair their fences, they cannot put up structures because they don't know where they stand," said Peter Bassingwaighte, a farmer in the Uhlenhorst area.
He added that the process had brought about some uncertainty.
Asked whether the union would succeed in its call vis-a-vis government's policy, Kapenda was quick to say, "A nation has its patience and there comes a time when you decide you have had too much."
He promised that mass expropriation of farms would happen much sooner than later. "It won't take us 20 years like Zimbabwe. This is the voice of the masses speaking. It will happen," he added.
here we go again
I don't want them or their diversity. America is not some religion of salvation it is a nation of people with specific cultural traits which facilitate civilization.
For sure it's whites losing their land. There used to be around 55,000 whites, it's now down to 25,000, mostly from South Africa and German descent. They own farms in the semi-desert south-east, where they farm with sheep, and along the eastern border, and then across the north-central part, where they are mostly catlle and game farmers. More than 50% of the Namibian population of just over 1.5 million lives in the far northern parts, where the fertile Okavango delta is. Very little of that land is owned by whites. The land earmarked for redistribution is that in the central and eastern parts. Namibia already imports most food, and has a very small and sensitive economy that can be totally destroyed by something like this. I don't know why the politicians deem it necessary to go this way, there is no way they will lose any elections.
What makes you think they aren't leaving? Just that they aren't picking America. What would happen if EVERYONE left? People could have that about this country right after the Civil War in certain parts of the east.
Then the immigration process should be streamlined. Who in government would want to decide what cultural traits are valuable to civilization? I have a few but that would mean kicking out some Americans.
Thanks for the link.
Oh there are several bright spots. Including Niger and Nigeria.
Nigeria may not currently be in the grip of civil or tribal war but as one of the most corrupt nations in Africa what is so "bright" about it??
I believe that they are not nearly one of the most corrupt in Africa. One thing is that they are encouraging white farmers from neighboring Rwanda to emigrate to their land and start farms there.
Clearly our knowledge of Africa is at variance.
Nigeria is on the coast of West Africa. "Neighbouring" Ruwanda is nearly three thousand miles away - inland Central Africa. In any case I think the the farmers you mention might have been those invited from Zimbabwe. Given Nigeria's history since independence, once its decayed farming machine becomes well-oiled, productive and profitable, it will be interesting to see how long the whites will be encouraged to stay on.
As for not being corrupt I don't want to go into lengthy detail. Do mentions of "Biafra" and "cement" for instance, chave significance for you? :-)
FWIW: I have a coin from "Ostafrika" from 1912; I think that is Tanzania today. Haven't seen any from Cameroon or German West Africa yet, though I'm sure they made some.
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