By: Ludorf Iyambo
Affirmative Repositioning (AR) deputy leader Dimbulukeni Nauyoma says that the only guaranteed land Namibia youth will own is their graves.
Nauyoma said this on Tuesday at the presentation of AR’s regulation of foreign ownership of land in the Namibia bill, which the movement submitted to the parliamentarian standing committee on natural resources.
“We come from the streets. We come from the clubs, and we come from the churches. We represent those that cannot be here, and therefore we bring their views to the committee’s attention,” he said.
Nauyoma said the movement believes that the National Assembly has been complicit in the pressing legal and social-economic regime.
“This continues to suppress the people’s hopes and subjected them to the state of being landless, homeless, subjected to arbitrary eviction, the harshness of the rental market, and inhumane living conditions on the farms and informal settlements,” said Nauyoma.
Nauyoma added that the members of parliaments should be decisive to ensure that the land goes back to where it belongs.
“Even the land we have in the northern part of the country doesn’t belong to us. We are simply renting from the government. We don’t want to live in shacks any longer. We want to improve and make sure that at least coming from where we came from in the past and the present, we can say we got a future for our children.”
AR leader Job Amupanda said that Namibia’s landmass is 800 thousand square kilometres, but only 39 million hectares can be referred to as freehold agricultural land.
He further narrates that from 39 million hectares, 70 per cent of it is owned by white people; meanwhile, black people own 16 per cent of this agricultural land.
Amupanda added that the government only owns 5 million hectares of this land, equivalent to 14 per cent.
“From this figure, there are 12 380 privately owned farms. However, 700 thousand of the farms are owned by the individuals, companies own 2800 farms, the government owns 1200 farms, trusts own 150 farms, and the churches own 61 farms,” said Amupanda.
According to the AR leader, 250 farms measuring 1.2 million hectares of land are owned by foreigners.
Amupanda adds that the draft bill stated that foreign nationals might only utilise land in Namibia.
“Subject to section 6 of the draft bill act, foreign nationals must partner with a Namibian citizen, in which association the Namibia citizen must not have 51 per cent ownership.”
He said the effective control and management of the partnership might be in the form of any recognised juristic personality in the hands of the Namibia citizen.
The AR activists passed on a draft bill to the National Assembly, committee chairperson Agnes Kafula, asking for the prohibition of land ownership by foreign nationals in Namibia.
According to the bill, foreign nationals may only lease the land as envisaged in section 5 for commercial purposes and are prohibited from leasing any agricultural land or communal land.
“No lease period exceeding 10 years shall be valid. However, the lease agreement may be renewed upon application by the partnership.”
On the current ownership of land by foreigners, such as urban land, the bill stated that if the land is lawfully owned by a foreign national before the commencement of the act, such land shall remain owned by the foreigner, but it cannot be transferred or bequeathed to another foreign national after the act.
According to the bill, ownership or transfer thereafter should only be affected to a Namibia national.
Agricultural land owned by foreigners shall be expropriated by the state within three years from the date of the commencement of the act, in accordance with the existing laws.
On communal land, the bill states that no foreign national can utilise communal land for any purpose. Any allocations of communal land to foreigners before the act shall be deemed an illegal transition and repudiated.
Kafula said that the parliamentary standing committee on constitutional and legal affairs is mandated to receive all petitions and if the committee saw it necessary, depending on the nature of the matter recommended, the committee will referee it to the relevant committee.
President of RDP, Mike Kavekotora, said all the issues around the land could not possibly be addressed in one legislative piece. He further said it would take time at some point.
“I believe that we need more time to discuss it, not to delay it like it was done for the past three years, but to discuss it well,” said Kavekotora.
