LEGISLATION to determine the criteria under which commercial farmers will have to sell their farms to the Namibian government is currently being prepared for tabling in the National Assembly in September this year.
The Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Jerry Ekandjo, yesterday inadvertently let the cat out of the bag in response to a strongly motivated question on the apparent inevitable lot of all white commercial farmers by a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources and Public Administration.
Johan de Waal's undiluted plea was made during a ministerial briefing session with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources and Public Administration.
"Due to the absence of a properly designed and instituted land expropriation government policy, there exists a lot of uncertainty, anxiety and fear among white Namibian commercial farmers of randomly losing their farms. These people are all rightfully nervous because they do not know whose farm is to be expropriated and when," charged De Waal.
In his opinion most white commercial farmers in the country are despondent to the point where they don't care for farming any more.
"The haphazard way in which the policy has been applied until now by the government, picking here, there and everywhere in buying up farms, has had a profound negative effect on the commercial farmers and the economy of the country. Many of them are disillusioned because of the uncertainty. They do not even maintain their properties properly out of fear they would be next and it is killing the economy of the country," De Waal, who asked the minister whether a category system of expropriation can't be put in place, said with emotion.
The DTA committee member suggested categories of people with 10 farms, absentee landlords and commercial farmers with one farm.
"This will give these worried farmers some idea as to when their farms might be expropriated for compassionate reasons and a chance to continue practicing their livelihood, which in many cases have come to a complete standstill. Spell the policy explicitly out so that commercial farmers can have peace of mind and the country's economy start recovering," De Waal pleaded with the minister.
On his part, the chairperson of the committee, Hage Geingob, reminded De Waal of his appeal to white commercial farmers 15 years ago to reconcile with the idea of selling their farms.
"They did not accept it in anyway. They were not forthcoming ever since," Geingob told De Waal, the Minister of Lands and Resettlement as well as the committee members.
Henk Mudge of the Republican Party by way of a question wanted to know what the government does to assist resettled farmers in the acquisition of livestock.
"It serves no purpose to resettle people on farms and expect them to become good farmers without the necessary farming skills or animals with which they are supposed to continue farming," the RP leader maintained.
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Izak Katali later tried to neutralise his minister's inadvertent utterance on the to-be-tabled legislation as premature.
"The minister was not supposed to have made our plan known at this stage in view of the fact that when the Commercial Land Act came into being in 1995, through enterprising methods, commercial farmers were well ahead of us in trying to thwart the government's willing-buyer, willing-seller scheme," Katali told the committee.
In a second question, Johan de Waal asked whether communal farmers should not be legally empowered and allowed to use their 99-year government lease scheme as guarantee to obtain loans from Namibian banks.
"These communal farmers cannot get loans to buy farming equipment, nor are they able to buy commercial farms without a guarantee, which no one has. If they can get such a government guarantee, the size of the economy can be doubled," De Waal said.
The deputy minister on behalf of Minister Jerry Ekandjo, assured the committee that negotiations to use communal leasehold titles as guarantee to obtain loans, are at an advanced stage.
"Talks to use leasehold titles as collateral for bank loan purposes are underway with commercial financial institutions.
"The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement is approaching the issue step by step in a cautious manner because communal farmers are not yet ready to accept the concept," Katali said.
Source: AllAfrica.Com
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