Let’s Tackle The Land Issue Once And For All!

SOMETHING is brewing in Namibia, especially among people who call themselves the /Khomanin in the Khomas Region, and it should be of serious concern to our leaders.

This is the same community who, more than 15 years ago, camped at ≠Arexas (also known as Aukhaikas) outside Daan Viljoen to claim their ancestral land rights.
This week their traditional leader Josephat Gawa!Nab told the /Khomanin people through the Damara/Nama radio service of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation that he is taking back what belongs to them “whether there is a death or not”.
The community gave him a petition and demanded he responds within 30 days but one of them said “not even he will stop us” and that they were heading back to their ancestral land regardless.
“We waited for 20 years and now we feel like orphans wandering around. We had enough of that,” another shouted.
The off-hand remarks carry a very radical critique on the land issue in Namibia. It means that nearly two decades after the country’s Independence, many people remain in the same landless situation. But more about that later.
First, it was clear that the whole petition handover ceremony was set up. Why else would the community stage a public demonstration and hand over a petition to someone who is not only known to support them but is part of their campaign!
The /Khomanin group is a very subtle movement. While they might look like a small group to the authorities, they are quietly being joined by people from as far afield as Omaheke, Kunene and the South.
That is an indication of the growing unhappiness, not only among them, but many landless people.
I do not support claims for ancestral land. It would lead to chaos because, among other reasons, it would be very difficult for some to prove that their ancestors owned the land. If they fail to provide documentary evidence, it could lead to more frustrations and unnecessary fights.
The answer is in fast-tracking the land reform programme.
Many have described the land question as a painful and sensitive topic yet the wheels of justice have been very slow for the last 20 years.
A few years back a Legal Assistance Centre report said that at the current pace of resettlement, it will take around 100 years to get everyone on the Government’s list a place they can call home.
This despite there fact that since 1995, Government had been setting aside about N$20 million per annum in the National Budget to purchase land, and this amount has since been increased to N$50 million a year.
One of the main reasons for the failure of the land reform programme has been the willing-seller-willing-buyer approach which is cumbersome. But then land expropriation was introduced and even that has loopholes which those who want to hold onto large tracks of land are exploiting.
The result is that more than 200 000 Namibians who want land remain on the Government’s waiting list.
While there are differing figures on the land that has already changed hands – Government claiming to have placed more than 300 farms in black hands and the commercial farmers stating that their records show more than 1 000 – the issue needs a genuine and honest reflection from all sides.
If someone has four large farms of which they use one for holiday hunting, one for weekend farming, one for a lodge and another to entertain overseas friends, surely that is excessive when you compare it to what people like /Khomanin, meaning people from Khomas, have.
The /Khomanin demands should thus be seen as a springboard and treated as such. Beneath it is a threat that could boil over into an ethnic unhappiness.
Already many are unhappy about the way the people – many of them grandparents – were being pushed around and jailed for taking up this issue.
So let’s tackle the land issue once and for all!

* This column first appeared in The Namibian