Take land but be fair to all

CABINET members have thrown their weight behind Deputy Minister Kilus Nguvauva in condemning a commercial farming family for throwing him off their property, as well as for their alleged remarks about the current and former presidents of the country. I have no problem when culprits are taken on.

Only do it in a fair manner and let’s think about the consequences of expropriation.
Over the past couple of years, I realised that politicians and officials keep looking for scapegoats for why our land reform programme is not working well.
And in most cases the blame is put squarely on the shoulders of the “unpatriotic”, “uncooperative” and “racist” white commercial farmers.
I am aware of racist white commercial farmers who abuse their workers. I am also aware of racist black farmers who are utterly inhumane towards their own people.
Charge the racist farmers and let’s move on while the law takes its course, instead of generalising every time there is a labour dispute or when someone eyes a certain farm!
Since Government started using the word “expropriation”, I have yet to witness a farm where ‘genuine’ resettlement has taken place or a farm which continued to be as productive as it was before it was expropriated.
The question I want us to ask is whether we should continue to expropriate farms based on the emotions of some politicians and union leaders or should we do it to resettle people? And if we expropriate to resettle people, isn’t it about time we do more than just dump them on the land and hope for the best?
At the moment, I have the impression that, for some of our leaders and unionists, the exercise is more retaliatory than genuine.
Let’s take, for instance, Ongombo West, a farm some 30 km northeast of Windhoek, where it all started with a dead goose, developed into a labour dispute, and ended with the expropriation of a farm in 2004.
The Wiese family grew cut flowers on the farm for 46 years. From there they exported around 150 000 flowers a year and were in the process of increasing the exports to 750 000 flowers annually, when a labour dispute resulted in the sacking, eviction, then reappointment of six workers and the eventual expropriation of the farm.
Today the Zantedeschia flowers (arum lilies) grown at Ongombo and exported to Germany and Holland are something of the past.
When I last visited the resettled former workers of the Wiese family at the same farm, it was with Alfred Angula, the firebrand general secretary of the Namibia Farmworkers’ Union.
He is the one who called for the expropriation of the farm and he is the one who returned two years later and told the resettled group to start looking for jobs or to initiate projects to help themselves instead of waiting for Government handouts.
In 2008 the Ministry of Lands announced plans to rehabilitate the irrigation infrastructure at Ongombo but things have never really normalised at the once flourishing farm which was the first to be expropriated.
I am not saying that farmers who bring in millions for the country’s economy should be granted a blanket right to abuse their workers. No.
But I remember very well the words of the then Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Hifikepunye Pohamba, in 2004 when he said expropriation would be “done peacefully and lawfully”.
It is of no use to punish everyone for the sins of a few.
Last weekend I spent time with two of Namibia’s prominent boer goat farmers, Oom Dirk Louw and Willie Coetzee down in the valleys near Helmeringhausen.
Both are not just good farmers but wonderful Afrikaans-speaking Namibians whose treatment of their workers would put many black communal, emerging and commercial farmers to shame on any given day.
Just as I can’t say that all Afrikaners are like them, I also can’t conclude that all their tribesmen are bad.
And because land reform is a burning priority in Namibia with over 200 000 people awaiting resettlement, it has become a volatile issue which needs to be treated with caution.
We don’t need small disputes to snowball and become political because, if not handled well, such minor problems can lead to more land lying fallow while the ranks of the unemployed continue to swell and hunger continues.
Let’s give land to the landless, but do it in a manner that is fair to all.
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