User:Muhauj

Background and arguments for ownership by previously advantaged. (Whites)

The land issue in Namibia is likely to cause more arguments and debate than anything else. This is mainly because the larger parts of commercial and productive land are in the hands of the minority. It estimated that less than 15% of the Namibian population owns nearly half of the land while only about 41% is owned by the majority. These figures are more likely to cause problems when you take into account the fact that the majority of those who owns most land are mainly whites.

The land issue dates back to the German and South African Colonial rule, during this period most of the Namibia land was taken away from its indigenous people. The other significant aspect to this history is the fact that most Namibians were or still lives in the infamous red line area which has for a long time kept them out of commercial farming activities. This was one of the apartheid policies that denied the majority of the population from the benefits of the main stream economy. It is of great importance to note that we need as country to share in the wealth of our natural resources to avoid explosive situations that will not be easy to handle.

There are arguments that the previous regime had helped the white Namibians take land from the black community without compensation. And there is also some anger brewing in the black community that even though we have whites that has a history that stretches as far back as 200 years, it does not in itself qualify them to be indigenous Namibians. Furthermore you still find a situation whereby someone owns land in Namibia, yet this person is not a Namibian and this person does not invest his/her income in Namibia. The same foreigners who for some reason are in most cases whites own more than one farm in some cases. And most of these farms are used either used for hunting game or just some sought of recreation during a certain period or season. This farm covers areas as big as 7000 to 15000 hectors owned by one person, while you have indigenous Namibians sharing a 1000 hector size of land shared by 10 families. The scarcity of land to the indigenous Namibians has gotten so bad that it now has started to affect the prices of land in towns and cities, this has also resulted in foreign ownership in buying land especially in Windhoek where every open space has been developed into apartments rented by Namibians.http://www.lac.org.na/projects/lead/Pdf/landwefarm.pdf

Background and arguments for ownership by previously disadvantaged.(Blacks)

In order to change the current situation of unequal distribution of wealth and land in Namibia some policies were introduced by government. One such policy is the Land Reform Policy. Land reform in Namibia comprises three main components: (i) redistributive land reform; (ii) tenure reform; and (iii) the development of unused land in non-freehold or communal areas. It remains a moot point whether the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) should be regarded as being part of wider land reform or not. The AALS encourages previously disadvantaged Namibians to buy commercial agricultural land through the provision of subsidized loans administered by Agribank. In a sense, therefore, the Scheme widens access for previously disadvantaged Namibians, albeit not the poorest of the poor, to freehold land held primarily by white owners. There has been other arguments in this instance regards to lack of experience by black people and their commitment or understanding for commercial farming as opposed to their customary ways of farming. The policies implement by government are deliberate means to try addressing this inequity and try to expose all black farmers to modern ways of farming. Affirmative Action Loan for example is to empower blacks to afford to buy the needed machinery and also serve as start up capital. All efforts by government have this far achieved less than expected and blacks feel strongly that more still needs to be done. This is because even access to housing still is a concern hence some institutions like Development Bank of Namibia are soon to start giving guarantees to those who needs money to buy land in towns for business purposes. This is mainly due to the fact that, all those previously disadvantaged lacks security or collateral to secure some of these facilities. It has become imperative that empowerment takes a deliberate route to allow all have access to resources in an equal manner as the previous regime did to the whites.http://www.agribank.com.na/ http://www.dbn.com.na/

References

http://www.lac.org.na/projects/lead/Pdf/landwefarm.pdf http://www.dbn.com.na/ http://www.agribank.com.na/