Eight million hectares needed for land reform

The Namibian government needs a little more than eight million hectares of land at an estimated cost of US $150 million to achieve its land resettlement target of nine million hectares. The target of nine million hectares was set at the beginning of the first Namibian Development Plan, soon after the country became independent in 1990, Chrispin Matongela, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, said on Thursday. Since independence, the government had only managed to acquire 829,486 hectares, including 130 farms, he added. To speed up the process the government has introduced an expropriation policy, which will run alongside its willing-seller, willing-buyer programme. The government will be able to target land for acquisition, but will have to pay a fair price which in the event of a dispute will be set by a land tribunal. Most of Namibia's commercial land is owned by white farmers. But Matongela said they would not be the first targets of the new reforms. "Vacant land or idle farms, owned mostly by foreigners living in Europe, will top the list of land targeted for expropriation," he noted. At a press briefing on Wednesday, lands minister Hifikepunye Pohamba did not indicate when the policy would come into effect, or whether any farms had already been targeted for expropriation. Whites Namibians constitute only five percent of the country's total population, but own over 75 percent of the productive land. An estimated 240,000 small-scale farmers are waiting to be resettled by the government. Commercial farmers have responded cautiously to the expropriation policy announcement.