Farmer makes final sell-off
2005-11-15 16:43
Namibia - The owner of the first commercial farm expropriated in Namibia on Tuesday auctioned off farm equipment after moving from the property, more than a year after being ordered to sell her land.
"I feel rather sad today, standing here in our empty farmhouse," said Hilde Wiese, 70, the first of 15 white farm owners who were told in May last year to sell their land to the government.
"We don't know who will live here from now on," she said with tears in her eyes and her voice shaking.
The government in August expropriated the farm at Ongombo West, located some 45 kilometres northeast of Windhoek, paying Wiese $583 000 for the 4 000-hectare farm.
Namibia last year said it wanted to step up land reform to redress colonial-era imbalances that resulted in some 3 800 white farmers owning most of the arable land in the desert country.
But President Hifikepunye Pohamba has said Namibia will not go down the same path as Zimbabwe. In that country, the seizures of some 4 00 white farms have led opponents of President Robert Mugabe to accuse his government of destroying a once prosperous agricultural system.
Namibia's government had given Weise until the end of November to vacate the premises.
A lands ministry supervisor, Oscar Muundjua, moved to the farm last month after the government officially took ownership of the property.
"I must see to it that nothing gets stolen or looted once the auction is over today and the Wiese family has left," Muundjua said.
But the official said he did not know who would be resettled on the farm that had been owned by the Wiese family since 1904, purchased from the German colonial government.
"My ministry has not yet informed me," he said.