Namibia land grab imminent
2004-02-25 22:28
Windhoek - The Namibian government announced on Wednesday that it will expropriate a select number of white-owned farms to accelerate its efforts at redistributing property to landless blacks.
"The land possession pattern in our country has been designed by colonialism to benefit a small group of minority settlers, at the expense of the majority," Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab said in an address to the nation aired on state television. "Our young nation still struggles to bring about balance and undo the effects of the unjust land redistribution."
Most of the wealth in this southern African country remains in the hands of whites who make up less than 5% of the population of 1.8 million.
Since 1995, the government has been spending up to N$20m (US$3.05m) a year on its "willing seller, willing buyer" programme that gives government first option on any arable land that becomes available.
But the programme has been widely criticised for being too slow.
Late last year, unions representing landless labourers began threatening to invade commercial farms if their grievances were not addressed.
The treats raised fears of the kind of violent land seizures that have plunged neighbouring Zimbabwe into political and economic turmoil.
Gurirab acknowledged the current land redistribution process was "cumbersome" and unable to meet demand. More than 240 000 people are still awaiting resettlement, he said.
Gurirab did not specify how many farms would now be expropriated, or when the process would begin. But he said land owners would be fairly compensated.
He urged Namibians to "exercise patience and not to engage in unlawful actions during the implementation of the reform process".
Land is a charged issue in Namibia. The country was first ruled by Germany, then South Africa, which imposed the same apartheid policies it applied at home. Blacks couldn't own land until the mid-1980s, and most of those working it today still can't afford to buy it.
The decision to start expropriating land comes after South Africa took similar steps to speed up its redistribution program a decade after apartheid ended.
- AP