Namibian land reform slammed

2004-07-30 23:13

Windhoek - The leader of Namibia's largest opposition party on Friday criticised the government's plan to expropriate white farms, saying that it would destroy agriculture and harm black farm labourers.

Speaking at the opening of a party conference, Ben Ulenga of the Congress of Democrats also called on former colonial ruler Germany to help with land reform through more financial aid.

Ulenga told 400 delegates gathered almost three months before elections in Namibia that the Congress of Democrats did not support "forcible expropriation of private farm land right now".

"It results in more joblessness in the agricultural sector as economic uncertainty prevails," he said.

"This process alienates communities and destroys the agricultural economy. It focuses more on the political than the economic, and it does not benefit the black farm worker, neither now nor in the long run," he said.

Vowed to redress imbalance

The Namibian government sent out letters in May and June to about 15 white farmers asking them to make an offer to sell their properties to the government.

The letters marked the first time that the government in Namibia led by the South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo) party has moved to expropriate farms under its land-reform programme.

Namibia's 3 800 white farmers own most of the arable land, an imbalance that the government has vowed to redress. Debate over land reform has intensified in the run-up to the November 15-16 elections.

Ulenga said land reform should focus on developing land for agriculture and "making this prime land available to prospective farmers."

He said that Germany should contribute more to development than the €500m it has given since 1990.

"Germany's assistance should be 100 times more than what it is now and land could be bought with this money", Ulenga said.

A former Swapo member and officer in the former liberation movement's military wing, the Peoples' Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan), Ulenga resigned from the party in 1998 in protest over Namibia's involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The former union activist in 1999 formed the Congress of Democrats which won 10.5% of the vote in elections that year.

Ulenga, who served a jail sentence for fighting apartheid South Africa's rule over Namibia, was appointed deputy minister for tourism and environment in the first post-independence government.

He later served as Namibia's high commissioner to Britain.

- AFP