Namibia wants to learn from Zim

2006-05-23 13:51

The speed with which Zimbabweans took back their land from white farmers is "commendable" and Namibia wants to do the same, Namibia's deputy land minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"We feel that the speed they took the land is commendable and we would like to see how they did it," said Isak Katali. Katali is on a five-day official visit to Zimbabwe, according to the state-owned Herald newspaper.

Zimbabwe, a former British colony, launched its controversial land-reform programme in 2000, and now most of the country's 4 000 or so formerly white-owned farms are in the hands of black farmers.

The programme has sparked Western criticism but won Zimbabwe the praise and admiration of other countries in southern Africa.

Namibia, once a German colony, has also decided to use an "expropriation policy" together with a willing-buyer-willing-seller programme, Katali was quoted as saying.

"Land reform is important to Namibia and we feel that the same colonisers are the same people who colonised Zimbabwe," Katali said.

"We also feel that if Zimbabwe did this we can do it in the same manner," he added.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe blames the sharp fall in agricultural production in his country over the last five years on successive droughts. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA