White-owned farm 'expropriated'

2005-08-01 21:09

Windhoek - A white farmer said on Monday that she had reluctantly agreed to sell her land to the government, becoming the first to bow to the terms for expropriation under Namibia's land reform programme.

Hilde Wiese was among 15 white farm owners who were ordered in May last year by the government in the southwest African state to "make an offer" for the sale of their land.

Wiese said: "What can I do? This has been dragging on for more than a year. I want the matter to be concluded."

Wiese said she estimated her 4 000ha Ongombo West farm located about 40km east of the capital to be worth nine million Namibian dollars ($1.4m).

She said she had finally agreed to the government offer of 3.7 million Namibian dollars.

Govt vows to redress

A date had yet to be set for the Wiese family to leave the farm where they had been raising beef cattle and growing arum lilies for export to Europe.

Namibia's 3 800 white farmers own most of the arable land, an imbalance that the government had vowed to redress.

The Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), representing 3 000 mostly white commercial farmers, two weeks ago criticised the government's handling of the negotiations to buy Ongombo West.

President of the NAU, Raimar von Hase, said: "The ministry sees this transaction as a 'willing buyer - willing seller' transaction.

"This view is not necessarily shared by the owner of the farm."

The NAU said: "The process of land reform and especially expropriation must be transparent with clear criteria for the determination of farms which should be offered to the state."

Six black farm workers evicted

The Weise family, who had owned Ongombo West for four generations, were drawn into the eye of a political storm over land ownership in the southern African country after a dispute last year with six black farm workers who were evicted.

Former president Sam Nujoma singled out the Wiese farm in a speech, saying that "some of the whites are behaving as if they came from Holland or Germany" for evicting their workers.

Nujoma's successor and former lands minister Hifikepunye Pohamba had vowed to press on with the expropriations, warning that Namibia could face a "revolution" if the land imbalance was not addressed.

Pohamba said: "Land expropriation doesn't mean confiscation, but means selling land to the government at fair prices as provided for in the constitution and the relevant laws."

- AFP