Land Redistribution: Namibia, South Africa Hasten Expropriation Process

The Namibian and South African governments have taken the cue from the relative success of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform scheme that was rolled out in 2000 by former President Robert Mugabe. Opening a five-day land reform conference on October 1, 2018 in the capital, Windhoek, Namibian President Hage Geingob promised to push forward with land expropriation and redistribution to the majority black population, agency reports said.

“We share a burning land issue and a racialized distribution of land resources,” the President said. “We agree that the status quo will not be allowed to continue,” he stressed, pointing to similar proposals by South Africa. Namibia hopes to transfer nearly half of its arable agricultural land - about 15 million hectares - to disadvantaged blacks.

Government is considering introducing constitutional provisions “which allow for the expropriation of land with just compensation as opposed to fair compensation; as well as foreign ownership of land, especially absentee land owners.” Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba, two former presidents present at the conference advised government to only pay “for things like equipment on the farm and not the land.” Thousands of blacks were driven off their land during Germany's colonization of Namibia in the 19th and 20th centuries.

About 70 per cent of freehold agricultural land in Namibia is still owned by whites, while blacks and coloured possess only 16 per cent. Some 70 per cent of the population make their living from communal land, but fewer than 5,000 individua...