By Surihe Gaomas

WINDHOEK

The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement wants to amend the Communal Land Reform Act so that five regions, namely: Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena, Oshana and Omusati which are not presently covered by existing legislation, are brought on board.

The reason why the above-mentioned regions are not included in the Act that was formulated specifically to address land hunger, is because they are in communal areas.

On the other hand, the other eight regions, namely: Karas, Hardap, Khomas, Omaheke, Otjozondjupa, Erongo, Kunene and Oshikoto, are covered in the Act.

It turns out that under the Agricultural Land Reform Act (Number 6 of 1995) government continues to buy white commercial farms on a 'willing buyer-willing seller' basis for distribution to thousands of blacks made landless by the past colonial authorities.

As the resettlement programme progresses, it becomes obvious that only interested applicants residing in commercial areas benefit by purchasing a farm, while those in the five northern and north-eastern regions that are now to be included, are being left out.

It is against this background that the Minister of Lands, Jerry Ekandjo, undertook a trip to these regions in August this year, after which it was decided that Regional Resettlement Committees be established and administered by the respective Governors of those regions.

This would ultimately aid in allowing the Ministry to also consider applications from these regions for advertised farms in other parts of the country.

The minister revealed this yesterday when he addressed traditional leaders at the 9th Annual General Meeting of the Council of Traditional Leaders, which ends in the capital today.

"A farmer in Kavango can also buy a farm in the Erongo Region. It must be done that all 13 regions can benefit. What is happening now is that Regional Resettlement Committees are only considering applicants from their own regions. But, according to the Act, the application for buying resettlement farms is free for all, even traditional leaders," he said.

Since the inception of the resettlement programme, the Ministry has resettled 1ÃÆ'Æ'ÀÃ...ÃÆ''šÃ‚ 561 families consisting of approximately 9ÃÆ'Æ'ÀÃ...ÃÆ''šÃ‚ 366 beneficiaries on commercial farms covering 1ÃÆ'Æ'ÀÃ...ÃÆ''šÃ‚ 255ÃÆ'Æ'ÀÃ...ÃÆ''šÃ‚ 486 hectares.

However, he noted the 'willing-buyer willing-seller' process is not only too slow, but also too expensive in terms of the price and product. For instance, the average asking price for a farm in relation to its value is N$450,00 per hectare.

Ekandjo noted that this makes matters worse in a country where there is a high demand for land for farming, especially when looking at the backlog of applications and present applications.

"The land hunger in the country will continue to exacerbate, especially given the limited number of suitable farm offers that are regularly becoming available through the 'willing buyer-willing seller' concept," he said.

Presently, government has allocated a budget of N$50-million annually for land reform.

For now, the Ministry will look at the thousands of backlog applications and at the same time shorten the processing of these applications to at least one to two months.

It seems hopeful that farmers in the Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena, Oshana and Omusati regions can look forward to acquiring government resettlement farms.

In 1999, the Ministry commissioned the International Development Consultancy (IDC) to carry out feasibility studies in the Caprivi, Ohangwena and Kavango regions. The purpose of the studies was to identify under-utilized communal lands and their potential efforts of development for the country.

Since the enactment of the Communal Land Reform Act in 2002, a total of 1ÃÆ'Æ'ÀÃ...ÃÆ''šÃ‚ 061 new applications for customary land rights, 3ÃÆ'Æ'ÀÃ...ÃÆ''šÃ‚ 095 applications for new leasehold rights and 17 conversions of Permission to Occupy (PTO's) were approved and certificates of registration issued to the applicants.