Staff Reporter
THE consultation process on the revised National Resettlement Criteria is nearing completion, with a transparent new set of land redistribution criteria expected soon.
This was highlighted by the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, Calle Schlettwein, during the National Validation Workshop, which aims to facilitate regional consultations on the National Resettlement Criteria.
“This workshop is not only another consultation, but it is a workshop which brings the consultation process on the criteria towards the end. It is a validation workshop, which shares inputs as received from the regions into the revised National Resettlement Criteria. The finalisation of this criteria is required; it is the indispensable piece of policy development within the overall reviewed National Resettlement Policy. The aspiration was clearly spelled out during our second National Land Conference in October of 2018. As a nation, we are developing a set of new criteria because we have collective key priorities for a target-driven land redistribution, which ensures that land is allocated transparently, along the policy guidelines we have agreed upon collectively,” the minister explained.
He acknowledged that land redistribution remains a sensitive, high-priority issue in Namibia, with the ministry’s land reform efforts aimed at correcting injustices stemming from the German and South African apartheid regimes.
“To achieve those aspirations, these criteria are developed in such a way that land is allocated to satisfy a “needs-based redistribution”. In other words, dispossessed communities who must be treated preferentially and hence a 70:30 ratio. It means that 70% of resettlement beneficiaries must originate from the region wherein the land to be resettled is located and 30% is available to disadvantaged Namibians from elsewhere,” he explained.
Schlettwein added that the criteria should also consider people living in corridors and unemployed youth.
“The Resettlement Policy before the review had some shortcomings, and they are now addressed. Unintentionally, farm workers who had worked on farms acquired for resettlement were left homeless, and they need to be accommodated. A programme for generational farmworkers is to do that. Further, some group settlements caused congestion and consequently rendered those farms unproductive,” he said.
The minister highlighted that productivity on the resettled land is the second priority, emphasising that the new criteria should ensure land remains or becomes productive. Once productivity is assured, he added, the final step of restoring ownership can be realised by facilitating freehold titles for resettled individuals.
“Once the criteria are finalised and adopted, the Ministry will move to implement the allocation as per the three proposed models, which are the High Economic Value Model (Large-Scale Farming), Moderate Economic Value Model (Medium-Scale Farming), and Low Economic Value Model (Social Welfare Economic Value Model). These models will serve as a guiding tool in allocating land to Namibian citizens in accordance with their various land needs and demand,” Schlettwein said.
He emphasised the importance of the workshop, urging stakeholders to take it seriously, as communities are awaiting the new criteria’s implementation.
“This workshop should be taken in a serious context. The communities are waiting for the implementation of the new policy and its criteria. The communities which we are representing here today legitimately are hoping for a speedy implementation. Therefore, may we request all of you to put heads together so that we validate and ratify the revised Resettlement Criteria as a matter of urgency,” Schlettwein added.
