Land laws under intense review

Source: Namibia Today

Namibia’s land reform laws – the Agricultural Commercial Land Reform Act and the Communal Land Reform Act – are currently under magnifying glasses and may soon be amended and merged into one consolidated Land Act.

A two-day stakeholders’ workshop was recently held in Otjiwarongo, Otjozondjupa Region, where the Draft Land Bill was intensely discussed and debated by some governors, regional councilors, traditional chiefs, local authorities councilors and officials from the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement.

This process, initiated by the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, seeks to create one Land Act for Namibia, where all land shall have the same status, meaning that no land will have superior status over another, as it is the case now.

“This means that, land held under customary rights will be registered and issued with secure title that is provided within the framework of our traditional practice. This process will facilitate easy administration of land,” said the Deputy Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Henock Ya Kasita, when he opened the workshop.

“Secondary, the Land Acquisition and Development Fund will be accessible and benefit all agricultural land. Currently, it only benefits the commercial farm land.

“The consolidated Land Bill will also provide and extend the powers of the current Lands Tribunal to hear disputes for all agricultural land. The Tribunal is currently limited to commercial farm land only.”

Currently, land in Namibia does not have the same status. This has placed communal land at the receiving end because the development communal areas was hampered by the status that was placed on it.

But for communal land to have the same status as any other land in the country, important instruments of the law had to be harmonized. Last week’s workshop was part of that process. The Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act and the Communal Land Reform Act were enacted in 1995 and 2002 respectively.

The Deputy Minister said that once these two acts were consolidated into one Land Act, it would provide an opportunity for process improvement in the administration of all land in Namibia with the exception of urban land and national parks.

Land, as a factor of production, plays a central role in poverty alleviation and its administration demands partnership and commitment from all stakeholders. Namibia will hold a national stakeholders’ conference early next month, said the Deputy Minister.

“The Ministry is aware of the Namibian people’s concerns with regard to the pace at which land is acquired,” said Ya Kasita. “I should assure you that the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement is doing its level best to speed up the process of acquiring land,” he said.