Ester Mbathera
Human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe and former Member of Parliament and lawyer Patience Masua have called for urgent reform of Namibia’s land reform framework, criticising the current willing buyer, willing seller approach as ineffective and unjust.
The two made the remarks during a high-level panel discussion hosted by Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Action Coalition-Namibia in Windhoek on Monday.
The discussion formed part of the OSF Africa Tour under the Namibia chapter, titled “The Land of the Brave”.
Tjombe dismissed the willing buyer, willing seller model as a policy with no basis in the Namibian Constitution.
“I’ve gone through that copy of the Constitution on numerous occasions. I’ve not seen anything remotely referring to willing buyer, willing seller,” he said.
He described the policy as one based on contract law principles drawn from Roman-Dutch and English common law.
“Lazy politicians looked at common law and said, ‘Well, it looks okay,” he added.
Tjombe stressed that the constitution provides for expropriation in the public interest with just compensation.
“We need to debate what is just compensation. Justice. That’s what it says – to be just about it.”
He cited the case of the Erindi Farm, which was offered to the government at N$1.1 billion in terms of the statute Agricultural Land Reform Act, which embodies the willing buyer, willing seller.
According to the act, any agricultural land that is up for sale should be offered to the government first.
Because of its price tag, the land was sold to a Mexican billionaire.
“This is completely reversing the very foundation of the understanding of what our land reform is all about,” he said.
Tjombe argued this resulted in the loss of more than 71 000 hectares that could have benefitted resettlement because the valuation was based on the properties, animals and equipment around the farm.
“That’s not land reform. We’re not paying a lot, not buying elephants. We’re buying the land. What should have been evaluated was the length and the land only, not the elephants in the spoons and forks and TVs in the rooms,” he said.
He also brought up a similar case near Dordabis, where a Russian billionaire purchased four farms while nearby Stinkwater squatters were facing eviction.
“Had we had that foresight of saying we put our foot down and we wanted drastic, aggressive land reform, those communities in places like Stinkwater would have had a place to stay,” he said.
Masua echoed Tjombe’s concerns, saying the country must rethink how it compensates landowners.
She said while the Constitution allows for compensation based on market value, this does not reflect the reality of land dispossession under colonial rule.
“When the land was taken away, it was done under duress and force. If the government now has to buy it for N$40 million, where is the redress?” she said.
Masua said the model of compensation must be reviewed, though she cautioned that removing compensation entirely could undermine property rights and national stability.
“It is dangerous to take away land without compensation because that automatically compromises our rights to property,” she said.
She welcomed recent comments by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to intensify focus on absentee landowners.
She said broader policy reform is needed.
“We need a model that both brings about restitution and at the same time returns land that was unduly disposed of,” said Masua.
