OMARURU – Erongo Governor Cleophas Mutjavikua says Namibia should review the land resettlement process to align it with what the country wants to achieve through the exercise.
He was speaking during consultations with resettled farmers, communal farmers and officials of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement at the one-day symposium on land matters in the Erongo Region a week ago at Omaruru.
He said no matter how many workshops are held with stakeholders and farmers, the situation would remain unchanged unless “practicals are put in place”.
“Let us get farmers from countries such as Zimbabwe or Saudi Arabia to give advice and guide our farmers on how to go into full production. We need to see the real outcome of the resettlement process and its positive spinoffs. There is no way that you can place a person on a farm without any experience or knowledge of farming. It is not supposed to be like that.
“How do we [bridge] the import/export deficit?” queried the regional governor.
He explained that the whole process of resettling farmers must be done “in the form of some chain reaction”.
“You hand the land over after all the paperwork and requirements are done; the farmer receives practical training and we keep the farmer responsible for production.
Do we want the land taken away from whites just to have it because it was taken away from our forefathers, or do we want the process to work?
“Let’s do the resettlement process with a purpose,” advised the governor.
The chief control officer of the Erongo Regional Council, Nathalia /Goagoses, who also attended the symposium raised her concern over the lengthy resettlement process and indicated that the region wants some of the services of the resettlement process decentralised so that they can deal with issues on a regional level.
“This will not only speed up the process but will iron out a lot of issues such as vandalism at unoccupied farms,” she suggested.