There are few topics in Namibia as emotionally charged and politically potent as land reform. Rightly so. Land is not only an economic asset but also a deeply symbolic issue rooted in the country’s colonial and apartheid past.
The generations of black Namibians were robbed of land, denied ownership, and consigned to the margins of society. When independence came, the cry was loud and clear: “The fight was about the land.”
And now, over three decades later, we must ask—what have we done with the land we fought for?
The painful truth is this: Namibia’s resettlement programme has failed. Catastrophically. Embarrassingly. Unforgivably.
The President’s recent meeting with farmers in the Omaheke Region, attended by the minister of agriculture and the regional governor, once again laid bare the rot at the heart of our land reform process.
What was meant to be a vehicle for empowerment and economic transformation has, in many cases, devolved into a reckless programme of politically motivated patronage, mismanagement, and economic self-sabotage.
Let us call it what it is: a national embarrassment.
Once-thriving farms, productive, job-creating, export-orientated enterprises, have been handed to individuals who are clearly unqualified or unwilling to carry on their legacy. Take the case of a once-successful olive farm, previously exporting high-grade olive oil and earning Namibia valuable foreign currency. That farm now lies in ruins. The olive trees are dead. The infrastructure has crumbled. In its place stands what can only be described as an informal settlement, overrun with relatives, rusted vehicles, and hopelessness.
And then there’s Ongombo West, once a proud flower-exporting farm. Today? A shadow of its former self, mismanaged into oblivion. The transformation of these economic hubs into derelict homesteads should shake every Namibian to the core. These are not isolated cases; they are emblematic of a systemic problem.
Let’s be blunt: how do you take a functioning, export-orientated farm and destroy it in five years? How do you inherit wealth and turn it into wasteland?
The answer lies in two intertwined failures: a lack of accountability and the politicisation of land redistribution.
Government continues to allocate farms without due diligence, without training, without support mechanisms and, most damningly, without consequences. Beneficiaries are often political insiders, military generals, or well-connected elites who treat resettlement farms as weekend getaways or rural mansions. Productivity? Food security? Job creation? These noble goals vanish under the weight of nepotism and greed.
It’s time someone said it plainly: receiving a productive farm and running it into the ground is not just irresponsible, it’s treasonous. As the President has rightly said, corruption is tantamount to treason. Well, what is the wilful destruction of productive national assets if not corruption of the highest order?
You are quite literally taking food out of the mouths of the nation. You are killing jobs. You are killing industries. You are dismantling the agricultural future of our country for the sake of ego and entitlement.
This is not empowerment. This is economic vandalism masquerading as transformation.
It is also a betrayal of every black Namibian who truly believed that land reform would finally bring justice, opportunity, and dignity. Instead, they see their dreams paved over by gravel roads leading to failed farms and half-built shacks. The resettlement programme was supposed to uplift, not humiliate.
But where is the political will to change this? The recent move by minister Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi to prohibit foreign land ownership is commendable. Yes, Namibia must protect its land from external speculators. But protecting it from internal looters is just as important.
In fact, the minister must go further. There must be an immediate moratorium on all resettlement allocations until a complete policy overhaul is implemented. We need a clear, unambiguous national directive that sets the bar for eligibility, support, productivity targets, monitoring and, most importantly, consequences.
You receive a farm? Good. Here is your training. Here are your performance targets. You meet them, and we support you. You don’t? We take the land back. Not in 10 years. Not after a decade of excuses. In two years.
This land is not your birthright. It is a national asset, and it must serve the national interest.
And to the political class, stop handing out farms like loyalty cards. This isn’t about votes. This is about food security, rural employment, foreign exchange, and dignity. If you truly care about the people, then stop setting them up to fail with land allocations that have no structure, no mentorship, and no monitoring.
Land reform must be revolutionary, yes, but it must also be responsible.
We are not asking for perfection. But we demand accountability. We demand competence. And above all, we demand that the land we fought for does not become the land we are ashamed of.
Let us not allow resettlement to become a cycle of dispossession in disguise. If land is life, as we so often say, then let us give it to those who will nurture it, not those who will bury it under the weight of incompetence and entitlement.
Enough is enough. The land question was never just about owning it; it was about working it, growing it, and building a future on it. Let us not turn that noble dream into a national nightmare.
