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Author Topic: Namibia plans 'white' land seizures  (Read 19360 times)
Ayinde
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« on: February 26, 2004, 09:15:53 AM »

CHRISTOF MALETSKY
http://www.namibian.com.na/2004/february/national/0428EFE337.html

GOVERNMENT last night announced plans to expropriate commercial farms, in an effort to speed up land reform.

Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, making the announcement on NBC radio and television, said farmers who lost their farms would be justly compensated as provided for in the Namibian Constitution.

Gurirab said delays in implementing land reform, brought about by the "cumbersome" willing-seller, willing-buyer process left expropriation as the only other way Government would meet the "high public demand for agricultural land".

It was not clear how many farms were to be expropriated and when exactly the process would start.

But, sources said eight farms - among them conflict spots Ongombo West, Krumhuk and Kalkpan - had been identified for initial expropriation.

"Committed to seeing through the willing-seller, willing-buyer approach, Government has witnessed with dismay and outrage how farm workers are left destitute and dumped with their families and belongings on the roadsides by their former employers," the Prime Minister said.

He said more than 240 000 people were still waiting to be resettled, while commercial farmers continued to make it difficult for Government to buy land by inflating prices.

Since 1995, Government has set aside N$20 million a year to buy land.

This was increased to N$50 million last year.

But still, the State says, farmers have not been forthcoming.

The President of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), which represents commercial farmers, Jan de Wet, said last night that his union would react to Government's announcement today.

A few people who commented on the announcement last night dismissed it as "electioneering" by Swapo.

Others thought it was a threat to force commercial farmers into selling their farms at low prices.

It is not the first time Government has threatened to expropriate land.

At the Swapo Party congress two years ago, President Sam Nujoma said the willing-buyer-willing-seller policy would be revisited if it failed to serve its purpose.

Last week, Deputy Minister of Lands Isak Katali warned farmers not to push Government by abusing the protection they received when farmworkers and unionists were restrained from carrying out threats to invade their farms.

He accused "many" white farmers of failing to help Government resolve the land reform issue, and said the "writing is on the wall" for those hiding behind Government protection.

Government recently stopped the Namibia Farmworkers' Union leadership from resettling some of their followers at Ongombo West after they were dismissed by the owners.

The Commercial Land Reform Act empowers Government to force farmers to sell identified farms to the State, but Namibia has not resorted to such action, despite the reluctance of farmers to sell their farms.

Gurirab appealed to donors and foreign partners to continue their support for Namibia's land reform programme.

"Government will ensure that land reform and expropriation of land in Namibia is done in accordance with the Namibian Constitution and the relevant legislation," the Prime Minister said.

Gurirab's announcement coincided with the visit to Namibia of Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

Zimbabwe has forced hundreds of white farmers off their land in land grabs which have destroyed the country's agricultural industry.

Last year De Wet warned fellow farmers to stop bickering and complaining about land reform, and "face reality".

He said Namibian farmers had a major opportunity to help prevent Zimbabwe-style land seizures by offering solutions such as making more land available.

http://www.namibian.com.na/2004/february/national/0428EFE337.html


BBC: Namibia will start to forcibly take land from white farmers to give to landless blacks, the government says.
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Oshun_Auset
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« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2004, 10:24:24 AM »

All I can say is GOOD!

We need to TAKE back our land!

(ask the Native Americans if we should make deals)
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Forward to a united Africa!
PatriotWarrior
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« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2004, 10:52:51 AM »

Greetings,

Nujoma is very right! In fact, your post reminds me of a post I sent to a forum on the Internet 16 months ago, pertaining to the same issue. I have copied it here:-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE EARTH SUMMIT, Part I: The Africans steal the show!
Posted by PatriotWarrior on Saturday, 19 October 2002, at 8:04 p.m.

For many years to come, the UN Earth Summit, held in Johannesburg, South Africa (26 Aug. - 4 Sep. 2002), will be remembered.

First, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia wagging his index finger in the direction of British prime minister Tony Blair, and telling him: “The Honourable Tony Blair is here, and he created the situation in Zimbabwe.”

Second, the prolonged applause and the standing ovation that Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe received from the 1500 heads of state, government officials and NGO (non-governmental organisations) representatives for his land-redistribution speech. Mugabe is the only leader among the 100 who spoke at the summit to be accorded a standing ovation.

Third, is the booing and jeering of the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, the highest-ranking African-American person in the Bush administration, when he attempted to take a swipe at Zimbabwe, a day after Mugabe's landmark speech.

No matter on which -- (or *whose*) -- side you are, these were truly landmark incidents that will make the powers-that-be sit up and look at the way they are currently running the world. For three years (since 1999), Western governments and their media have created the impression that President Mugabe of Zimbabwe was swimming in splendid isolation and that the “whole world” was against him. The same “world” spoke, loud and clear, when they gave Mugabe the standing ovation. And it was not even Mugabe who started it all. It was President Sam Nujoma from Namibia.

Before going to the summit, the Namibian president had *warned* white farmers in his country, who own “80% of farmland” there, to “look at Zimbabwe and read the writings on the wall.”

“If those arrogant white farm owners and absentee landlords,” Nujoma started [*the FIRE*!], “do not embrace the government's policy of willing-buyer/willing-seller now, it will be too late tomorrow,” he warned, showing that his and his nation’s patience was running out, too! Pointing in the direction of Tony Blair, sitting in the audience, the Namibian president told the packed hall: “We here in Southern Africa have one big mess created by the British. The Honourable Tony Blair is here, and he created the situation in Zimbabwe.”

This was an obvious reference to a letter that the Blair government, through the secretary for overseas development, Clare Short, had sent to the Zimbabwean government on 5 November 1997, repudiating British colonial responsibility for funding land reform in Zimbabwe. “I should make it clear,” Clare Short had told Harare, “that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised, not colonisers.” ... !

This letter stung the Zimbabweans like a bee! They tried to seek clarifications, but the Blair government, only seven months in office and still puffed with the ‘triumphalism’ of its landslide electoral victory that May (1997), would not budge! … The Zimbabweans sent delegation upon delegation;[/b] without consequence!! The sad thing is that the British didn’t even want to examine and analyse what had gone wrong. They chose, from the very beginning, to go inexorably on this path of hard attitude. Sam Nujoma knew about this, and he was not going to let Tony Blair get away with it, not at the Earth Summit, held in Africa, convened by the UN to talk about “sustainable development”.

Still wagging his finger at Blair, Nujoma told him: “The British colonial settlers in Zimbabwe today, they own 78% of the land in Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe is a tiny country. It has 14 million indigenous people who don't have land … We, the African people, have suffered more than anyone in the world … The EU, which has imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe, must lift them immediately, otherwise it is useless to come here.” …

You could hear a pin drop in the packed hall. The colour on Blair's face had gone from pink to almost red; and that is when Nujoma went for the kill:

“The 21st century demands equality of people. If whites think they are superior, we condemn them and reject them! We are equal to Europe and if you don't think that, then to hell with you! You can keep your money. We will develop our Africa without you and your money!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS: I only wonder: how would whites in Europe accept that a tiny, very selfish and self-centred alien group can come in, plunder, share their land and then seclude itself to form a class of "untouchables", living off the blood and sweat of the indigenous people? This land issue may end up being a volatile time-bomb, as the matter is not yet over. This applies not only to Zimbabwe, but also to other African countries with similar land grievances in southern and East Africa. These countries of course include South Africa, which many whites really treat as an “extension” of Europe.

The whites in Zimbabwe should choose to behave themselves, or they'll end up being chased out of Zimbabwe! They must choose to live in a modern, fair and democratic multicultural society (as they teach other people to live). The laws of Zimbabwe, even in their favour, will not be there to stand guard at their doors and gates, each day and night. Angry citizens and ex-revolutionaries will continue to take the law in their own hands and hunt them down one by one ... to the last unfortunate farmer! ...

That's the unfortunate reality, for people see themselves being deceived and robbed in broad daylight. People are hungry and angry and are even angrier that whites, upon all the evils they unleashed everywhere in Africa, including the wanton killing of millions of innocent Africans, can attempt to claim a piece of Africa as their own today, and this at the expense of indigenous Africans(!).

Whites themselves would never accept such a grotesque imbalance on the one continent that rightly and originally belongs to them: Europe. The whites in Zimbabwe can find ways to safeguard their well-being and if they don’t like the way we're ruling them, then they can pack their cases and go back to The Cold!

ONE LOVE!

PatriotWarrior
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Ayinde
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« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2004, 06:58:21 AM »

I am adding another comment to this land issue.

I do not condone the 'willing buyer willing seller plan' that some advocate. The land should be taken away and the farm occupiers should compensate the people for all the abuses and denial of their own resources throughout the years.

Ordinary landless Black Africans who supported the call to take back the land should be the first ones to benefit. Returning land to the indigenous people should go along with strong laws that ban the reselling of the land especially to the former colonial occupiers and or their descendents. They could consider letting all the land remain under the control of the state/people for the same length of time that Europeans stole it, with legal measures to ensure that even with a change in government the land cannot be resold by corrupt governments that European nations could bribe.
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BONN
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« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2004, 08:37:35 AM »

it's time see and to check it out youselves

for more information on the land issue in namibia
visit www.newera.com.na
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YaBBC
Yann
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« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2004, 10:23:57 AM »

Now is the Hour for Land Reform

2004-02-27
Farayi on Friday

A SMALL but especially invited group of the top echelon of the civil service, diplomats and of course the top brass of the press corps, clapped hands as the Prime Minister, Theo-Ben Gurirab, had just finished his national broadcast on the expropriation of land. The Ambassador of Zimbabwe, who was hosting dinner for his visiting Minister of Information, Professor Jonathan Moyo, had invited the group. “This is what we have been waiting for,” one senior official’s voice boomed across the double-sized lounge. “Welcome to the club,” a Zimbabwean in Professor Moyo’s entourage answered back.
What has been going on at Ongombo West Farm is disgusting, to say the least, and it is strange that the large numbers of members of the Commercial Farmers’ Union seem to have condoned the action of some of their racist members in the union.
First it was Kalkpan where blacks are treated like slaves and could be dispensed with without compensation or recourse to justice. These two worrying events seem now to have been addressed by the Prime Minister on Wednesday night.
Government needs to show some teeth when it comes to the question of land in particular, when white farm owners who have taken upon themselves to take the law into their own hands violate human rights.
The owners of the Ongombo West Farm have no regard for black people of this country. Dumping women and children and the elderly in the open, particularly during this wet season, is inhuman and a sign of disregard of a government in power.
Those suffering black Namibians now living in the open have done nothing wrong, except that they are black.
They are not the first black Namibians to have been evicted from land since independence. This has been the pattern of some white farmers who still regard blacks as part of farm equipment that can be treated as they wish.
But what is more disturbing is the fact that the government has been pussy-footing, until now that it is, to bring measures to seize the land and resettle landless black peasant farmers.
If government expropriation plans include Ongombo and Kalkpan farms, then let it be. They will have no one to blame but themselves.
First, the court handed down its judgment in which the owner of the farm was found guilty and told to re-employ the people he had dumped by the roadside. He defied the court and refused to recognise the judgment, arguing that it was unfair and he would not comply with the court’s decision.
This is exactly what happened in Zimbabwe before the farm invasions. White farmers in Zimbabwe treated blacks with impunity and underpaid them. A farm labourer in Zimbabwe earned around N$60 per month and received no rations. They were poorly housed and received no medical treatment if they got injured while working on the farm. Their children were denied education and their so-called houses were built far away from where the bwana lived with his family. Blacks on white farms were not allowed to cultivate more than three hectares of land and receive visitors. If they were found loitering in places where they were not supposed to be, they were whipped and even told to go and report to Robert Mugabe. “He does not own this land,” they would be told.
At a newspaper I once worked for, as the first black editor, it was not surprising to walk into the newsroom to find the face of Robert Mugabe drawn like a monkey and sometimes whiskers inserted into his chin.
Black construction workers would be whipped for breaking a brick. While farmers used to meet at farms and even managed to build their own telephone network, which was independent of government, they talked about how blacks should be treated.
The Ongombo West farm in Namibia is nothing but a prelude of what is to come. I recall a white farmer in South Africa who killed his black worker just because his bitch had been done things by the black man’s male dog. He shot both the dog and the servant. He later told the court that he could not stomach seeing his female dog mating with a black man’s dog and for that matter, a servant’s dog. He showed no remorse for what he had done.
But in the Ongombo West Farm and its saga, it does appear there is no agency to deal with people who defy the courts. So far the police have done nothing to ensure that the decision of the court is respected. More so the victims have been knocking on every government door, seeking assistance so that the law can be upheld, but have met with little success.
The rule of law needs to be respected. What the white owners of the Ongombo West Farm need to understand is that a running river cannot be dammed forever without breaking its bounds. It is just a matter of time.
Government should not use kid gloves when dealing with racists, in particular when it comes to land reform.
White farmers are deliberately frustrating government land farm prices, making it impossible for government to implement its resettlement programme.
What the white farmers have done is to show the country that the government is a toothless bulldog by defying it and making it impossible for the government to acquire more land for black Namibians.
The land question is an emotional one and one needs to be black to understand why black Namibians need more.
Government should remember what President Sam Nujoma once advised the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at a conference in South Africa: that no white person ever brought land to Zimbabwe or any part of Africa. To which I would like to add that no black person ever claimed land in any part of Europe or even owns land there.
Those that will lose their farms will have no one to blame but themselves. Let the expropriation of farms begin on a fast track. Those that live in glass houses should not throw stones.

http://www.newera.com.na/page.php?id=91
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Yann
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« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2004, 11:13:00 AM »

Quote

I do not condone the 'willing buyer willing seller plan' that some advocate. The land should be taken away and the farm occupiers should compensate the people for all the abuses and denial of their own resources throughout the years.


I too found this policy a bit strange. It seems a bit like pleading to me, "Please be fair, please do the right thing. We will give you one more chance while you can benefit just a bit more from the land that your ancestors stole" I can only suppose that the Namibian government, having seen the fate of Zimbabwe and the extreme international pressure on Mugabe through his more hard-line stance on land reform, decided to attempt to find a middle road which would be more amenable to the whites. However, it was certainly not in the favour of the black Africans who need the land. Nor is it any kind of justice to give the white farmers any quarter. When this policy began it allowed the white farmer to set the price for the farms preventing the speedy acquisition of land for redistribution. I am glad to see that the Prime Minister has elected to do away with this cumbersome system and perhaps get on with some radical policies. But it remains to be seen how quickly this will get off the ground and if he is willing to see it through to the end and not bow to international pressure or become corrupt in the process.

Well as for the ignorant response by Clair Short to the question of Britain assisting financially in the willing buyer willing seller program, it is good that these things are documented for all those who sometimes may be inclined to forget where these Europeans really stand. While she may have seemed to be on the right side of the fence against the Blair administration over the illegal invasion of Iraq, her attitude here manifests a typical ‘cut and paste’ attitude when it comes to right and wrong.
" We do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests"
Come on Clair give me a break! The whole question of reparations had been riddled with ignorant statements like this. If whites can so glibly disclaim any benefit from their colonial ancestors, if they can deny that they benefit from the very systems that exist to keep then in 'ruler status' then they might as well disband all inheritance laws which allow children and spouses to inherit wealth from dead parents and partners, and change the law that allows governments to seize all the assets of known drug dealers or their families along with everything else that was aided even indirectly by this trade. Both these well-accepted policies are based on the premise that we do indeed pay for the actions of our ancestors and those with whom we associate.

Anything you get illegitimately, directly or by proxy, is illegitimate.


yan

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Tyehimba
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« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2004, 09:34:07 PM »


Herero people were systematically wiped out

A Bloody History: Namibia's Colonisation

This is a story that could have been drawn from British India, the Japanese conquest of Manchuria, or the Belgian takeover of the Congo.

German control of the territory began in 1884, when the Chancellor, Otto von Bismark, annexed all of South West Africa after being petitioned by a trader called Adolf Luderitz.

At first the annexation meant little, but in 1894 crack imperial troops, the Schutztruppe, arrived to enforce rule from Berlin.

Stone forts were built across the territory. Their arrival spurred the growth of colonial communities and white farmers moved further and further into the interior.

The Herero and Nama resented Germans taking their land and introducing foreign laws and taxation.

Rebellion

Witbooi's Rebellion

Towards the end of 1903, under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi, the Nama rebelled.
Although it was an unequal struggle, the Nama used guerrilla tactics against the Germans to good effect. Months later, the Herero took to the field, and opened one of the bloodiest chapters in colonial history.

On 2 October 1904 the German commander, General von Trotha issued the following proclamation:

"I, the great general of the German troops, send this letter to the Herero people... All Hereros must leave this land... Any Herero found within the German borders with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I shall no longer receive any women or children; I will drive them back to their people. I will shoot them. This is my decision for the Herero people."

Death

The general was true to his word.

poisoning the wells

The Herero were machine gunned and their wells were poisoned. Finally they were driven into the desert to die.

This was how colonisation began in what is today Namibia.

Not all colonisation took place in this way, and many colonial administrators went out of their way to develop their colonies - particularly in the run up to independence that came to Africa in the 1960s.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1514856.stm
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Tyehimba
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« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2004, 10:16:25 PM »

Quote
Not all colonisation took place in this way, and many colonial administrators went out of their way to develop their colonies


YEAH RIGHT!!!
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PatriotWarrior
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« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2004, 05:32:42 AM »

THE EARTH SUMMIT, Part III: The BOOING of Colin Powell
Posted by PatriotWarrior on Saturday, 19 October 2002, at 10:15 p.m.

~~~~~~~~~~

Like British prime minister Tony Blair, US secretary of state Colin Powell attended the Earth Summit in Johannesburg (also called Jo'burg, in short), (26 Aug. - 4 Sep. 2002). And so it came as no surprise that Powell, whose president Blair stands shoulder-to-shoulder with, really had no choice but the obligation to do the Briton a good turn. By pretending, however, that Mugabe had had no standing ovations the previous day, he met the wrath of the untrusting audience. The audience would not have it, and so booed, jeered and heckled him. They told him to get lost!

It got worse when Powell attempted to take a swipe at Zimbabwe, over the land issue, blaming "food shortages" in the country on the lack of "respect for human rights and the rule of law" -- [just the same jargon they use before news cameras in the bright cities of the Western world!] …

"In one country in this region, Zimbabwe," Powell courted the audience, "the lack of respect for human rights and rule of law has exacerbated these factors to push millions of people toward the brink of starvation." … Powell really wanted the audience to believe him!! … Instead, the packed hall responded by BOOING, jeering and shouting, "Judas!", "Betrayed!" and "Shame on Bush!" Soon anti-American banners were being unfurled at the back of the hall, waving high, as some people screamed towards the exit, murmuring, "This is such a twaddle!"

For a good one minute or so, Powell stood speechless at the podium, as the chairwoman, South Africa's Foreign Minister Dlamani-Zuma, shouted "order!", "order!", "order!" … and then again "order!"… But the boos and jeers continued. … "Thank you, thank you, I have now heard you," Powell finally mustered his nerves to say … "Thank you, I ask that you hear me". … Instead of attention, more jeers and boos and people starting to stamp their feet on the floor. "This is totally unacceptable," Mrs Dlamani-Zuma was forced to shout above the din…. After this 'mauling', Mr Powell sat down and licked his wounds …

All this was happening live on BBC TV and Radio World Service, News 24 and on Radio 5 Live! Nicky Campbell, the 5 Live phone-in anchor and an implacable "Mugabe hater", was heard asking the BBC correspondent in the hall in Jo'burg:

"Is this because of what he said about Zimbabwe?".

The other man answered quietly: "Yes." ...

[A good lesson for these two Western journalists!]

It was really an education for both Powell and the BBC: that the world is now tired of being lectured, … especially when such lectures end up flying in the face of the truth!! In the end, sections of the British media were really stunned by the depth and support for Mugabe inside that hall, inside Africa!

THE PEOPLE SHOULD LAUNCH A MASSIVE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT AGAINST HYPOCRISY & DOUBLE-TALK!!!

~~~~~~~~~~

The Tragedy of Colin Powell

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2246150.stm

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