The Land Reform Ministry says no additional piece of legislation is needed to address land-related matters in Namibia, as the current draft Land Bill holistically covers the issues.

This position was ventilated by land reform officials at a public hearing session in the capital on Tuesday.

The technocrats were responding to a petition brought by the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources.

According to them, the draft Land Bill will head to the National Assembly in September.

It aims to consolidate the Agricultural Land Reform Act, Communal Land Act and resolutions from the second land conference.

In 2019, AR tabled its ‘Land Indigenisation Bill’, proposing barring foreign nationals from owning and regulating land ownership in Namibia.

“Government is currently ceased with finalising the Land Bill,” said Penda Ithindi, the deputy executive in the land and agriculture ministry.

He hastened to say that any law on land reform must be in line with the supreme law of the land.

Delving deeper was the director responsible for land reform in the ministry, Petrus Nangolo who stressed that the ministry is not in support of separate legislation (AR bill).

The ministry largely agrees with AR’s proposals on regulating foreign land ownership, but has reservations.

For instance, AR does not want any foreign national to utilise communal land for any purpose.

“As far as communal land is concerned; such land shall not be owned by any foreigner. Any allocation of communal land to a foreign national before this act shall be deemed to have been an illegal transaction and shall be repudiated,” Maitjituavi Kavetu, AR’s legal head cited earlier this year.

The ministry opposes this.

“The ministry supports the use of communal land by foreign nationals,” Nangolo said, noting that not all communal land is currently being used productively.

According to Nangolo, Namibians must partner with foreign nationals to address food security.

“We cannot do everything by ourselves,” he said. But the use of communal land must be strictly regulated, monitored and strictly be on a lease basis.

Among its submission, AR says it has no problem with foreign nationals utilising the land for developmental purposes.

As for those foreigners already owning urban land, AR proposed that such land not be transferred or sold to other foreigners.

“Urban land does not fall under our mandate. I suggest this committee approaches the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development,” Nangolo said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency