Windhoek: Popular Democratic Movement leader McHenry Venaani has proposed amending the Land Bill to make leaseholds in communal areas 'remunerative', enabling residents to use their rural or village houses and land as collateral for loans. Venaani stated that, if enforced, the initiative will empower rural residents by transforming communal land into economic assets that provide access to credit and unlock property value.

According to Namibia Press Agency, the leader of PDM made these remarks in Windhoek on Thursday, during a media conference that addressed a variety of topics, including agriculture, politics, economic emancipation, and bilateral trade agreements. Venaani stated that the proposal aims to amend Section 40 of the Land Bill to specifically make leaseholds, which are approved by traditional authorities, land boards, and the ministry, bankable, instead of traditional customary land rights, which cannot currently be used as collateral.

"This whole issue lacks what is called the exclusion of property rights in communal areas. If you come from a village, whether from Tamanzi or Okatjoruu. If you are building your mother a house there or your mother has retired, she built herself a nice house there. But do you know that all properties in rural areas are treated as dead capital?" he remarked.

Venaani stated that even if someone owns a mansion in a rural area, these houses still hold no value. He added that unless property rights in rural areas are established, Namibia will perpetuate a cycle of poverty. "It's not that people in the rural areas are poor. A certain individual has built a nice house in the village, but that house is of zero value. She can't even go and buy 10 cows from the house," he added.

Venaani reiterated that property rights in rural areas should be unlocked as part of communal land, emphasising that the government is not doing enough to provide equity for the poor.