The cattle auction at the dusty farming town of Otjiwarongo should be a time of high spirits for the white farmers of Namibia, but last week they could talk of little else but their fears of impending Zimbabwe-style land grabs.
The attack by Namibian President Sam Nujoma on British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development on behalf of his old liberation comrade President Robert Mugabe sent shockwaves across the region, but they were felt most acutely among Namibia’s own white farmers.
Nujoma blamed Blair personally as ”the one who created the situation in Zimbabwe” and voiced support for land invasions. He said ”British colonialists owned 70% to 80% of land in Zimbabwe … the whole land is occupied by hundreds and thousands of colonialists”.
”Of course we are fearful about what was said in Johannesburg, we would be fools not to be,” Gunter Stahl admitted between bids at the weekly cattle auction.
Jan Pretorius (56) stood out as one of the only farmers present whose leathery face was not etched with worry — he recently sold his farms because of his fears for the future.
”I am so relieved to have got rid of my land,” he said. ”No one is talking about anything else but what Nujoma has said and what he means. I was sick of being told I was arrogant and punished for being white. Why should I invest my money and time in a country where I no longer feel welcome?
”The whites are being driven out. In 20 or 30 years’ time I don’t imagine there being any whites left in Southern Africa.”
One only had to glance around the open-air auction ring to see how little Namibia has changed since independence 12 years ago. White Afrikaans- and German-speaking farmers occupied the prime bidding benches. Black people, without the means to buy, sat on the other side of the ring, away from the eye of the auctioneer.
Although a land reform programme has been in place since independence in 1990, only 30 000 landless blacks have been given farms, leaving more than 200 000 still on the waiting list. Namibia has 4 045 mostly white-owned commercial farms, occupying vast swathes of the country’s best land.
Nujoma’s government is concerned by the slow pace of the willing seller, willing buyer policy of acquiring land for resettlement and is now considering other methods of redistribution.
His attack on Blair came only a week after a vitriolic onslaught against ”arrogant white farmers” at a ruling party congress in which he voiced his backing for Mugabe’s land-grab policy and announced he was seizing 192 farms belonging to absentee landowners.
At the time his comments were put down to party political bombast, but by going even further on the international platform of the World Summit, he has prompted comparisons between himself and the increasingly despotic Mugabe.
Both are vociferously anti-white and anti-homosexual and most recently have echoed each other’s views on land reform and accused white commercial farmers of being reluctant to share their spoils.
”It was quite the worst statement he has ever made, but at least it brought out the real Sam Nujoma — the twin brother of Robert Mugabe,” said Ignatius Shixwameni, secretary general of Namibia’s opposition Congress of Democracy.
”The ruling party needs scapegoats to divert attention from the real issues of poverty and unemployment as they did in Zimbabwe, and the easiest scapegoats are the white farmers. What happened in Zimbabwe can definitely happen here. [Nujoma’s] outburst in Johannesburg will mean the world’s eyes have been opened to what is happening here.”
Alpheus Naruseb, spokesperson for the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation accused the white farmers of attempting to enrich themselves from land reform.
”There are some farms bigger than some small European countries that are owned by a few, while 95% of the population have no access to land.
”It is not a situation that can be perpetuated. If we tolerate that we would knowingly be sitting on a time bomb,” he added.
Naruseb insisted there was enough room ”under the sun” for everyone who wanted land in Namibia.
Meanwhile, the white farmers’ union is appealing for calm from its members and seeking urgent clarification from the government.
”I am telling our members not to be alarmed and assure them that our relationship with the government is a good one,” said Jan de Wet, president of the Namibian Agricultural Union.
It was only three years ago that the Commercial Farmers’ Union in Zimbabwe was giving its members similar reassurances.