About 70 Namibian farmworkers and their families face an uncertain future after the first expropriation of a white-owned farm by the government and are fighting to retain their jobs and homes.
The Namibia Farmworkers’ Union (Nafwu) has taken up their case and says the workers, who face penury and homelessness according to the present owner, cannot be cast away on the roadside.
”The labourers came to our offices and asked what would happen to them, they are worried about their future, they cannot be dumped alongside the road,” Alfred Angula, Nafwu secretary general told reporters.
”According to our information, the new farm owner, which is the Namibian government, wants the workers to leave the farm”, Angula said.
”We will not allow that to happen”, he warned.
The Namibian government last month quietly expropriated its first white-owned farm under the terms of its land reform programme, ordering its occupants off the premises by the end of November.
It paid 3,7-million Namibian dollars (R3,7-million, $583 000) for the Ongombo West farm, which was paid into a trust account of the lawyer of 69-year old farm owner Hilde Wiese.
Wiese, whose grandfather started the 4 000ha farm — a flourishing enterprise involving cattle farming and growing arum lilies for export to Europe — has said the government wants her workers to move out as well.
”The government gave us three months to leave the farm and we must lay off the workers and give them a severance package”, Wiese said, adding that she was also instructed ”to see to it that they also leave the farm”.
The picture postcard farm boasts a stately German colonial-style farmhouse surrounded by an immaculate and sprawling garden. The workers all live on the property.
Nafwu labour expert Samson Amupanda complained that the government never consulted the body about what would happen to the farm workers.
”They have bought over 140 farms for resettlement, but never were we — who represent the rights of farm workers — part of any discussions on the fate of the labourers on such farms”, Amupanda told Agence France Presse.
Namibia’s 3 800 white farmers own most of the arable land in the desert country, an imbalance the government has vowed to redress.
Eliaser Hoebeb, one of the workers on Wiese’s farm, said he and his family would stay put.
”We will remain on the farm Ongombo-West, we have nowhere else to go”, he said.
”We need to be resettled so why can’t we all get resettled on this farm?”
The final sale deed between the ministry of lands and Wiese reads: ”Not prejudicing their rights to apply to be resettled, the seller shall adequately compensate all the farm workers under their employ at the time of transfer of the property.”
However, Namibia’s lands ministry is ambiguous about the fate of the workers at the farm.
”Once Ongombo-West is in government possession, it will be demarcated to establish how many people can be settled on there”, said Deputy Lands Minister Isaac Katali.
”According to standard procedure, advertisements will then be placed in newspapers announcing that landless citizens can apply for resettlement on that farm and after the closing date a selection will be made,” Katali said.
Frans Tsheehema, permanent secretary in the lands ministry, recently voiced disappointment at the pace of the land reforms.
”The landless in Namibia are not happy with progress made with the land reform and their feeling is that the willing seller, willing buyer process is too slow”, he said.
He said the goal was to acquire 15-million hectares by 2020 that will be set aside for about 240 000 landless Namibians. – Sapa-AFP