Namibia Land Furor Heats Up

Martin Wucher's family has raised cattle in the abundant countryside of central Namibia for close to a century. Now he faces threats to his home and livelihood.

Frustrated with the government's stalled land reform program, impoverished black farmers and laborers warn that come January they will start invading the country's mostly white-owned commercial farms.

The government has been quick to condemn the threats, but many white farmers fear parallels with the violent land seizures that have plunged neighboring Zimbabwe into crisis.

Those who imagine otherwise are engaging in wishful thinking, Wucher said, sipping a beer to stave off the heat in his tranquil garden. "They just hope it doesn't happen."

Land is a charged issue in this southern African country twice the size of California, where whites make up less than a tenth of the 1.8 million people and about 4,200 white farmers own half the agricultural land.

Namibia was first ruled by Germany, then South Africa, which imposed apartheid. Blacks couldn't own land until the mid-1980s, and most of those working it today still can't afford to buy it.

Since Namibia became independent in 1990, the government has sought to restore equality in land ownership through its "willing seller, willing buyer" program.

The state, which gets first refusal on any agricultural property up for sale, has bought 124 farms covering more than 1.7 million acres and reallocated them free to more than 9,000 needy Namibians.

The target set in 2000 was to redistribute 23 million acres in five years.

But more than 200,000 landless Namibians still await resettlement. They include blacks driven off their land under South African rule, and farm laborers who never owned land of their own.

To make matters worse, the new owners of redistributed farms tend to employ fewer workers, forcing more people off the land, according to the Legal Assistance Center, based in Windhoek, the capital.

Alfred Angula, general secretary of the Namibia Farm Workers Union, claims there are thousands of underutilized commercial farms not up for sale that could accommodate its members.

The union is particularly concerned about workers who live on the farms where they work, so that when they lose their jobs, they also lose their homes.

Commercial farm owners concede it's a legal gray area.

"We supply them with houses," said Helmut Fortsch, chairman of the Agricultural Employers Association. "But after they have been laid off, how do they stay on, and under what conditions?"

Angula says talks with the Namibia Agricultural Union, an umbrella group representing commercial farmers, have been a "total failure," and that if there's no deal next month, laborers will start invading farms.

The government says it won't tolerate illegal occupations. However, Lands Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba concedes that reform has been too slow.

"This is because the willing buyer may have money to buy, but if there is no willing seller, you will still have the money," he said.

Pohamba added that many of the properties offered to the government are not suitable for farming and are rejected.

Martin Wucher, like most Namibian whites, is of German descent. His family has owned Bergquell, or Mountain Spring, farm since 1904. His great uncle purchased the first of what would grow to 22,500 acres when he came to Namibia with the German army. There are now 700 cattle grazing the land.

The farm employs six workers who live on the property with 14 dependents between them.

"We can't work without them, and they can't live without us," Wucher said.

While many laborers live in shacks, Wucher pays more than double the $68 monthly minimum wage and has helped his employees buy homes in nearby Okahandja, 40 miles north of Windhoek. One man in his 60s, who has worked for the family since he was a teenager, now owns two houses in town, which he rents out to supplement his income.

Wucher argues against chopping up farms, saying big is better in the modern agricultural world, and he's unapologetic about how much land he owns.

"Land is not an asset unless you work it," he said. "It doesn't matter if he's white or black. If he doesn't work it the right way, he will not survive."

Simion Nikongo, a welder working on a white-owned farm northeast of Windhoek, sees it differently.

"This land is important to us as Namibians," he said. "It would be better if farms were distributed to many different people."