What some may deem a noble move has now backfired on Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform Minister, Calle Schlettwein, with the lawmaker being accused of misleading his fellow legislators when he tabled a motivational speech for the expansion of communal land.
It has emerged that prior to the Minister’s decision to call for the merger of two hunting farms, Osema No. 63 and Gusinde No. 197, situated in the Windhoek District of the Otjozondjupa region, as part of his greater plan to relieve grazing pressure in the Ovitoto area, the two entities had already been gazetted and offered for lease as game farms—on a going concern basis—by his predecessor, Utoni Nujoma.
In his motivation to Parliament, the Minister revealed that his Ministry persistently receives requests from Traditional Authorities and individuals for settlement and for the expansion of Traditional Authority communal areas due to the unavailability of grazing areas for their livestock.
However, according to the Minister, the expansion of communal land can only occur when the Ministry acquires commercial farms and adds them to Schedule one of the Communal Land Reform Act, Act No. 5 of 2002, as amended.
“The Ministry responded positively to the above requests by acquiring the following commercial farms with the purpose of relieving grazing pressure on communal areas. The Remaining Extent of Portion A of the Farm Okongava, No. 72, measuring 15,160.19 hectares, will be added to the Otjimbingwe communal area. Farm Osema No. 63, measuring 5,374.39 hectares, will be added to the Ovitoto communal area. Farm Gusinde No. 197, measuring 3,753.93 hectares, will be added to the Ovitoto communal area, while Farm Alpha, No. 628, measuring 6,767.6098 hectares, will be added to the Aminuis communal area,” the Minister revealed in Parliament, adding that the combined size of the above farms is 31,056.1198 hectares. These farms, he further stressed, were acquired at a combined cost of approximately N$67 million.
The Minister highlighted Section 16 (1) of the Communal Land Reform Act No. 5 of 2002, as amended, which states that the President, with the approval of the National Assembly, may, by proclamation in the Gazette, declare any defined portion of unalienated State land to be a communal land area.
“It is with the above view that I am here today, appealing to you all Honourable members of this August house, to support and approve this initiative of expanding communal areas to enhance the living conditions of Namibians,” he said.
“It is our belief that this expansion of communal land is a restorative justice to Namibians. We believe that through the expansion of these communal areas, land has been given back to Namibians. The expansion of the communal Traditional Authority area will remain one of our main focuses, and we shall extrapolate it further to other Traditional Authorities,” Schlettwein stressed.
MISLEADING
His seemingly noble appeal, however, did not sit well with all lawmakers in the August house. Yesterday, Dudu Murorua of the United Democratic Front (UDF) of Namibia posed questions to the Minister, relating particularly to farms Osema and Gusinde.
Murorua stressed that Schlettwein appealed to MPs to support and approve this initiative of expanding communal areas to enhance the living conditions of Namibians while knowing that farms Osema No. 63 and Gusinde No. 197 were advertised by his Ministry as a single unit recommended to be used for game farming, and not grazing.
“Did you rezone the farm to a livestock farm with an indication of the livestock as per the carrying capacity of it to feed into the requirements of a communal grazing area?” he asked.
He questioned why Schlettwein “did not inform Parliament and the nation at large that there is a legal battle around the allocation of these farms, Osema No. 63 and Gusinde 197, lodged with the Lands Tribunal of Namibia by the aggrieved applicant, Chobezi Game Farming Safaris CC.”
He further asked if Schlettwein was aware that he [Schlettwein] wrote a lease termination letter to a beneficiary who has been occupying the said farm for nearly eight years, in April 2024.
He also queried whether Schlettwein was aware that the Lands Tribunal of Namibia expressed itself on the case and that the appellant, in this case Chobezi Game Farming and Safaris, won the case.
“Do you, as Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform, have any legal standing to disregard the decision of the Lands Tribunal of Namibia? Would you please inform this August house how you are going to honor the decision of the Lands Tribunal immediately, before your retirement?” Murorua asked.
“When do you intend to withdraw your tabling of farms Osema No. 63 and Gusinde No. 197 in the August House? Because if it does not happen, then you have not only failed to correctly inform Parliament, but you would then also be misleading the President to gazette farms by way of proclamation, which the Lands Tribunal Court has decided on differently,” Murorua said.
In a letter addressed to President Nangolo Mbumba this week, the owners of Chobezi Game Farming and Safaris are accusing the Minister of having turned a blind eye to all legal happenings around the allotment of these farms for the past nine years.
These farms were eventually allotted to Ovitoto Hunting & Safaris, albeit under questionable conditions, which eventually led to a public outcry and the repossession of the farms by the government.
Owners of Chobezi Game Farming and Safaris, which eventually scored a positive judgment after an appeal at the Lands Tribunal, are of the view that they are the rightful beneficiaries of the farms.
In her submission to the head of State, Vanessa Nowotes, who is the Director of Administration at the company, is alleging that Schlettwein took the matter to Parliament “while fully aware that the two farms were advertised as game farms in the government gazette number 6125 of 15 September 2016.”
“The two farms are appearing in the said government gazette as a single farming unit, measuring 9,128.3026 hectares, whose land-use is game farming. This is contrary to [Schlettwein’s] submission that the ministry acquired the two commercial farms for the purpose of relieving grazing pressure on communal areas, in this case, the Ovitoto Community,” Nowotes states.
“We exemplified that Chobezi Game Farming and Safaris successfully competed and scored 65% in the evaluation of Technical Business Proposals by the Evaluation Committee on Resettlement Game Farms. [This is] the committee created by the Land Reform Advisory Commission for the chief purpose of evaluating applications for game farms, as is the case in this matter,” Nowotes wrote.
She further alleged that Schlettwein wrote a letter to her company promising them that the matter would be dealt with administratively (within the ministry) and that the ministry would revert to them, but to no avail.
She lamented that after nine years of battling, and having the matter finalized by the Lands Tribunal in October 2022, in her company’s favor, they are yet to be allotted the land in question.
She maintained that the ministry has chosen to honor one part of the Lands Tribunal judgment, which is to evict Ovitoto Hunting and Safaris, but failed to execute the allotment of the two farms to Chobezi Game Farming and Safaris.
She further maintained that the Ovitoto community, under Ovitoto Conservancy—with a 7% shareholding—submitted their business proposal application to acquire the two farms for livestock breeding and was disqualified.
JUSTICE SHOULD PREVAIL
Weighing in on the issue, Ovitoto native Rirua Komeheke maintained that while he is in support of the expansion of the communal reserve for grazing relief and the wellbeing of all its inhabitants, the process to such an end should be above board.
“What I am not supporting is the injustice surrounding the inclusion of the two farms in the communal area expansion project, knowing that there are people behind it who are having ulterior motives. These farms have been gazetted to be leased as game farms, and that process should follow its course,” Komeheke said.
“Our understanding is that there is someone in power, also a native of Ovitoto and with close ties to the ruling party, who wants to turn the luxurious housing of the farm into his homestead after retirement, hence the push for the farms to be added to the reserve area,” Komeheke alleged.