The baron of the communal lands

IF THE Ohangwena governor, Usko Nghaamwa, gets the two communal farms he wants in the Kavango East region, he will become a baron with five farms under his belt.

According to a notice, carried in one of the daily papers on Tuesday, Nghaamwa and his daughter Rhauna want two farms measuring more than 10 000 hectares. This land is enough to accommodate up to 500 communal farmers, with each getting 20 hectares as per communal land laws.

Already, Nghaamwa has two other farms in the Mangetti area – one is communal and the other a commercial farm – and a third in Ohangwena, which The Namibian understands is registered in his wife Lucia’s name.

The combined hectarage of the three farms is not known.

Although Nghaamwa denied on Wednesday that he owns two farms in the Mangetti area, a senior official at Onalusheshete village, who declined to be named, said the governor has indeed two farms in that area.

“I only have a house in Ohangwena and the two farms in Kavango East,” Nghaamwa said, declining to elaborate.

According to a notice that was placed in the New Era on Tuesday by the Kavango East land board, Nghaamwa and his daughter Rhauna want to lease the two farms for 99 years.

Nghaamwa admitted to New Era that he wants the farms, which he has been occupying since 2002 after buying them from an unidentified owner.

The notice that called for objections to Nghaamwa’s bid for the two farms said the land is in the Ukwangali territory on plots 1301 and 1319, in Mankupi area.

A traditional authority member involved with land issues in the region said Nghaamwa occupied the farms before the land was gazetted.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the traditional authority member said the two farms are part of 45 farms whose occupants were asked to apply for leasehold after the land was gazetted by the Kavango East and West land boards.

He further said Nghaamwa’s farms are well-maintained with a number of boreholes, water pumps and solar panels.

Kavango East land board secretary Fernando Marungu said the board did a background check on Nghaamwa and did not find any evidence that he owned other farms in the Mangetti area.

He said the board reserves the right to deny any applicant a leasehold should it find that the applicant owns another farming property.

Marungu said after 29 May, which is the final day for public objections, the board will make recommendations to the lands minister Utoni Nujoma, who will give the final approval.

An official from Ohangwena communal land board told The Namibian yesterday that he has no knowledge of Nghaamwa owning a farm in the region.

“I deal with farms for those who have submitted applications. I have no knowledge of his farm. Once he has submitted an application we will go through it, but at the moment I did not get his application,” the official said.

In 2012, the late Ukwangali chief, Sitentu Mpasi, admitted in court that Nghaamwa thanked him with a Land Cruiser 4×4 for land he had given him.

The Affirmative Repositioning has condemned Nghaamwa’s ownership of multiple farms in communal lands.

One of the AR leaders, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, said Nghaamwa was the same man who said young people must wait to inherit land from their fathers.

Nauyoma said it was shocking that while they were trying to campaign for land for all, politicians continue to accumulate wealth for themselves at the expense of the ordinary citizens.

“We can no longer move in this direction. This is no longer corruption, it is pure arrogance. They feel they are untouchable and powerful and will continue getting what they want,” he said.

Nauyoma also said the grabbing of land by the 1 000 youths in the Zambezi region reported this week was a foretaste of what is to come on 31 July, the deadline the AR has given the municipalities to respond to the mass land applications submitted earlier this year.

“What happened in the Zambezi can happen anywhere in the country. It is up to the system to resolve the land question on or before 31 July because the deadline remains 31 July,” stressed Nauyoma.