Agenda Land governance challenges in Namibia: o Urban land - - PDF document

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Land Governance in Southern Africa NUST-NELGA Symposium, Windhoek, Namibia

• Ms. Stephnie de Villiers

3-4 September 2019

Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences

Department of Land and Property Sciences

Land Governance Challenges in Namibia Agenda

Land governance challenges in Namibia:

• Urban land governance
• Communal land governance
• Freehold (Agricultural) land governance
• Land valuation and taxation

2 Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences

Department of Land and Property Sciences

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Urban land governance

• After Independence in 1990
• Lack of human capacity within local authority institutions

caused disastrous planning and land supply system

• Challenged planning control
• Vast majority of middle and low-income people can neither

afford purchasing urban land nor registration of rights in the Deeds Registry

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Urban land governance

• Various plans and programmes have been established
• Informal settlements declared as a humanitarian crisis

by the President in New Years speech 2019

• Hence, significant attention is paid to land and housing

provision for low-income

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Urban land governance

• Challenges:
• Slow progress on programme implementation
• Weak and poor programme management
• Lack of available funding
• Weak financial management
• Not establishing baseline prior to programme

implementation

• Lack of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

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Urban land governance

• Challenges:
• Non-availability of serviced urban land
• Outdated laws and regulations
• Complex and lengthy procedures
• Population and urbanisation forecast puts additional pressure
• n weak and understaffed institutions
• Need to strengthen human capacity and budget allocation to

avoid disastrous development of informal settlements

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Communal land governance

• Between 2003 and 2018: 119,227 communal land rights

registered (49%)

• Some traditional authorities not recognising women’s

land rights

• Some traditional authorities reject registration of

customary land rights

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Communal land governance

• High volume of land related disputes
• Between land holders, family members, traditional

authorities, local authorities

• Illegal fencing: limits access to grazing and water; collection of

firewood, veld food, etc.

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Communal land governance

• Emerging informal land market
• A consequence of legal prescriptions differing with

realities of monetised society

• Fuelled by a need for development due to pressure on

land and speculative motive by urban dwellers

• Traditional authorities benefitting at the expense of

local communities

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Communal land governance

• Population increase causes need for infrastructure

development and direct investment

• Puts pressure on communal land

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Freehold (Agricultural) land governance

• Continuing unequal distribution and ownership of land
• Redistribution programmes progressing slowly
• Previously advantaged owns 70%
• Previously disadvantaged owns 16%
• State owns 14%
• Rights of resettled farmers not registered in Deeds

Registry

• Resettlement programme is creating class inequalities

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Freehold (Agricultural) land governance

• Agricultural land reform high on political agenda
• Hampered by low financial allocation and high prices
• Land tax implemented
• Loopholes in procedures, legislation and institutional

framework

• Cases launched to court on valuation rolls

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Freehold (Agricultural) land governance

• Demand for recognition of ancestral land claims
• To bring justice regarding land dispossession during

colonial times

• Calls for innovative approaches to resolve
• Commission of Inquiry established in 2019

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Freehold (Agricultural) land governance

• Farmworkers of freehold agricultural land remains a

serious challenge

• Inhuman labour conditions and insecure land tenure
• Legislative framework not catering for their rights
• In cases of change of ownership
• In cases of eviction

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Land valuation and taxation

• Acquisition of commercial agricultural land
• State has right of first refusal in the willing seller/willing buyer

programme

• 549 farms acquired since Independence
• Limited budget allocation
• High farm prices

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Land valuation and taxation

• No functioning regulatory body for property valuation
• Inconsistent valuation practices due to unqualified

practicioners

• Or experienced practitioners using wrong methodologies
• Implications:
• Risk that financial decisions are based on incorrect valuations
• Increased litigations due to erroneous tax assessments

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Land valuation and taxation

• Law does not permit transferability of communal land

rights

• Hence, it therefore have minimal economic value and

cannot be used as financial instrument with private banks

• Concern that registration of communal land rights will

ultimately leave rural and poor people in worse situation while enriching the elite

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Land valuation and taxation

• Proclamation of new local authority areas and

expansion causes compensation cases

• Current compensation approach is insufficient to

reconstruct livelihoods

• Rates are way below market rates:
• Cultivated land: NAD 600 / USD 42
• Uncultivated land: NAD 250 / USD 17

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Thank you for your attention!

13 Jackson Kaujeua Street Private Bag 13388 Windhoek NAMIBIA T: +264 61 207 2684 F: +264 61 207 9684 E: sdevilliers@nust.na W: www.nust.na

Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences

Department of Land and Property Sciences