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

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

8/29/19 Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences Department of Land and Property Sciences Land Governance in Southern Africa NUST-NELGA Symposium, Windhoek, Namibia Ms. Stephnie de Villiers 3-4 September 2019 Land Governance


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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

4

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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)

5

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  • Outdated laws and regulations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

13

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