President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has set a target for her administration, vowing to ensure that at least 130,000 hectares of land are added to Namibia’s productive land within the next five years.
Speaking during a recent interview with Al Jazeera, titled “Namibia’s First Female President: From Freedom Fighter to Reformer?”, Nandi-Ndaitwah underlined the dual importance of access to land and improving its productivity as central to the country’s development goals.
“The most important thing when we are talking about land is for us to ensure that we make land available and at the same time, we make it productive,” the President said.
She acknowledged the historical injustices in land ownership and reiterated that land reform remains not only a policy directive but a constitutional obligation.
“The management of the land is also part of the implementation of our Constitution. Land is part of property, and the Constitution is very clear on property rights. We must develop laws, and we started with the willing buyer, willing seller approach, but we realised it was not working. After the land conference, we introduced the land tax and began to focus on absent landowners,” she explained.
Nandi-Ndaitwah noted that while the government has made progress through land acquisition and resettlement programmes, significant challenges remain.
“Government has also acquired some land and people were resettled. However, there is still a gap, and now we have developed programmes to implement the Constitution through expropriation. Currently, our land bill is on its way to Parliament, and that will guide our next strategies to ensure balanced land distribution,” she said.
The President also pointed out that the land issue is not limited to agricultural use.
She stressed that urban land, especially for housing in municipalities, is becoming an increasingly urgent issue and forms part of her broader development agenda.
Land reform, she affirmed, is a cornerstone of her leadership and a key component of her mission to build a more inclusive and equitable Namibia.
