A critical evaluation of the efficacy of the willing-seller, willing-buyer concept in the Namibia’s land reform policy and legal framework
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Date
2024
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
Namibia inherited a skewed land redistribution system in favour of a white minority,
which necessitated the newly elected government to enact measures to redress this
injustice. This study investigated the effectiveness of the willing seller, willing buyer
principle and redistribution policies that were enacted to implement the land reform
programme. The willing-seller, willing-buyer (WSWB) approach, together with the
enacted legislative framework on land have failed dismally in ensuring the equitable
distribution of land and in realising the transformative aims of the Constitution. The
study analysed the legislative framework to deduce reasons why Namibia has failed to
properly address the issue of landlessness 32 years after it attained independence. It
also criticises the path of national reconciliation that the government adopted shortly
after independence in that it deprived the country of an opportunity to holistically
address the inequitable distribution of land. The study found that the major constraints
to meaningful land reform are contained in the legislative framework on land, as well
as the mixed economy order which undermine the government’s efforts to redistribute
land. The study also found that Namibia’s land reform programme does not comply
with widely accepted requirements of a successful land reform programme, such as
rapidness in implementation, and consensus on the political legitimacy and
appropriateness of the mode of land acquisition, which in this case, is the willing seller, willing-buyer policy. Drawing on the experiences of land reforms in South
Africa and Zimbabwe this study also found that there is a need to rethink land reform
in Namibia, by infusing restorative justice in the land debate, by combining it with
other policies that can enhance productivity in agriculture, as well as by easing the
burden on the state as the only party responsible for managing and implementing the
process of land reform.
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of laws
Keywords
Land reform, National reconciliation, Willing-seller, Willing buyer policy, Transformation, Land redistribution