http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4207748.stm
The ex-owner of the first farm to face a compulsory purchase, Hilde Wiese, told the BBC she was paid a third of the sum she asked for - about $500,000.

Mrs Wiese and the 60 black workers and their families living on the farm will have to leave by the end of the year.

Expropriation orders have been served on 18 commercial farmers. The government says it aims to settle close to 250,000 landless people.

Fears

The president of the Namibia Agricultural Union, Raimar von Hase, says that fears the exercise may take on forms of violent farm invasions, as in neighbouring Zimbabwe, are unfounded.



"There is absolutely no indication that there is a development that could remotely lead to comparisons with Zimbabwe," he told the BBC's Frauke Jensen in Namibia.

Namibia has about 4,500 commercial farmers, about half of them whites.

Some 42% of the country is commercial farmland, 43% communal or tribal land, and the rest is protected wildlife area.

Farm

Mrs Wiese, the owner of Ongombo West, a 4,000 ha hectare cattle, flower and vegetable growing farm, 50km east of the capital, Windhoek, said she and her family will be leaving the farm that has been in her family since 1904 by the end of November this year.

"We have cried for too long now. We are embittered, but we have no choice and we have to make the best of it," Mrs Wiese said by telephone.

Her greatest worry, she says, are the 12 workers and their 60 odd dependants, who are expected to leave the farm as well.

"We have to pay them for the years they have worked for us, but we have no idea what will happen to them then. That is the responsibility of the government," she says.

She says it it is ironic that the people who should be benefitting from land reform will be the ones without a home and an income.

If I was the farm owner I would take as big a loan I could take to buy another ranch and get the money in a cashiers check and leave the country and transfer monies and leave Namibia bank with the loan to eat for taking my farm...


Mike

It is a sad event when people are removed from their heritage.
Mike, I am with you. My first thoughts were of violent revenge but of course that would serve no benefit to anyone and I am sure this family has a love of country far exceeding those who will soon call their farm home.
The government only thinks this is not a parallel to Zim. but the next few years will surely see an escalation of this sort of thievery. Once a people become accustomed to entitlement they are rarely able to see that there is any other way of life.
Frank

handouts don't work, they haven't worked for any country's citizens any better than they do for park bears...once fed without working always looking for handouts!!!

Great idea but flawed.Whites cannot buy property in Namibia now.You have to have black ownership in the project and at least 50% to be considered for government approval to buy a farm.

No bank will loan money for a land purchase without government OK on the deal and the banks are well aware of the ban on land purchases by non-native peoples.Never mind that the tribal groups that are in control now are not actually native.They are simply the latest group of non-whites to move in.Before them, the bushman had the run of this country.I do not suppose the black government would mind moving on and returning Namibia to the San , do you?

I'm not an apologist for European Emperialism in Africa, nor am I a sympathizer with the "downtrodden" natives, but to make the argument that the (Germans, mostly, in Namibia) took the land from the "natives" and now they're just giving it back, is stupid. 90% of Namibia was uninhabited by humans until Germans brought well-digging technology-there was no surface water AT ALL in most places. What the Germans transformed into a semi-arid paradise, was once completely devoid of human population.

They should be able to keep the land they made inhabitable.

I am with you on this one Texan but I am afraid that no one who counts will hear our cries.The whites are in the minority and no one from the west will rise to their defense.If the Namibian government takes it slow and easy the country will rid itself of whites without a big stink like that from Zimbabwe.

By the way,the country will still go to hell.Just will not be as sensational on the front end.

Should be a wake up call for all of our friends in South Africa who feel that it will never happen to them.

quote:

Never mind that the tribal groups that are in control now are not actually native.They are simply the latest group of non-whites to move in.Before them, the bushman had the run of this country.I do not suppose the black government would mind moving on and returning Namibia to the San , do you?

and

quote:

90% of Namibia was uninhabited by humans until Germans brought well-digging technology-there was no surface water AT ALL in most places. What the Germans transformed into a semi-arid paradise, was once completely devoid of human population.

are both sadly true.

Namibia as it is today is probably the biggest scam in africa.

Of course this fact is ignored by our leftist media.

This really shouldn't be a big surprise, several years ago the president of Nam. said that he thought Mugabe had some good points. If anyone thinks government giveaways work, they should visit Australia.

Several years ago, I was having a beer with Jan Oelofse, owner of Mt. Etjo Lodge, and he told me that the then president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, was a frequent visitor to Mt. Etjo. On numberous occassions, President Nujoma told Jan that he liked Mt. Etjo so much, that some day he would like to own it.

That's sad as hell. After you guys found out that Namibia was a cheaper alternative to RSA and ZimBob, shit seems to happen all over again. Once again, the old "Domino Theory" seems to hit home. I wonder how long it's going to take before all the other surrounding countries with "Non-Black" owners of land will succumb to greed and go down the toilet.

Crime, crap and corruption!

Headed the same way as Zim ... one less place I'll spend my dollars (what few I have).

Damned shame that no one applies good sense in these situations.

I have two hunts with 50% deposits on them in Namibia...that will be my last in ANY of AFRICA!! For countries such as Namibia & Zimbabwe whom rely on American money from tourists,to violate the truths American's hold most dear is enough to tell me to spend my money elsewhere!
South America and Australia will see this American's $$ from 2007 on. Those big swamp buff in Australia are enough for me and bird shooting in Argentina is superb. Those countries love their American visitors and American values!!

Cats, I'm with you. I like Australia so much better that I started PH'ing for buff there!

G'day All, loboga, giveaways don't work, that's why the Gov't here just stopped giving the $2,000,000. to ATSIC that they used to piss up against a wall every year. Aren't the Abo's whining about that! And, of course, we have our own version of 'comrade mugabe' in Far North Queensland gobbing off about the race war he's going to start.
All just another fun-packed day in the Corps.

Cheers, Dave.
Non Illegitium Carborundum.

loboga tell us more about those buff...how much for a hunt and trophy fees...what are the odds for a 100"er

$7,500 for a one week hunt. That includes the trophy fee for one buff. No other addons except airfare and maybe a night in a hotel. Additional buff $2,000. No ship and dip, you can bring your capes and horns back to the US as checked baggage. Its tough to give odds on a 100" buff, we averaged 101" a couple years ago. We had one hunter take a 106" bull and then two days later they saw another one the same size while hunting pigs. I would say a rifle hunter on a one week hunt has at least a 50% chance of taking a 100" bull if he holds out for it and near a 100% chance of one 95"+

Is this in OZ? What part and a little more about
Hogs please.

Invader, If all you want are pigs, come over and stay for a week, we will get you as much pig shooting as you want. Most of my farmer friends reckon they are pests and want them GONE!

Cheers, Dave.
Non Illegitium Carborundum.

loboga where do you fly into from the eastern USA I'd like to check the cost of air. also what time of year for the hunts? What other game is included in that $7500?

Heck 7500 + 2000 for air plus pocket $ of 2000 not a bad deal considering I don't need to pay dip& shipp that would run @2000-3000 from Tanz.
Got any pictures? Better post them in the Australia forum before some of the old fuddy duds here take exception to posting in this one.

Almost all flights to OZ from US leave from LAX, except they have one from San Fransisco, also. The buffalo hunts are all in the Northern Territory, so there is another flight to Darwin, from Sidney or Brisbane. "Minor" species are free, pigs, dingos, donkeys etc.

Up to date, not a single farm in Namibia was "expropriated " where the owner did not except the offer made by the Government.

In February last year, 6 employees of the farm Ongombo-West were unfairly dismissed and the court ruled that they have to be employed again.
This was not done and consequently the farm was identified as a "expropriation farm."
The Government made an offer and Mrs. Wiese had 60 days to respond and if she did not except the offer, she could appeal for a higher price through the prescribed legal procedures.
The offer was excepted and the farm was sold to the Government.

omuhona, does that mean I can buy land with a citizen of Namibia regardless of the color of his skin? I know sevral white farmers that have owned land for over 50 years. Can I buy land with them and keep 50% ownership. As you probably surmize, the folks I would deal with are White Namibians. I wouldn't even concider that deal with a black Namibian.

Why do you all assume the worst? It really doesn't matter that this ladies family has had that farm for 100 years and turned it into what it was with their sweat and their blood and that they are probably all buried on the property. The people moving in had ancestors that might have pissed on a blade of grass there 101+ years ago. Besides, I am sure that they are going to take over the farm and continue to keep it productive and contribute to the economy of the country.

AND I'm going to wake up tomorrow and be 205 instead of 260, and good looking all of a sudden!

Sometimes things just piss me off so damn much. I say all american sportsman cut-off hunts in Africa, cripple their economics. But of course we would then be the international bullies forcing countries to be intelligent, fair and worthy of our patronage. You damn well know that if it was a reversal thing, if whites were theo nes doing this the international press corps, every camera on the continent, it would all be hell bent on transmitting the atrocities of it across the globe and government sanctions and embargos would be levied against the government.

I was having a good night till now, think I'll go stroke a rifle and play with power tools, that usually cheers me up.

Red

quote:

Originally posted by DPhillips:

Mrs Wiese and the 60 black workers and their families living on the farm will have to leave by the end of the year.

quote:

The government says it aims to settle close to 250,000 landless people.

I find these two paragraphs both ironical and contradictory.

The government makes the existing workers "landless" and "unemployed" so they can hand the land to other "landless" and "unemployed" blacks.

Of course anyone with reasoning can forsee some Minister or other connected family member ending up with ownership sometime down the track.

The blacks in power have learned one thing from Mugabe. How to enrich yourself by grand scale theft and at any cost to your country and people.

lb404, you will own 49 % and the 51 % must be owned by Namibians. One of the directors have to be a black Namibian and there you have yourself a farm.

Helgaard, any impact in your area?
Peter.

Peter, expropriation not, but two farms in the area were offered to the Government and were sold to black Namibians.
The one farm is now leased by two white farmers from the area and the other is still managed by the couple who managed the place before it was sold.
The farm Ongombo-West was sold for N$ 3,7 000 000-, but it might be true that Mrs. Wiese only received N$ 500 000- up to now.
The latest is that the workers of Ongombo said that they will not leave the farm.

Omuhona

It is not surprising to hear you say for the two farms 'purchased' by the government that nothing has really changed, and no landless blacks have been moved in. At least the Namibian ministers must have learned that ending up owning a farm that is now a wasteland is not a very profitable scheme.

Good on the workers on that farm. Dig in I say.