A rejected import

Abstract

Abstract provided by author

In 1990, the government of Namibia was faced with a lot of problems pertaining to land issues and had the imminent challenge of formulating and reforming land reform policies for the reformation of both communal and commercial agricultural land. In 2002, the Communal Land Reform Act, 5 of 2002, was enacted

With an objective of reforming communal land, the Act introduced the registration of existing and new customary land rights in communal areas. Section 22 of the Act makes provision for the application of a customary land right, in respect of communal land. Additionally, Section 24(4) (a) makes provision for the ratification of such rights by the Land Board of the respective area

Most significantly, the rudiments of the problem in this paper are in Section 25, which stipulates that, "if a board ratifies the allocation of a customary land right under section 24(4) (a), it must cause such right to be registered in the prescribed register, in the name of the person to whom it was allocated and issue to that person a certificate of registration"

Since the Communal Land Reform Act came into force, the registration process has begun in all communal land areas, but Kavango. The Kavango communities are opposed to the registration of customary land rights. The bone of contention is that, such registration is against their customary practices

In a meeting held on the 4th June 2007 between the 5 Kavango Traditional Authorities and the Deputy Minister of Lands and Resettlement, the authorities submitted a petition, wherein they stated the reasons for refusal to register which include, inter alia, ecological and socio-political reasons

Although shifting cultivation, being an ecological reason, is the main reason for refusal to register, there are also others, such as interference with the resource management powers of the traditional authorities, exploitation of resources by the wealthy, conflict resolution mechanisms, utilization and exploitation of common resources and the constitutional right to property

The crux of this paper is to look at the introduction of registration of customary land rights in Kavango, as well the attitude of the communal land occupants to the registration process. The aim is to find out if registration of customary land rights is acceptable or not acceptable, and the reasons advanced thereto. Hence the discussion will not be confined to shifting cultivation, although that will be the starting point.