World Bank contradicts Geingob on land
Namibia second most unequal African country
While President Geingob is of the view that land does not necessarily make people rich, a World Bank report states that landlessness among the black majority has helped make the country the second most unequal in Africa.
About 70% of Namibia’s commercial farmland – or 39.7 million hectares - remains in the hands of white Namibians, which fuels the country’s inequality burden, a World Bank report states.
The report comes hot on the heels of President Hage Geingob’s recent interview in Qatar where he said land was not a panacea to the country’s spiralling poverty rates.
Black Namibians remain largely landless, the report notes, contributing to Namibia being ranked the second most unequal country in Africa after South Africa.
The World Bank report also pointed out that race-based restrictions on the movement and the ownership of land also remains a contentious issue in other Southern African Customs Union (SACU) SACU countries, though to a lesser extent.
Speaking to international broadcaster Al Jazeera in Qatar recently, Geingob said “land doesn’t solve problems”.
“Land per se does not make you rich; I have a farm for more than 20 years but I can tell you that you can sit there and starve. We [government] bought land and resettled our people, but if you do not train them to use land, [it] does not help because that land needs to be utilised,” he said.
The report, titled, ‘Inequality in Public Disclosure Authorised Southern Africa An Assessment of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)’ suggests that the rural economy can benefit from equal access to land and the strengthening of land rights both in law and in practice.
“The legacy of a highly skewed distribution of land perpetuates inequality in Namibia and South Africa, which in turn undermines rural development and entrepreneurship. Weak property rights remain a key source of policy uncertainty in these two countries. In certain cases, the parallel existence of tradition and modern legal systems creates inconsistencies in the interpretation and application of the law, which negatively affects women’s access to land.”
Geingob also admitted during his interview that Namibia’s land conundrum is based on constitutional provisions regulating land ownership.
“Land was made to be a property so it cannot just be taken away, hence it becomes difficult under our constitution to grab the land,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to World Bank report, Sacu which includes Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa, is the world’s most unequal region.
The report also revealed large inequalities in the ownership of household assets and liabilities, regardless of the component of wealth being considered.
“For example, the top 10% of the population in South Africa hold 80.6% of financial assets; 61.2 % for Botswana and 65.5% for Namibia. Many households in the bottom 10% have almost no assets and survive largely on transfers from other households,” the report states.
The net wealth Gini coefficient is 76 for Namibia and South Africa and 71 for Botswana.
Race and gender also contribute greatly to the wage inequality with women in SACU earning 30% less than their male counterparts, in Namibia this figure stands at 29% and 38% in South Africa.
The report highlights that when race is considered in the analysis, its contribution to income inequality amounts to 41%, while the contribution of education is reduced to 30% percent hence, race therefore remains a key driver of South Africa’s high inequality through its impact on both education and labour market outcomes.
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The report comes hot on the heels of President Hage Geingob’s recent interview in Qatar where he said land was not a panacea to the country’s spiralling poverty rates.
Black Namibians remain largely landless, the report notes, contributing to Namibia being ranked the second most unequal country in Africa after South Africa.
The World Bank report also pointed out that race-based restrictions on the movement and the ownership of land also remains a contentious issue in other Southern African Customs Union (SACU) SACU countries, though to a lesser extent.
Speaking to international broadcaster Al Jazeera in Qatar recently, Geingob said “land doesn’t solve problems”.
“Land per se does not make you rich; I have a farm for more than 20 years but I can tell you that you can sit there and starve. We [government] bought land and resettled our people, but if you do not train them to use land, [it] does not help because that land needs to be utilised,” he said.
The report, titled, ‘Inequality in Public Disclosure Authorised Southern Africa An Assessment of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU)’ suggests that the rural economy can benefit from equal access to land and the strengthening of land rights both in law and in practice.
“The legacy of a highly skewed distribution of land perpetuates inequality in Namibia and South Africa, which in turn undermines rural development and entrepreneurship. Weak property rights remain a key source of policy uncertainty in these two countries. In certain cases, the parallel existence of tradition and modern legal systems creates inconsistencies in the interpretation and application of the law, which negatively affects women’s access to land.”
Geingob also admitted during his interview that Namibia’s land conundrum is based on constitutional provisions regulating land ownership.
“Land was made to be a property so it cannot just be taken away, hence it becomes difficult under our constitution to grab the land,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to World Bank report, Sacu which includes Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa, is the world’s most unequal region.
The report also revealed large inequalities in the ownership of household assets and liabilities, regardless of the component of wealth being considered.
“For example, the top 10% of the population in South Africa hold 80.6% of financial assets; 61.2 % for Botswana and 65.5% for Namibia. Many households in the bottom 10% have almost no assets and survive largely on transfers from other households,” the report states.
The net wealth Gini coefficient is 76 for Namibia and South Africa and 71 for Botswana.
Race and gender also contribute greatly to the wage inequality with women in SACU earning 30% less than their male counterparts, in Namibia this figure stands at 29% and 38% in South Africa.
The report highlights that when race is considered in the analysis, its contribution to income inequality amounts to 41%, while the contribution of education is reduced to 30% percent hence, race therefore remains a key driver of South Africa’s high inequality through its impact on both education and labour market outcomes.
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