The land question in Namibia : land reform and social transformation in the post-apartheid Era

Abstract

Namibia's land reform has yet to evoke any notable social change and has failed to significantly lessen poverty and socio-economic inequality. The land reform, adopted as a means of rural development and social justice, incorporates land redistribution and to a lesser extent, tenurial reform. The land redistribution process is based on the market assisted land reform methodology; as such, Namibia's social change is integrally linked to the operation of the market and is moderate in nature. Many of the problems with the program find root in the contradictions of MALR's founding framework---neo-liberalism. SWAPO has struggled to remedy these problems with limited success, battling both overarching socio-political issues as well as insufficiencies in neo-liberalism itself. It is unlikely that the process will hasten to any significant degree in the near future nor make any substantial change to the nationwide problems of poverty and socio-economic inequality.