Lands ministry plans for new financial year

Lands ministry plans for new financial year The Minister of Land Reform, Utoni Nujoma, said the ministry’s strategic plan for 2017/18 should take cognisance of the ongoing preparations for the second land conference to be held in September, which will chart the way forward on how the land questions should be handled in future.

At the opening of the strategic planning workshop yesterday Nujoma, however, made no mention of the deferred Land Bill or how the resettlement programme is to move ahead before the land conference.

He did urge officials in his ministry to exercise restraint and to focus on key areas within the ministry’s mandate.

The ministry boasted with a 75% rate execution of its programmes during the current financial year which ends within a few weeks.

According to Nujoma the internal audit department achieved 100% implementation; information technology (100%); regional programme implementation (88%); planning, research, training and information services (85%;) and survey and mapping (84%).

He said a notable improvement has been made in respect of the registration of properties at the deeds office. It now only takes five working days to transfer a property.

For the next financial year the ministry plans to develop 105 000 hectares of communal land. This will include the construction of four handling kraals and drilling and installing 25 boreholes.

During the 2016/17 financial year integrated regional land use plans (IRLUPs) have been developed for Omaheke, Omusati, and Oshona. Progress on the IRLUP for Otjozondjupa is 95% and for Omaheke it is 92%. Progress for Oshana and Omusati stands at 55%.

Nujoma said N$18.2 million has been collected in land tax during the current financial year. He said 866 farmers have applied to be exempted from land tax, which translates into N$3.6 million.

Catherine Sasman