Namibia country report

a letter of motivation and a stock book, which she had. She also supplied a letter fromher mother’s sister’s husband stating that the water shortage at Rietfontein rendered thesupply insufficient for watering the 85 cattle that Angelina was grazing there at the time.She applied in late 1999 for resettlement at Grootrooibult, and in May 2000 the Ministryphoned to notify her that her application had been approved.Angelina was allocated a land unit of 1 400 ha, of which 30% was bush-encroached. Theinfrastructure was in poor condition when she arrived; the borehole and drinking troughwere broken and the water tank was leaking. Workers who had worked on her grandmother’sfarm assisted her with repairs. On her first visits to the farm, Angelina slept in her caras there was no house on her premises. After receiving what she called “a 99-year leaseagreement” from the government, she decided to build her own house. Financially, shestruggled to make ends meet. The problems started while she was in the UK. Her son, whowas asked to look after the farm during her absence, allegedly stole nearly 120 cattle and soldthe heifers and young bulls. In addition he spent N$24 000 on personal items rather thanon buying cattle, for which purpose Angelina had sent the money. As if that were not enough,after returning to the farm she injured her hand and was forced her to use most of her savingsto cover the medical costs as she did not have insurance. After recovering from this injury,she had to look for a job in town again. Although keen to debush her land to provide moregrazing for her cattle, the process was expensive and she feared that the cost may derailher plans to save money for purchasing a bigger farm through the AALS. Her hopes for thefuture were to farm commercially and perhaps one day to have registered stud animals.She planned to keep working in town for at least another five years until she had enoughmoney to either debush her present farm or purchase a bigger one. Until then, she did notsee herself being able to live on farming alone.5.5.5 The ‘blocked accumulation’ trajectoryGrows up in an urban area, acquires education and then employmentKeeps livestock in a communal areaBecomes a part-time FURS beneficiary with the aim of becoming a full-time AALS farmerUnsuccessful in efforts to accumulate livestock, therefore unable to buy an AALS farmThe ‘blocked accumulation’ trajectory applies to beneficiaries who grew up in urban areas,completed their education at whatever level, and then found employment or establishedtheir own business. With their income they bought livestock which relatives in a communalarea looked after. Some also hired land for their livestock in a commercial farming area.They then applied for resettlement or were settled on government land bought for droughtrelief in the early 1990s. Some of them hired people to run their urban business so that theycould farm full time. Before long, their livestock numbers exceeded the carrying capacityLivelihoods Section after B ● Land 5. Farm Reform: Unit Resettlement Namibia country Scheme report (FURS) (2010) ● 117