Namibia country report

4.4.4 The ‘broekskeur en vasbyt’ trajectoryThe ‘broekskeur en vasbyt’ or ‘neither here nor there’ trajectory is probably reflective of thevast majority of especially full-time AALS farmers, not only in Hardap and Omaheke butthroughout Namibia. In short, farmers in this category find it difficult to make ends meet,but manage to repay the AALS loan annually, albeit with “the mercy of the heavens above”.Wilfred’s story illustrates this situation. He owns a farm of 11 000 ha which he purchasedwith an AALS loan in 1998, located 60 km south of Mariental off the main road to Keetmanshoop.He grew up with his Bondelswart parents in the Gibeon area where they farmedcommunally. When he finished school he took a job as a technician in Keetmanshoop. Beinginterested in farming, he started gathering sheep, goats and cattle which he kept in theWarmbad communal area. There it became difficult to accommodate more than one personon a piece of land. His work as a technician required him to travel often, and he found itincreasingly difficult to keep control over his livestock, with the result that he sufferedmany losses due to theft and disease. He then rented commercial land for two years close tothe town of Karasburg, and he duly received a job transfer to be based in that town. When itbecame too expensive to pay for grazing there, he moved back to the Warmbad communalarea where he bought more livestock. At the beginning of 1996 he was transferred fromKarasburg to Maltahöhe.In 1995 he had decided to buy a farm through the AALS. He actively searched for a farm topurchase in Hardap, and started negotiating with the owner of the farm that he favoured. HisAALS loan was approved in October 1997, and in February 1998 the farm was transferredinto his name. The previous owner set the price for the farm and Wilfred sent the detailsto Agribank in Mariental. The bank agreed to the price and set the amount to be loaned.Wilfred resigned from his job as a technician on the grounds that farming is a full-timeresponsibility. He moved onto the farm in May 1998. Agribank did not inspect the farm toascertain that he had 150 head of cattle or 800 SSU as is required before a loan is granted.Wilfred could not recall whether the bank inspected the infrastructure on the farm beforegranting him the loan, but on his own close inspection he found most of the infrastructure to bedilapidated and in need of replacement. The farm had five boreholes, but the water supplyhad proved problematic in that the supply from the stronger boreholes was salty and notsuitable for animal and human consumption. While the other boreholes yielded suitablewater for consumption, they were very weak and often dried up during periods of severedrought.In 2008, Wilfred owned 125 head of cattle, 1 100 sheep and 350 goats in 22 camps, but hestated that the land size (11 000 ha) was not sufficing to earn him a living due to the harshenvironmental conditions along with the high mortgage to be paid on his loan. He did notfeel too upbeat about his farming prospects.He argued that the condition in which he received the farm did not justify the price he hadpaid for it. “Nothing worked and nothing was in place when I settled here. I was so eager to80 ● Livelihoods after land reform: Namibia country report (2010)