Dordabis and Farm Christerine: Exposing Government Neglect and the Crisis of Landlessness
Updated: Oct 12
A familiarisation visit to Farm Christerine No. 259 and the Dordabis area by the IPC Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform has laid bare a profound administrative and moral failure regarding land reform. The Dordabis community, consisting of more than 3,000 residents, remains confined to a mere 5 hectares of overcrowded land shared with over 2,500 head of livestock, resulting in severe land degradation, poverty, and daily conflict with neighboring commercial farms. Despite clear recommendations from the 2020 Ancestral Land Commission listing Dordabis for urgent land acquisition, the government has left these communities entirely stranded.
The crisis is compounded by bureaucratic obstruction toward landless farming cooperatives. The Tsou!Homs Farmers' Cooperative, comprising 40 families with over 500 head of livestock, followed every official government requirement, completed agricultural training, and developed business plans, only to find that official application forms completely lacked provisions for cooperative entities. When they occupied neglected and vandalized infrastructure at Farm Christerine No. 259 to protect the property and make it productive, they were met with unconsultative evacuation demands from "Land Khomas" representatives. Similarly, the Dordabis Ada-Khaibasen Farmers' Cooperative, formed by generational farmworkers with over 2,500 head of livestock, has faced broken agreements and eviction threats after identifying nearby vacant land such as Farm Omukaru 258.
It is an unacceptable contradiction that the 2018 National Land Conference resolutions promised to accelerate land redistribution while generational farmworkers and hardworking cooperatives are threatened with eviction for utilising abandoned state properties. The IPC demands that the government immediately implement the 2020 Ancestral Land Commission recommendations for Dordabis, regularise the occupation of Farm Christerine, allocate Farm Omukaru 258 to the Ada-Khaibasen Cooperative, and cease all unlawful eviction threats against citizens who only want to farm productively.
Land reform cannot remain a slogan recited at conferences while the people who feed this country are left outside the gate.
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