Farmers who wanted to pay their land tax at a magistrate court at Otjiwarongo and Outjo have been turned away. Despite various reminders by farmers and farmers’ associations to the lands ministry to inform the farming community about the modus operandi for the payments of land tax, this call had been ignored. The financial year for the government ends on 31 March and reliable sources told PLUS that the ministry wants to already collect land tax before the end of March with the d-date set for 22 March. Immediately afterwards, in April, the next set of invoices is to be sent out.

Farmers trying to find out where to pay were sent from Pontius to Pilate with the lands and finance ministries apparently pointing fingers at each other. PLUS could reliable establish that a public information campaign was planned, but had fallen through, because some farmers already received their invoices for the payment of land tax. "I do not know where to pay apart from the fact that I have not budgeted for this expense as we all assumed the collection of land tax would only start from April onwards", an irate farmer told PLUS this week. A hasty arrangement by authorities to allow every magistrate court to collect the land tax backfired, because the courts were not informed. "We refused to take the money because we do not have separate receipt books for this and the farmers insisted on a receipt", an official at a court told PLUS. "We also did not get any circular or other notification that our courts should now collect land tax", the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

While the lands ministry did the assessment of farms and compiled a valuation roll, the finance ministry is allegedly the one to send out invoices and collect the tax. "The authorities have been passive and sleeping on this issue", another farmer told PLUS.