The party asked the High Court to review and set aside former land reform minister Utoni Nujoma’s decision to give permission for Comsar Properties to lease four farms from the government.
The farms, with a combined size of more than 17 000 hectares, are situated east of Windhoek and north of Dordabis.
The PDM also asked the court to review and set aside the government’s or Nujoma’s decision to lease the farms to Comsar Properties.
Alternatively, the party wanted the court to declare that the arrangement through which the government became the registered owner of the farms when Comsar Properties donated the land to it, and the government then agreeing to lease the same land to the company for 99 years, is unlawful.
Comsar Properties paid the purchase price of N$43.4 million to the farms’ owners and then donated the farms to the government.
In return, the government agreed to thereafter lease the land to the company for 99 years.
Comsar Properties bought three other farms, with a combined size of about 28 000 hectares, in the same area in 2012 and 2013, and combined the land to form a game reserve operating under the name Marula Game Ranch.
The PDM claimed the purchase of the farms and the leasing of the land to Sardarov’s company were part of a scheme devised to circumvent the Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act, and that the land reform minister was not entitled to lease the farms to a foreigner for 99 years.
Sibeya heard oral arguments on the PDM’s application in April last year.
