July 31st, 2012
The Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Alpheus !Naruseb, is intervening in a land dispute in which the Uukolonkadhi Traditional Authority is accused of allotting portions of land already given to the Onandjandja resettlement project.
!Naruseb confirmed that he is still investigating the matter.
About 40 families of returnees were resettled on a 900-hectare piece of land in the Omusati Region in 1992 after the Lands Ministry had requested traditional authorities to give communal land for resettlement purposes.
The beneficiaries settled on the allotted land in 1993, and the land was officially handed over by then Minister of Lands Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2003.
Then, the resettlement project had 22 two-bedroomed houses and the beneficiaries were given various agricultural tools, including a tractor, seeds, and start-up capital to work the land.
Onandjandja resettlement project chairperson Gabriel Venomusheko said last week that everything went well until 2003 when the land was handed over to them.
Since then, said Venomusheko, Uukolonkadhi Traditional Authority Chief Daniel Shooya has decided to dish out land within the boundaries of the resettlement land to other people who pay a fee of N$600 to the traditional authority.
Venomusheko said more people than the original beneficiaries have so far been given land within the resettlement area, which was fenced off from the surrounding communal area.
He said even Chief Shooya has claimed land for himself within the boundaries of the resettlement farm, and maintained that most of the new settlers have access to land somewhere else.
Chief Shooya is said to have a palace at Oshika in Uukolonkadhi, and a second one at Onandjandja where he has settled with his second wife who comes from Oshanashipundi.
Shooya could not be reached for comment despite several attempts.
The traditional authority has settled the new people in the grazing area, which has decimated the grazing grounds.
Venomusheko accused the newcomers of maliciously blocking access to boreholes, cutting down fences around the farm, damaging pipes and opening gates at night to drive out the livestock of the original settlers.
“The traditional authority tries to force us out,” said Venomusheko, who claims that Shooya has decided to claim up the resettlement farm because it looks “like an island in the middle of the sea”.
“Poor and elderly people who cannot afford to buy fencing materials are those who are affected mostly because animals come to destroy their crops. Some of these people are forced by starvation to leave the resettlement area,” he said.
Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, the resettlement committee asked lands Permanent Secretary Lidwina Shapwa to intervene.
She referred the group to the lands ministry’s office in Oshakati and the Omusati communal land board, which in turn delegated a team to investigate the matter.
This team compiled a report and made the recommendation that the traditional authority should desist from the illegal allocation of land in the resettlement area, and that all land allocations so far made be declared null and void.
Undeterred, the traditional authority continues with land allocations, Venomusheko said.
On February 26, 2010, members of the resettlement committee were summoned to the office of the traditional authority where they were told that they have no right to ask anything, and that they should remain silent on the matter.
Venomusheko said they were also told that the two resettlement projects at Onandjandja and Oshihau were established on a tribal and illegal basis, and the fences should be removed.
The resettlement beneficiaries are said not to be Oshikolondkadhi speakers.
Venomusheko said many of the newcomers have set up their homesteads in the resettlement project, but these homes are for the most part left empty.
Source: All Africa
Leave a Reply