Katima Mulilo
Fifty-five-year old Richard Ntesa, a resident of Kabula village, some 70 kilometres outside Katima Mulilo in the area of Ngoma in Zambezi still has no national documents.
Ntesa, whose father was from Zambia, says he was born in Namibia to a Namibian mother.
Ntesa says he was born on March 3, 1960 at Ngoma to 85-year-old Munyinda Mabuku and a Zambian national who married his mother.
He was later at the age of 11 taken by his father to Zambia to be introduced to his relatives.
However, for some reason Ntesa cannot remember his father left him with a relative at Sesheke, Zambia as he proceeded with his journey.
Since then he had never heard from his father and he was just informed he had died.
After independence he started coming to Namibia to look for his mother and finally in 2000 he was reunited with her.
Since then his mother and other family members have been trying to obtain Namibian documents for him but to no avail.
Ntesa says that each time they approach home affairs offices they are turned away and told he is a Zambian so he must go back to Zambia and acquire documents there.
“After reuniting with my mother we took a letter from the Bukalo khuta, but still I was denied documents. In fact, we have taken at least three letters with us from the Bukalo khuta and approached home affairs about six times but each time we have been turned away because they don’t consider me to be Namibian,” stated Ntesa.
Ntesa further said that by law he is Namibian because he was born in Namibia and even attended school at Ngoma.
“On one occasion we showed them my birthmark which proves that I was born here but still they were not moved,” Ntesa elaborated.
He said he cannot move freely in the country of his birth because he is considered a foreigner.
“I cannot do anything to make a living. The other time when I went to the river to fish I was arrested and I had to pay a fine, as I am not allowed to fish as I am considered to be a Zambian,” said Ntesa.
Ntesa stressed that despite him being denied documents he has no plans to go back to Zambia, because he considers himself Namibian.
“My mother is Namibian and I am also Namibian. I have no relatives in Zambia as my father who married my mother passed on a long time ago, so where can I go? This is my home,” stressed Ntesa.