WINDHOEK – Descendants of the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu claiming Erindi Private Game Reserve to be their fore-fathers land have cautioned the Mexican billionaire investor Alberto Baillères to leave their ancestral land, warning if he continues with the deal, he stands to lose his investment.
Baillères, worth N$122 billion ($8.3 billion) according to Forbes, met President Hage Geingob, Minister of Land Reform Utoni Nujoma and Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein in a meeting at State House on Wednesday.
Mexico’s second richest man, Baillères is finalising a sale agreement with the owners of Namibia‘s biggest private owned game reserve.
Erindi, currently owned by South African Joubert brothers, measuring some 71 000 hectares, has been on the market for nearly five years for about N$2 billion.
“Just as you identify with Mexico, we identify with Namibia as our and sole place of existence. Your plans are just about to erode the birthright and that is not acceptable by any international legal instruments protecting indigenous communities or first people,” the group said in an open letter to Baillères.
“While Erindi is currently in the hands of the Joubert family, who are South Africans, we are the legitimate owners of the land, It could be beneficial to you to revisit the history of dispossession in Namibia,” further reads the letter.
The group said indelible evidence exist pointing to the fact that many villages depicting the rich ancestral history of Ovaherero and Ovambanderu communities in and around Erindi exist even today.
“It is a common knowledge that the hero of the struggle for liberation of Namibia his people, Chief Hosea Kutako was born at Omburo-Ndjiharine in the vicinity of modern day Erindi,” added the letter.
The group further warned that Baillères will be ill advised to continue with the transection knowing that should all laws are adhered to, he is set to lose his investment.
“This is just a polite advice as the affected communities have undertaken a vow to seek the return of their ancestral land that was unlawfully and brutally taken away from them more than 100 years ago,” the letter added.
Meanwhile, Geingob has repeatedly said Namibia at the moment does not have any law prohibiting foreigners from buying land.
In fact, Geingob reminded the media on Wednesday that the current owners of Erindi Private Game Reserve are not Namibians, but are the Joubert brothers, who are South Africans.
Geingob in a media statement this week emphasised that a waiver was already in place for Erindi Private Game Reserve, granted by former Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana.
He said government wanted to purchase the farm for purposes of resettlement at a time when the farm was back on offer in the market, however, he added that the farm was not suitable for resettlement, but in an attempt to keep the farm in Namibian hands, government offered an amount of N$230 million to purchase.