President Hage Geingob has expressed sadness at the continued landlessness of the /Khomanin people, a sub-clan of the Damara people, who inhabited the central areas during the 1930s.
“It is really a sad situation that the owners of the areas we are sitting on now are in the streets,” Geingob told the visiting /Khomanin delegation, which paid him a courtesy call at State House yesterday.
“So, if we can put our heads together, the solution is to find a farm in the Khomas area and buy it. It is a serious problem. Everybody knows that you were here.”
The head of state was responding to /Khomanin Traditional Community Gaos (chief) Juliana Gawa!Nas, who raised the landlessness of her community’s complaint with him.
“Due to past injustices and unjust laws, the /Khomanin people have become strangers in the country of their birth and thus do not have a place of their own, unlike the other traditional authorities,” Gawa!Nas told Geingob.
She said her community feels that the current resettlement programmes do injustice to her community due to the criteria attached, which her people will not be able to meet.
“We would like to make a humble request that the landlessness of the /Khomanin be treated as a special, complex situation, and be referred to the Emergency Management Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, where farms can be purchased in the /Khomas region and be allocated to the traditional authority, as was done with the Hai//Khom traditional community near the Etosha National Park,” Gawa!Nas pleaded with Geingob, to which the President responded positively.
She also complained about the high rate of unemployment among her community residing at Groot Aub, which she said stands at 60%.
“Your Excellency, building a shopping complex at Groot Aub will serve as an opportunity for employment-creation and an economic stimulus that will better the livelihoods of our community,” she noted.
She added that there is also a critical need for infrastructural development in Groot Aub, as the settlement currently does not have a post office, major supermarkets, banking services nor fuel station. This has forced residents in the sleepy village with a population of about 20 000 inhabitants to travel to Windhoek regularly.
Geingob expressed gratitude to the traditional authority’s leadership for their patience with the government, despite its sluggish response to the problems facing the community.
During a hearing of the Presidential Commission into Claims on Ancestral Land Rights and Restitution held at farm Baumgartzbrum, Khomas region in August 2019, Gawa!Nas demanded that the government avails Daan Viljoen Game Park, the Namib Naukluft Park and farm Bona as communal land for her community.
“The graves of our ancestors are all over the Khomas region,” she stated.
Caption (Geingob)
Visit… The /Khomanin Traditional Community chief’s special advisor Walter /Haseb, Gaos Juliana Gawa!Nas of the Khomanin and traditional councillor Evangeline /Khoeses during yesterday’s State House visit.
Photo: Kuzeeko Tjitemisa