Lahja Nashuuta

Windhoek Rural constituency councillor Piet Adams has given land reform minister Calle Schlettwein a week to provide land for resettled farmworkers and residents of farm Baumgartsbrunn near Windhoek.

Responding to the ultimatum, Schlettwein said he is currently out of the country on official business [Cairo/Africa Water Week], and has not seen any official communication from Adams. 

“We have only seen what was published in the media,” he said.

Schlettwein, however, added that they previously had positive engagements regarding the //Khomanin land plight. 

“We need to recall that after very fruitful engagements between us and the traditional authority, we have agreed and implemented the acquisition of farms, which are in the process of being converted to communal land. Baumgartsbrunn is not part of that acquisition,” he said. 

“It is important to state that we act in a systematic way in compliance with the law, and we do not respond to threats”, he added. 

Adams issued the demands during an interview with New Era on Monday, maintaining that he had exhausted all formal communication and efforts which were intended to bring all the parties together for deliberative engagement.

“I have given Schlettwein a week to resolve the land crisis between the
//Khomanin community and Baumgartsbrunn and Dordabis farm owners. Otherwise, I will organise the masses, and we will go camp at his office,” he
threatened.

Adams further said: “I am just a constituency councillor; I don’t have power to allocate land. There are people living in those commercial farm corridors and struggling with grazing areas, and the government is aware of this, but the minister has been ignoring them. I do not have land to give them. It is the government that takes care of these people.” 

Recently, Schlettwein announced in the National Assembly that the government had acquired two commercial farms in the Khomas region to establish communal land for the Khomas community.

The farms are Portion 1 of the Farm Groot Korasieplaats, farm No. 440, which is 3 811.5334 hectares and worth N$11.2 million; and the second farm is the remainder of the Farm Groot Korasieplaats, farm No. 440, which is 4 321.4135 hectares and worth N$22.6 million (inclusive of transfer fees). The combined value of both farms is N$33.8 million.

The //Khomanin  community, however, don’t want the said farms.

“How can you convince people who have been residing in Baumgartsbrunn and Dordabis for many years – some have buried their loved ones there – to move to a farm far from services such as schools and hospitals? What are some of the pull factors that the government plans to introduce before relocating the community? What informed the government decision that the farms would be suitable places for the //Khomanim community?” Adams questioned. 

He maintained that John Cuff was supposed to make land available for the government to purchase at a fair price to resettle the community, instead of buying faraway farms for them.

To this, Schlettwein said: “We have looked into the matter, and for now we established that Mr Cuff is the legal owner of the property (Baumgartsbrunn). We have not received any offer from him to sell the farm to government, and we have not considered any waiver.”

Meanwhile, the dust refuses to settle on the dispute between the //Khomanin community at Baumgartsbrunn and Cuff over farm ownership.

The farm residents state that they had an agreement with previous owner Helmut Bleks, who is now deceased, that they would be allowed to live on the farm for the rest of their lives. 

Verona Kharuxas of the Landless //Khomanin  group said the farm is their ancestral land, and the portion where they reside is lawfully theirs as per the agreement with Bleks. Cuff has now pushed the community to a small portion of the farm, and started selling land portions to private individuals.

On the other hand, Cuff claims full ownership of the farm, and is a title deed holder. The farm is registered under Baumgardsbrunn (Pty) Ltd, a company owned by Cuff.

He told New Era that the Bleks Foundation sold the whole farm, including the area which was previously donated to the //Khomanin Traditional Authority.

“I am the owner of all that land, and I bought all the land the Bleks Foundation sold to me. Everyone is staying illegally here, except for two former workers who were part of the agreement to reside on the 200 hectares. Otherwise, the rest I will send to those farms made available by Calle (Schlettwein),” Cuff said.

“I am not planning to evict people now, but I can confirm that I have started developing the farm. There are about 40 families residing there, but the space is too small, and my hope is that the government will speed up the resettlement processes so that the community can be moved to an area where they can be productive,” Cuff noted.

Queen 

The community has furthermore, accused the //Khomanin Traditional Authority queen, Juliane Gawanas, of siding with the farm owner.

Kharuxas accused Gawanas of sabotaging a planned meeting between the landless community and Cuff, where the two parties were supposed to reach a resettlement agreement.

Kharuxas said: “While the community is being chased from the farm, Gawanas goes to the same people to ask for wood and meat – from the farmer who has been impounding our animals, and who has no respect for us – for a festival that is supposed to take place in November 2024 on a date to be announced by her.” 

“Gawanas has failed us, and she is continuing to fail u. She is going to have a festival with her family and Cuff’s friends only. The chief must step down from the seat, and allow the people to be led by a person who has the interest of the entire community at heart, and is elected by the people.”

Senior headman and special advisor to Gawanas, Jorro Eiseb, has condemned the //Khomanin  land activists’ allegations against the queen, saying it is meant to tarnish her reputation. 

“The queen has never been in contact with John Cuff, not even at a personal level. In most cases, when the need arises to reach out to the farm owner, the queen will either send Jorro or another special advisor. The truth is that the queen never sided with Cuff or any commercial farmer at the expense of the landless community,” he dismissed.

Legal threat 

Meanwhile, the //Khomanin Traditional Authority, through lawyer Kadhila Amoomo, instructed land activist Shaun Gariseb to withdraw the allegations he made against Gawanas, and to apologise to her not later than Wednesday.

“It is our instructions that on 10 October 2024, you and two others produced and published a press statement, wherein you made allegations that her majesty, the queen of the //Khomanin Traditional Authority, is collaborating with the systematic displacement and suppression of her people, and that she is collaborating with those who are destroying the ancestral graves of the //Khomanin.”

The letter further reads: “These allegations are not only false, but are also clearly made with the malicious intention to cause a mutiny within the //Khomanin Traditional Authority. The allegations are defamatory of the reputation of her majesty the queen, chief Julienne Gawanas.” 

However, Gariseb has refused to budge. 

“I’m willing to die for the plight of my people, and legal threats won’t deter me from standing for the truth. Everything we said was the truth, and the chief knows, so we stand by them. I’d rather go to hell than apologise,” he said.

Gariseb added: “The lawyer is misguided and misinformed. The lawyer must see the provisions of the Traditional Authorities Act, and not get excited to threaten me. He must withdraw from our traditional authority’s affairs,” he added.

-lnashuuta@gmail.com