By Mbatjiua Ngavirue WINDHOEK The chaotic manner in which the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement sometimes resettles people creates a great deal of uncertainty, and in some cases can wreak havoc on people’s lives. The world of Jesiah Tsuseb (65) and wife Ann (57) fell to pieces one day when the ministry suddenly ordered them to vacate the resettlement farm Danell after they had farmed there for over four years. They lived an idyllic life on Danell, where they farmed with a small herd of goats, sheep and one cow, owned a number of donkeys and grew maize and watermelons. The income they generated from their farming was enough to meet their simple needs, with enough money left over to pay school fees for children and the occasional doctor’s bill. After the ministry evicted them from Danell in 2004, they lost everything – the sheep, the goats, the donkeys and the home they loved, are all gone. They now live in a zinc shack in Gobabis Epako township’s Tswanablok, unable to understand the catastrophe that befell them. They barely scrape by on the social pension husband Jesiah receives from the government every month, which Ann tries to supplement by making and selling dresses. The fond memories of their wonderful life on Danell haunt them day and night, with Ann Tsuses especially unable to find peace of mind while constantly wondering whether they will ever see justice before they die. The Department of Water Affairs employed Jesiah at the Otjivero Dam near Omitara, where he and other employees kept sheep and goats even though it was against department regulations. When his small stock numbers kept growing, he went to Lands and Resettlement to explain his problem, requesting them to resettle him. In 1999 a Lands official gave them a letter with instructions to take the letter to a ministry representative at Danell who would receive them at the farm. They have a copy of a letter written by Deputy Minister of Fisheries Kilus Nguvauva, then an Omaheke Regional Council official, recommending to then Minister of Lands and Resettlement and now President of Namibia, Hifikepunye Pohamba, their resettlement at Danell. The letter states “your officer” has grated permission for their resettlement at farm Danell, in the camps MC+MB+NB. They also had other supporting documents, which led them to believe the government permanently resettled them on Danell. When the ministry later evicted them from the farm in 2004, they gave most of their documents to their traditional Chief, Stephanus Gariseb, asking him to plead their case with the lands ministry. Whenever the subject of these documents comes up, Ann Tsuses gives her husband a look of severe reproach, bitterly remarking: “You are the one who likes giving documents to people.” Gariseb allegedly took the documents to the office of lands ministry official Erastus Nghishoono, where they somehow mysteriously vanished – never to be seen again. Many squatters looking for grazing for their animals invaded Danell one year when severe drought struck the region. Former deputy director at the ministry (now retired), Simeon Kanyemba, arrived with the Namibian Police to evict the squatters. The Tsusebs were however able to show documents proving they were occupying the farm legally. The couple, rightly or wrongly, blame their misfortune on former Ministry of Information and Broadcasting employee Frans Murangi. They say Frans Murangi arrived one day showing them a laminated document supposedly showing the ministry had now allocated the farming unit to his mother, Regina Murangi. According to the Tsusebs, Murangi was at first very reasonable, explaining that they could share the farming unit. He however allegedly prohibited them from allowing any of their relatives to come and stay on the farm. The situation nevertheless deteriorated into daily quarrels over the use of the camps. Ann Tsuses says that the stress of these constant arguments led her to gradually develop high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and insomnia. Ministry official in Gobabis Erastus Nghishoono allegedly told them there was nothing he could do because the instruction to allocate the unit to Regina Murangi came directly from his superior in Windhoek, Sampson Kandjii. “What we can’t understand is that if Frans’s mother was allocated the place why was she later chased away. This is why we think it was all lies and chicanery,” Ann says. When the eviction order from Acting Permanent Secretary, Leah Namoloh, finally arrived on February 12, 2004, they were forced to dispose of all their stock, as they had nowhere to take it. They sold some of the livestock to neighbouring Plessis Plaas and the rest to other buyers, until nothing remained. They say they sold their main house, 14 donkeys and some goats to Murangi to pay him to transport the materials from their remaining zinc house to Gobabis. Frans Murangi however strongly denies that he played any role in the eviction of the Tsuseb couple from Danell. “I didn’t have the power to chase anyone away because we were both there on a temporary basis,” Murangi said. According to Murangi, the farming unit was in fact allocated to a certain Van Wyk who initially failed to occupy the unit, but later came back to claim it. He also feels a certain amount of bitterness towards the ministry over the Danell experience. He built a reservoir, laid a pipeline and invested in other infrastructure on Danell, for which the lands ministry refuses to pay him compensation. Permanent Secretary Frans Tsheehama told him he could not remove any improvements he made, adding they would also not pay compensation. “The fact that they did not allow me to remove the infrastructure means they must also appreciate its value,” Murangi added with obvious disdain. He hinted he might institute legal action against the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement to claim compensation for the improvements he made. If what Frans Murangi says is correct, that both the Tsusebs and his mother were only temporarily resettled on Danell, it raises serious questions about the way Lands and Resettlement treats citizens of this country. Why does the ministry raise false hope in people, only to later cruelly dash that hope? Resettlement must surely aim at giving people the opportunity of creating a livelihood and a life for themselves. In the case of the Tsusebs, they owned livestock that formed the basis of an existence, but they lost their entire livelihood through the botched resettlement the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement thrust them into.