Stefanus Nambara
NKURENKURU – The Chairperson of the Kavango West Region Joseph Sikongo has strongly expressed disapproval of illegal fencing of communal land in the region.
Sikongo, who is also the councillor of Tondoro Constituency said there are some people who choose to go wherever they feel like and fence off the area, especially in communal areas without even the residents’ authorisation.
“As a chairperson of the region, it’s very much disturbing. People who have money have to come and fence the villages they feel like fencing without even the authorisation of the headman and the villagers themselves,” Sikongo stressed.
“So please don’t do it, let us follow the law. Just because you have money, you feel you are powerful and you can fence people’s area just because they don’t have money. Your money must not be used to discriminate others, your money must not be used to disadvantage other Namibians,” Sikongo added.
This the chairperson said is painful and sorry as such people are breaching the rule of the Namibian law.
“The Communal Land Reform Act is loud and clear. Whenever a farming unit or area is identified at a village, at least the villagers themselves have that authority to grant permission,” Sikongo said.
“There is no way a person can come from elsewhere and come fence at the far village, like in the case of Suni whereby the villagers did not know, were not informed that somebody was given authority to come and fence their area without their consent.”
He made a call that the situation at Suni village where a communal land is about to be fenced without the residents’ consent be stopped immediately.
The councillor said he does not want a situation where the residents are reported to the police when they remove the shack erected on the said land.
“Those of you who are breaching the law, are the ones to be removed by force but not the villagers to be arrested because they are telling you they did not authorise you to fence the area,” he stated.
He also spoke against those who allocate land in villages they are not from to immediately desist from doing so as it is illegal.
Sikongo was speaking in an interview after residents of Suni village of Tondoro Constituency in Kavango West last week were up in arms over a portion of their communal land about to be fenced off illegally to pave way for a planned farm.