WINDHOEK – Government has revealed its difficulties in convincing about 100 members of the Mayeyi tribe, who were removed from Mudumo National Park in the Zambezi Region by the colonial regime over three decades ago, to move away from the park for their own safety.
The group has been residing near the park for over a year now and insist they will not move until their ancestral land is returned.
“They refuse to move away from the park. We as government are really concerned about their safety but they said they will stay put until such time a solution is found,” said Linyanti and Judea Lyamboloma constituencies’ councillor Cletus Sipapela yesterday.
Close to 100 villagers were removed from their ancestral land in the 80s by the apartheid administration to pave the way for the Mudumo reserve that at the time was proclaimed a national park.
The villagers were relocated to Liyanshulu in Linyanti Constituency where they settled for over 30 years until last year when they demanded that government relocate them back to their ancestral land in Mudumo. They are invoking their ancestral rights over the park.
Their claim was ignited when officials from the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement visited Liyanshulu to register people for land rights in the communal areas last year.
The councillor said when the ministry of lands came to register people at Liyanshulu, the group that previously lived there told those who were relocated from the park that they cannot be registered there because their ancestral land is in the park.
Without any authorisation, the affected community decided to leave Liyanshulu village and started squatting on a piece of land near the park, which teems with dangerous wildlife such as elephant, hyena and lion.
Sipapela said government cannot directly intervene since it’s a traditional authority issue.
However he said they are busy engaging the Mayeyi Traditional Authority with the hope that the group moves back to their villages until a solution is reached.
Regarding their safety, Sipapela said that where they currently reside is not safe because the area is infested with dangerous wild animals.
He also said the schoolchildren are mostly at risk because they commute about 2.5 kilometres to and from school at Liynashulu through the game-rich forests.
Although the group is currently without water, Sipapela said as government they have involved the Rural Water Supply Department in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry to assist them with water tanks once in a while.
“But the water they get is still not enough,” he maintained.
The issue of relocation has been dragging on for over a year now since the group met with their traditional and regional council as well as the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, which is responsible for national parks.
Chief Boniface Shufu of the Mayeyi Traditional Authority was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print.