By Mbatjiua Ngavirue
WINDHOEK
The skeletons are slowly, but surely, starting to fall out of the Omaheke resettlement closet, with more details emerging every day about irregularities taking place in the region.
An article that appeared in New Era on March 9 this year seems to have set off the panic among some resettlement officials, who are now desperately trying to cover up some of their activities.
The first to panic was local head of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement in Omaheke, Erastus Nghishoono, resettled by the Government on farm Schellenberg, 37 km outside Gobabis.
On March 11, only two days after the article appeared in New Era, Nghishoono hurriedly served two local Gobabis businessmen farming on his resettlement farm with an eviction order.
The move was apparently prompted by allegations in the article that he is leasing his resettlement farm to a white farmer.
At the time, Nghishoono emphatically denied there is any white person farming on his resettlement farm.
The lease agreement the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement signs with all resettlement farmers strictly prohibits sub-letting of resettlement farms to third parties.
Their policy on this is so strict the leases even provide for forfeiture of the farm unit if the lessees violate this part of the agreement.
The two businessmen, Ben Enghali Aluendo and Joseph Shefeni Enkali, are digging in their heels, saying that they are not going to vacate Nghishoono’s farm unless the Government gives them alternative land.
“When Nghishoono invited us to come to Schellenberg in 2002, he said the farm is big enough for all of us to share. He said we could stay as long as we want until we are resettled – even 30 years if necessary,” they say.
They are very bitter about the whole affair, saying that Nghishoono misled them into believing the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement approved their settlement on Schellenberg.
The two brothers are also hinting they may take the case directly to the Anti-Corruption Commission in Windhoek.
They were quick to see that it was the New Era story that triggered Nghishoono’s move against them, but they argue the article never mentioned them but only the white farmer on Schellenberg.
They therefore cannot see why they must be the ones to suffer the consequences after having farmed on Nghishoono’s farm for five years now.
The eviction order Nghishoono served on the Enkalis is a sworn declaration he supposedly made before the Namibian Police at Gobabis, and reads as follows:
“I hereby declare that I am officially allocated Unit B of Farm Schellenberg 79. I have been assisting Josef Enkali and Ben A. Enghali free of charge with grazing at my farm. I have been instructed to remove them from the farm as it is against the lease agreement that I have signed with the ministry. Therefore they have to move their cattle from the farm.”
The two Enkali brothers decided they were not going to allow Nghishoono to intimidate them so easily.
They were sceptical about the legality of the eviction order and questioned Nghishoono about the identity of the police officer that signed and placed the official Nampol stamp on the document.
Nghishoono allegedly refused to disclose the identity of the police officer, but the name under the signature clearly reads I. U. Hianavita.
Normally, only a court of law can issue an eviction order, and the validity of Nghishoono’s document for purposes of eviction appears questionable.
The two Enkali brothers are both very shrewd businessmen, which is why they have prospered in a relatively short time.
They both deny they ever paid Nghishoono for the right to farm on Schellenberg, but this may be on the advice of their lawyer.
In the end, it will be up to the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement or the Anti-Corruption Commission to determine whether or not this is a plausible story.
They will have to judge whether to believe that someone would allow people to farm free of charge on their farm purely out of the goodness of their heart.
The Namibian public will also ask themselves whether it is really possible that someone would allow people with 153 cattle and 650 small stock to stay on their farm without payment simply because of being a good Samaritan.
Because of Nghishoono’s denials that any white man is farming on his resettlement farm, the Enkali brothers approached the law firm Kempen & Scholtz in Gobabis with the brand number of 20 cattle on the farm.
Through the law firm, they established that the 20 cattle belong to Adriaan Nigrini, who previously owned the farm Groot Ruigte before the Government bought it for resettlement, but who now resides somewhere in the Cape.
Nigrini brought his cattle to Schellenberg around a year ago, and the Enkalis say that when Kempen & Scholtz phoned Nigrini in the Cape, he openly admitted the cattle belonged to him.
The exact size of Schellenberg is not clear, but it appears the ministry divided the farm between Nghishoono and three farm workers employed by the previous white owner.
The farm probably is about 5 000 hectares, of which the three farm workers occupy two camps each, the Enkalis three camps, while Nghishoono and Nigrini together occupy the remaining seven camps.
According to the Enkalis, they have 153 head of cattle on the farm and 650 head of small stock, while Nigrini allegedly has 20 cattle and Nghishoono 11 cattle and 30 to 40 goats.
At this stage, it is not even clear whether the units were allocated fairly in accordance with the decisions of the Land Commission, which has the final say on allocation of resettlement farms. Now that Nghishoono wants to evict them from the farm, the Enkalis have requested their long-time lawyer in Gobabis, Bennie Venter, to investigate the matter.
They have specifically requested Venter to establish what Nghishoono’s agreement is with the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, and what agreement they have, if any, with the ministry.
They say that in 2004 an inspector from the Ministry of Lands, Andries Kanyangele, came to investigate their presence on Schellenberg, saying the ministry specifically sent him for this purpose from Windhoek.
Kanyangele took a sworn statement from the Enkalis, indicating he would take a similar statement from Nghishoono.
“We told him we did not come under the table, but that Nghishoono brought us there” they say.
They further add that at no time did Kanyangele indicate they might be occupying the farm illegally.
The Enkali brothers went to protest to Omaheke Governor Laura McLeod about Nghishoono’s actions.
They say McLeod advised them to re-submit their applications for resettlement directly to her office.
When approached for comment, Erastus Nghishoono first phoned his superior in Windhoek – someone with the name Hafeni – to ask authorisation to speak to the reporter.
He says he was told to “not accommodate” the New Era reporter, but whether the telephone call was genuine or not is anyone’s guess.