TSUMKWE — The families who settled at Tsumkwe about 26 years ago say the drought has hit them severely compared to the rest of the country and they are unable to sell their cattle due to restrictions imposed on those living north of the veterinary cordon fence.
Juda Nganyone, a farmer based at Tsumkwe, says since the drought hit Tsumkwe last year, farmers have lost around 84 cattle that died from a shortage of grazing and water. The livestock now drink from leaking sewerage pipes, water that is not healthy.
He said the local communities have not been able to benefit from government’s drought relief programme like other farmers south of the veterinary cordon fence. The community of about 700 settlers in the Tsumkwe area who mostly hail from the former Ovamboland, Ongama in the north-east, Kavango and Otjituuo in Okakarara have set up houses and rear close to a thousand cattle, goats, sheep, horses and donkeys.
In the past, the settlers have been told to leave the area because of their proximity to Nyae-Nyae Conservancy that is some two kilometres from Tsumkwe. The settlers who have been living in the area since 1987, claim that the late chief of the Hai-khom San and former member of parliament, Geelbooi Kashe, gave them permission to settle in Tsumkwe long before it was proclaimed a town in 2007. They said that some of them were also born in Tsumkwe and know no other place.
Chief Tsamkxao =Oma of the Ju/hoan Traditional Authority, who took over in 2000, demanded that the settlers leave the area because they have no right to live or graze their animals there.
Tsumkwe Constituency Regional Councillor, Fransina Ghaus, when contacted for comment, said chief Tsamkxao =Oma did not give land to anyone and would therefore not approve the provision of a borehole for the settlers. Concering claims that the late chief Kashe gave them land, Ghaus said there is nothing on paper to prove such claims. “It means that they must go back to where they came from. For those who want to farm, this is a conservancy; they cannot farm with animals here,” she stressed.
Nganyone explained that their animals graze between the Nyae-Nyae Conservancy and town but poles have been erected there now to fence off the area. A letter from the Ju/hoan Traditional Authority dated April 16 2012 and addressed to 22 people including Nganyone himself, proclaimed that action would be taken according to communal land laws against unauthorized grazing of animals, building of structures, or settlement on communal land.
Nganyone said that the community recently sought an audience with Ghaus who told them to fill in resettlement documents but nothing came of it. “We are in a problem. We struggle with drinking water and there is only one drinking tap in the whole of Tsumkwe,” he said, adding that it has also been tough to get a borehole.
Ghaus told New Era that the conservancy is a means of income for the San community as many are not educated and live from the culture of hunting. “Most of them do not know about cattle farming. If you are a farmer with a lot of cattle, it is not allowed here,” she said, adding that any settler is free to live in the town like any other Namibian. Ghaus said that she distributed resettlement applications to the settlers but many refuse to fill in the forms because they apparently do not want to be resettled in other areas.
By Magreth Nunuhe