Local News Summary : News Headlines : Discussion Forums

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - Web posted at 9:21:46 pm GMT

THE most bitter of fates looms over Naomi Hoebes.

At the age of 68, she stands to be evicted from the land where she was born in 1933, where she had 13 children, where her parents, husband and three of her children are buried, and where she says she has only known a good life.

A good life up to now - that is, until she was served with court papers informing her that the new owner of the farm Ongombo Ost wanted the High Court to order her, two of her daughters and a granddaughter off the land.

Since last Monday, her stay at Ongombo Ost - some 35 km northeast of Windhoek - is no longer secure. In terms of the judgement granted against her, Hoebes can be ejected from her birthplace.

Windhoek lawyer Henner Diekmann, who represents the owner of the farm, Giacomo Savoldelli, yesterday said his client did not intend to evict Hoebes from the farm, and that he was committed to try and find an amicable solution to the problem that has arisen around the stay of the four women on the farm.

That notwithstanding, there is now a court order directing that Hoebes, her daughters Ellena Hoebes and Ingrid Eises, who were also born on the farm in 1960 and 1955 respectively, her granddaughter Elenika Eises, born on Ongombo Ost in 1973, and their livestock should be ejected from the farm.

The High Court last Monday granted a default judgement in favour of a close corporation (CC) - Comnom Properties No. 21, which is wholly owned by Savoldelli, a member of the well-known and wealthy Bonadei and Savoldelli families.

The judgement was granted after the case which the CC had made against the four women went undefended.

In terms of the judgement, the CC was given the order it had asked for - an order ejecting the four defendants, their herd of about 70 goats, as well as a few donkeys and horses, from the farm.

In the absence of Savoldelli, who is said to be out of the country, Diekmann said his client will not simply proceed with evicting the family. "That is the last thing we will do," he stated, adding that Savoldelli is interested in finding a mutually agreeable solution with regard to the stay of the women on the farm.

Diekmann said he could not say more without instructions from his client.

It appears, though, that the nature of the women's stay on the farm, where they and some half a dozen small children live in dilapidated housing patched together out of rusted iron sheets, wood and plastic sheeting right next to a much-used gravel road passing through the farm, could be the cause of the problems that have now come to a head in court.

Savoldelli last year bought the farm by taking over the CC which owns the property.

According to Hoebes, the new owner told her after the sale that she and the other women had to find out from the previous owners what was going to happen to them.

The previous owner, who is named Weitzel, told her he could not do anything about their continued stay, or not, on the farm, she related.

From the new owner she was made to understand that he wants to make changes on the farm, Hoebes says.

She, her two daughters and granddaughter are not to be part of the farm's future, she understands.

But why they have to be evicted, she does not understand, saying: "The people just come and say we must get up and move. That's what we can't understand."

She has no idea what will happen now that there is a court judgement against her. Says Hoebes: "What shall I do? I can only sit and wait. If I'm thrown out, I'll maybe just go and live in the (road) corridor."

Then she adds, with a laugh: "Like the Bushmen that wander around."

When she was visited at the farm yesterday, Hoebes was eager to show what documentation she had to support her claim of a lifelong attachment to Ongombo Ost.

Her birth certificate states "Ongombo" as her place of birth. The church certificate of her baptism states that the ceremony was performed at Ongombo, on July 5 1933.

And in an overgrown graveyard a few hundred meters further north along the gravel road next to which she lives, lie more indicators of a lifetime's ties with this land.

Here, she showed, her father was buried in 1957, her mother in 1990 at the age of 92, her husband in 1995, as were two of her daughters who died in childhood and a third daughter who died in 2000 at the age of 38.

•   Secret memo targets NBC board chief
•   Former elections chief quits Swapo
•   Fuel prices to drop again
•  Swakop shooting: husband dies, wife stable
•   Newspaper recalled over Mudge blunder
•   Policewoman fights for her life after domestic shooting
•   20-year jail terms for cash robbers
•   Swapo leaders 'outdated': Moongo
•   Stealing uranium is 'pointless': Rossing
•   Armed robbery rocks Kalkrand community
•   Veld fire devastates wildlife in maize triangle
•   Air Namibia launch Walvis international route
•   Keetmans shop owner faces assault charge
•  Southern schools temporarily merged
•   Swakop's feral cats get website
•  Big Brother Africa 3: Quirky SMSes
•  Big Brother Africa 3: You can say 'I do' in the house!