Illegal fences removed in Ohangwena

Oswald Shivute

TAKING ACTION ... The Ohangwena Communal Land Board, together with the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, the Ohangwena Traditional Authority and the Namibian Police, recently removed illegal fences in the eastern parts of the Ohangwena Region.

Photograph by Oswald Shivute

A team consisting of officials from the lands ministry, Ohangwena land board, the traditional authority and the police, moved in at the Ondjele grazing area and ordered the removal of fences erected by three farmers who had fenced off large tracts of the communal grazing area for themselves and even enclosed some of the smaller farmers.

Ondjele is about 80 kilometres east of Okongo.

According to the deputy director in the Ministry of Lands Samwel Amutenya the three farmers, Tileinge Wapulile, Onesimus Valombola and Onesimus Iyambo, fenced off a combined 6 711 hectares. Wapulile took 4 354 hectares, Valombola 1 281 hectares and Iyambo 1 076 hectares.

Amutenya said seven other farmers in the area fenced off larger portions of land which they will remove. He did not name them.

Wapulile came in the area in 2004 while Iyambo came in 2005 and Valombola in 2010.

They were given 30-day notices to pull down the fence at the end of August last year but they ignored them.

Amutenya said they were “left with no other option but to remove the fences by force”.

The headman of Ondjele village Josef Michael Holongo and a senior member of the Ohangwena Communal Land Board Johanna Shanyengana welcomed the removal of fences because the farmers fenced off more than what they were supposed to.

“One of them even enclosed my area. Now the land can return to all communal farmers in the area,” Holongo said.

The Namibian could not get comment from Wapulile and Iyambo, but Valombola said he was not aware of the removal of his fence.

“I think the others too might also not know about that.”

Valombola said he received the land from Holongo in 1998 and fenced it off in 2001, before the Communal Land Reform Act came into effect.

He confirmed receiving the 30-day notice but said he forwarded it to his lawyer who is still busy with it.

“If it is true that they are removing my fence, I will take them to court because they have not given me an eviction order,” Valombola said.

Sources said all the other farmers who have been issued with notification letters have approached their lawyers.

Ondjele area is reportedly at the centre of a dispute between the Oukwanyama and the Ondonga Traditional Authorities. Both traditional authorities claim the area falls under their jurisdiction.

Last month Chief of the Namibian Police, Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga, condemned illegal fencing taking place at the N≠a Jaqna Conservancy in the Tsumkwe West area and ordered the 31 farmers grazing in the area to remove their fences.

However, the farmers had refused to comply with the order and the deadline of 6 July expired and the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement issued a tender for a company to remove the fences.The illegal farmers, who have invaded the N≠a Jaqna Conservancy since 2008, an area that had been gazetted by the government as a communal area and inhabited by the !Kung Community, have put a halt to economic activities taking place there. Residents of the !Kung community have expressed concern over the disruption of economic activities and have pleaded with government to intervene.