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02:44Last update on: 12 Aug 2013
The Namibian
Mon 12 Aug 2013
SMS Of The Day * MINISTRY of Gender and Child Welfare, TEARS are rolling down as I write this SMS. The killing of women in Namibia is now like reciting a poem. Are we really getting the protection we deserve while women not being treated as part of this c Food For Thought * SO the Zimbabwe elections were free and peaceful and not free and fair? Bouquets And Brickbats * NURSES at Katutura Hospital must stop wearing those big plastic sandals at work because they are not the official working shoes. We want to see you looking smart and beautiful with your full uniform. SMS Of The Day * THIS nation is in dire need of a massive conference on housing. When we experienced a crisis in the education sector a crisis-control brain-storming conference was organised which resulted in the best deal ever for the Namibian child, nam Food For Thought * BOURGEOISIE has become a daily occupation if not the order of the day of the upper-echelons, President Hifikepunye Pohamba we urge you to revisit this unpatriotic geocentricism among your staff and the well-connected, for everybody to r Bouquets And Brickbats * COMMISSIONER of Prisons, can you please explain the strategies you use to appoint officers to certain positions? It is my observation that you are being fed with wrong information then you just promote individuals without making p SMS Of The Day * I THINK Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda lost his belt because of this promoter and trainer. How can a world champion still be training at the Katutura Youth Complex where there is not enough equipment. I think they must follow the example of Ha Food For Thought * NAMIBIA Dairies are unable to match low prices of imported milk and this ultimately means the consumer will have to pay more for local milk. Look at the prices of the local chicken. All these profits are going in the pockets of a few in Bouquets And Brickbats * I AM pleased to hear that Cabinet has responded positively to the proposal of Namibia Dairies to support the industry. The restrictions which support the industry by reducing competition to ensure the survival of the industry is a SMS Of The Day * CEO’s golden handshakes. Somewhere on our statute books there must be a provision that if a board of directors suspends/dismisses a CEO without due regard to legal provision (substantive/procedural law) such board must carry the costs for Food For Thought * JACKY Asheeke was so right with her last column- why are the fathers of the dead children not being prosecuted? (Reference to the children who died in shack fires last week) Our justice system still protects men over women. In this cont Bouquets And Brickbats * ALEXACTUS Kaure, your column in Friday’s newspaper opened my eyes. One hardly finds impartial case study analysers in Namibia. Let’s not destroy the Polytechnic’s strong foundation (Tjivikua) as yet. At least wait until the transf
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NEWS - NAMIBIA
| 2013-08-12
Ohangwena farmer sues to keep fence
Werner Menges
AN OHANGWENA Region farmer is suing the Ohangwena Communal Land Board over the removal of the fences he erected to enclose more than 4 000 hectares of supposed communal land.
A first round of arguments in the case which farmer Tileinge Wapulile has filed against the chairperson of the Ohangwena Communal Land Board was heard in the High Court in Windhoek on Friday.
The hearing ended with Judge Dave Smuts granting an interim order, in terms of which fencing material removed from the land enclosed by Wapulile must be safeguarded until the case has been finalised.
The interim order is in force until 18 September at this stage.
Wapulile wants the court to ultimately order the chairperson of the Ohangwena Communal Land Board to put back the fences removed from the piece of land, which he considers to be his farm.
He is claiming that the Ondonga Traditional Authority allocated the land in question, measuring close to 4 355 hectares, to him. He has been farming on the land, known as Odjele Grazing Farm and situated in the Okongo constituency of the Ohangwena Region, since 1986, and has had the land fenced since 1989, he stated in an affidavit filed with the court.
Wapulile is also claiming that the Ondonga Traditional Authority has been aware all along that he fenced off the land allocated to him.
However, the Ohangwena Communal Land Board ordered him on 30 August last year to remove the fences he had built, because according to the board his fences had not been authorised in terms of the Communal Land Reform Act of 2002.
Officials from the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, accompanied by police officers, arrived at his farm on 26 July and started to dismantle his fences, Wapulile stated.
“I worked hard during the past 27 years to ensure that Odjele Grazing Farm has adequate grass and shrubs for my cattle,” he informed the court in his affidavit. “The opening up of any land to all and sundry will jeopardise my grazing as these other persons will bring their cattle onto my farm for grazing.”
The current drought will worsen the damages he will suffer as a result of other farmers using the grazing on the land allocated to him, Wapulile claims.
He also stated that he has applied - but to the Oshikoto Communal Land Board, instead of its Ohangwena counterpart - to be exempted from the legal prohibition of the fencing off of communal land. In his view, the fences he has erected are not against the Communal Land Reform Act.
The chairperson of the Ohangwena Communal Land Board, Daniel Hangula, answered in an affidavit also filed with the court that Wapulile has no right under the Act to put up fences in an area that is communal land, and meant for the use of a larger community.
Hangula stated that Wapulile had been informed that he had a right to appeal against the board’s decision, but he did not lodge such an appeal.
Hangula also disputed Wapulile’s claim that his fences have been in place since 1989. An investigation has shown that he started to put up the fences only in 2002.
Hangula also claimed that the Ondonga Traditional Authority did not have the legal authority to confer land ownership rights in a communal area to Wapulile.
A first round of arguments in the case which farmer Tileinge Wapulile has filed against the chairperson of the Ohangwena Communal Land Board was heard in the High Court in Windhoek on Friday.
The hearing ended with Judge Dave Smuts granting an interim order, in terms of which fencing material removed from the land enclosed by Wapulile must be safeguarded until the case has been finalised.
The interim order is in force until 18 September at this stage.
Wapulile wants the court to ultimately order the chairperson of the Ohangwena Communal Land Board to put back the fences removed from the piece of land, which he considers to be his farm.
He is claiming that the Ondonga Traditional Authority allocated the land in question, measuring close to 4 355 hectares, to him. He has been farming on the land, known as Odjele Grazing Farm and situated in the Okongo constituency of the Ohangwena Region, since 1986, and has had the land fenced since 1989, he stated in an affidavit filed with the court.
Wapulile is also claiming that the Ondonga Traditional Authority has been aware all along that he fenced off the land allocated to him.
However, the Ohangwena Communal Land Board ordered him on 30 August last year to remove the fences he had built, because according to the board his fences had not been authorised in terms of the Communal Land Reform Act of 2002.
Officials from the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, accompanied by police officers, arrived at his farm on 26 July and started to dismantle his fences, Wapulile stated.
“I worked hard during the past 27 years to ensure that Odjele Grazing Farm has adequate grass and shrubs for my cattle,” he informed the court in his affidavit. “The opening up of any land to all and sundry will jeopardise my grazing as these other persons will bring their cattle onto my farm for grazing.”
The current drought will worsen the damages he will suffer as a result of other farmers using the grazing on the land allocated to him, Wapulile claims.
He also stated that he has applied - but to the Oshikoto Communal Land Board, instead of its Ohangwena counterpart - to be exempted from the legal prohibition of the fencing off of communal land. In his view, the fences he has erected are not against the Communal Land Reform Act.
The chairperson of the Ohangwena Communal Land Board, Daniel Hangula, answered in an affidavit also filed with the court that Wapulile has no right under the Act to put up fences in an area that is communal land, and meant for the use of a larger community.
Hangula stated that Wapulile had been informed that he had a right to appeal against the board’s decision, but he did not lodge such an appeal.
Hangula also disputed Wapulile’s claim that his fences have been in place since 1989. An investigation has shown that he started to put up the fences only in 2002.
Hangula also claimed that the Ondonga Traditional Authority did not have the legal authority to confer land ownership rights in a communal area to Wapulile.
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