Tweya to be summoned for illegal fencing

By: OLAVI HAIKERA

SHAMUNGWA - The police in the Kavango Region will soon serve Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Tjekero Tweya with a summons to appear in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court for failing to remove a fence he illegally erected in a communal area at Shamungwa village in the Mukwe Constituency.

Johannes Ihemba, the nephew of Ukwangali Traditional Authority leader Chief Sitentu Mpasi, has already been summonsed to appear in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court on March 26.
The two were supposed to remove the illegal fences before February 28, but failed to do so.
Detective Inspector Chrispin Mubebo, who is heading the investigation, confirmed to Nampa yesterday that cases of illegal fencing had been opened against the two .
He said the police visited the communal area fenced off by Tweya and Ihemba on February 26 and 27 this year, and found that the fences were still standing.
The Ministry of Lands and Resettlement last year verified that Tweya had fenced off 2 935 hectares to set up his own farm. Half of the fenced area has been registered and gazetted as the Shamungwa Conservancy.
The order to remove the fences was issued in accordance with directives given by Cabinet in July last year, instructing the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement to reinforce measures against those fencing land in communal areas.
Section 44 of the Communal Land Reform Act states that “any person who erects or causes to erect on any communal land any fence of whatever nature, is guilty of an offence, and on conviction, liable to a fine not exceeding N$4 000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or both”.
The chairperson of the Kavango Communal Land Board, Thomas Ngoma, earlier told Nampa that six people in the region had fenced communal land illegally, as they do not have leasehold certificates from the Land Board.
Although Ngoma refused to disclose the names of these six people, Nampa reliably established that they included Tweya, Ihemba, Minister of Local Government and Housing Charles Namoloh and Lukas Mbangu, a Rundu businessman.
The six were given notices by the Land Board to voluntarily remove the fences, or to appeal against that decision before the end of last year. Four of the six appealed to the ministry’s appeal tribunal, but Tweya and Ihemba did not.
The Regional Land Board thus opened a case of illegal fencing against Tweya and Ihemba.
Namoloh is accused of having illegally fenced off about 2 500 hectares of communal land at Mupapama village in western Kavango, which borders Angola.

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