400 people face eviction from Aussenkehr

ELLEN ALBERTZABOUT 400 residents at Aussenkehr, 50 kilometres north-west of Noordoewer in the //Kharas region face eviction from what has been their home for 10 years, at the end of this month.

Some work for grape companies at the farm, while others run shebeens, bars, tuck shops and vending stalls.

Johannes Lengi, one of the workers, said they were told in January this year that they should move as Aussenkehr wants to extend the Spar complex which houses retail shops such as Beavers Canoe, Pep and Furnmart as well as FNB and Standard Bank. Other shops such as Lewis, Ackermans, and a Shell filling station also want space at the mall.

“We are unhappy with the situation as there is no land to move to, and authorities usually just push us towards the river if we do not move in with other families. We wrote them a letter detailing our challenges and requesting a meeting but they never responded,” Lengi said.

The families complained that the notices were just posted on shop windows with no names, stamp or signature of the author. The people dismissed the notices until they appeared on the Aussenkehr Social Investment Committee WhatsApp group.

Aussenkehr is a private grape farm on the banks of the Orange River owned and managed by Dusan Vasiljevich. It is also home to a number of grape companies where 12 000 people are permanently employed and 17 000 are on short-term contracts.

These farmworkers have for all the years lived in squalor in reed or corrugated zinc shacks on the banks of the OrangeRiver since grape farming started in 1995, without potable water, sanitation facilities or electricity.

Ten years ago Vasiljevich donated 600 hectares to the government to build houses for the people on the farm.

The Ministry of Urban and Rural Development and the //Kharas Regional Council drafted plans of a township called Newtown with 5 000 residential erven but no houses have been built so far.

Grape companies had expressed willingness to construct houses for their workers but former regional councillor for Karasberg West Paulus Efraim felt this would create a scenario where the people did not own the houses.

The councillor for Karasberg West constituency Taimi Kanyemba said the workers had asked to be moved to Newtown as they no longer want to live on Vasiljevich’s land.

Kanyemba said the only challenge is the lack of sewerage facilities there. She said water pipes were laid already and connected, but there is no sewerage network as the N$8,8 million reticulation plant was vandalised but council wants the stakeholders to move the project ahead.

She said the Namibia Grape Company and Silverlands Grape Company are ready to construct houses for their employees at Newtown. She said these houses will be owned by the workers as the government has agreed to underwrite the land and the companies will deduct the cost, of the houses directly from the employees salaries.

The councillor said her office will meet the Aussenkehr farms management to ascertain whether the eviction notice still stands.

Attempts to get comment from the Aussenkehr farms management proved futile as for two weeks the management kept on referring from one spokesperson to the other.

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