Botswana judges differ on Bushmen case

LOBATSE – Botswana’s top judge said yesterday the High Court should dismiss a bid by some 1 000 Bushmen to return to their ancestral lands, dampening their hopes ahead of a final verdict expected later in the day.

But a second of the court’s three judges stood up for the Bushmen, saying the government had been wrong to push them out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve against their will. The case pits Africa’s last hunter-gatherers against one of the continent’s most admired governments in a dispute over diamond-rich land and development priorities.Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo, delivering his opinion ahead of the final verdict, said the case should be dismissed on the grounds that the state owns the Kalahari desert land.”The contention of the applicants that the government unlawfully deprived them of their land …must fail,” Dibotelo said in his opinion.But Judge Unity Dow disagreed, saying Botswana’s government had “failed to take account of the knowledge and the culture” of the Bushmen when it expelled them.”In 2002 they were dispossessed forcibly, unlawfully, and without their consent.”The last judge in the case was also expected to deliver his opinion yesterday.The Bushmen’s ancestors have lived in the Kalahari for thousands of years, and the plaintiffs in the case say they are being forcibly ejected from the game reserve and resettled in camps where their traditional way of life is dying.Nampa-ReutersThe case pits Africa’s last hunter-gatherers against one of the continent’s most admired governments in a dispute over diamond-rich land and development priorities.Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo, delivering his opinion ahead of the final verdict, said the case should be dismissed on the grounds that the state owns the Kalahari desert land.”The contention of the applicants that the government unlawfully deprived them of their land …must fail,” Dibotelo said in his opinion.But Judge Unity Dow disagreed, saying Botswana’s government had “failed to take account of the knowledge and the culture” of the Bushmen when it expelled them.”In 2002 they were dispossessed forcibly, unlawfully, and without their consent.”The last judge in the case was also expected to deliver his opinion yesterday.The Bushmen’s ancestors have lived in the Kalahari for thousands of years, and the plaintiffs in the case say they are being forcibly ejected from the game reserve and resettled in camps where their traditional way of life is dying.Nampa-Reuters