ABOUT 32 families living at Farm Cleveland outside Otjiwarongo are refusing to vacate the property, despite receiving eviction notices last week.
Otjiwarongo CEO Ismael /Howoseb confirmed the eviction this week, saying the squatters were supposed to have left by 24 February 2017.
The situation at Farm Cleveland has been a controversial issue for over a decade, with the municipality having variously attempted to evict the farmers, while the farmers have resisted fiercely, arguing they had nowhere else to go.
The farm was initially a resettlement farm, which was expropriated back in 2005 for that purpose. However, it has since come under the ownership of the Otjiwarongo municipality, which has officially leased it to Cheetah Cement to set up a cement factory.
/Howoseb said the town was given the farm for developmental purposes which would not only benefit Otjiwarongo, but the whole country.
“We have given them enough time to leave, but now we are very serious. The company also needs to start its work. They are very serious as well. We will use the police, or go to court if necessary,” he stated.
The Namibian visited the farmers on Tuesday, who confirmed receiving eviction letters giving them a week to leave. Most were former corridor farmers, who later moved onto the farm illegally in 2006 and 2007.
Media reports at the time indicated that the farmers were allowed to stay by the governor of the Otjozondjupa region at the time. However, this was suppsoed to have been a temporary arrangement, as they were to be resettled somewhere else later.
Speaking to The Namibian, one of the first temporary residents Elizabeth Sakeus said there were only seven of them when they moved onto the property illegally. One of that group has since been resettled, while another one has died.
Sakeus said the municipality should have approached the governor’s office, which had promised them resettlement.
“I would rather die than leave this farm. Plus, the municipality only got a piece of the land, not all of it,” she said.
Her husband, Naftali, who walked around in his maize field, said he could not leave the farm as he had invested too much there.
“How did the municipality get the land even?” he asked.
Another farmer, Lovisa Kautondokwa, who grows beans, watermelons, maize and pumpkins, said farming was the squatters’ only source of income.
“My husband died. I have children to take care of. This government which I have voted for cannot kick me out of this farm. I must be resettled,” she said.
