Invasion herds moved to NDC farms

Thousands of cattle used in the invasion of western Kavango by Owambo farmers will be relocated to National Development Corporation (NDC) farms in the Mangetti area.

According to sources, 3 466 cattle, out of the 7 000 evicted from the Kavango Region late last year, will be provided with temporary grazing on six NDC farms.Joseph Amunime, Secretary of the Technical Committee on the Removal of Illegal Farmers in Kavango, said the cattle will be on the NDC farms by the end of this month and that the 38 farmers, to whom the cattle belong, were told to start driving their herds over the weekend. However, Amunime said, the relocation was temporarily stopped because officials from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Veterinary Department had not finished erecting a veterinary fence along the southern borders of the farms, which stand on the veterinary redline. The erection of the fence should have been completed by today. ‘We are going to hear from them today whether they have finished,’ Amunime said. ‘If so, we will tell the farmers or cattle herders to start moving their animals to that place this week so that they will all have moved by the end of this month. ‘We hope that even if they haven’t finished over the weekend, they will finish it (fence) during this week,’ said Amunime.Secretary of the Owambo Herders Association, Vilho Hamunyela, said while they were happy with the move, permanent grazing would have to be found as the relocation was only temporary. ‘This is really a good gesture from the Government and NDC, to give some of our farmers a temporary space to graze our cattle, while looking at other efforts to accommodate all of us later,’ Hamunyela said and called on cattle herders to co-operate with Government and NDC officials. Earlier, Chairman of the Committee on the Removal of Illegal Framers in Kavango, Erastus Negonga, had stressed the temporary nature of the exercise, saying that Government in co-operation with the Ondonga and Oukwanyama Traditional Authorities, in the Oshikoto and Ohangwena regions, were looking at ways to ensure permanent grazing for the evicted farmers and their cattle. Late last year the High Court for the second time ordered Owambo cattle herders to move from Uukwangali traditional lands in western Kavango. Since then the farmers and their herds have been roaming the border corridor between the former Owamboland and Kavango in search of grazing and water. Owambo herders have crossed into western Kavango since 1999 because of a shortage of grazing caused by, amongst others, the fencing off of large portions of communal land for their own use by wealthy Owambo farmers. Over the years the invasion has almost boiled over to violence, with cattle posts being set fire to in some instances.