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No home for Otjiku squatters

No home for Otjiku squatters

A GROUP of seven dismissed farmworkers and their families, who have been living along a road near Otjiwarongo for the past three years, are still waiting for Government to give them a place to live.

About 30 people have been living in tin shacks on the road shoulder of the D2404 some 45 kilometres south of Otjiwarongo after their eviction from Otjiku farm when Windhoek businessman Hermann Awaseb bought it in November 2003 with an affirmative action loan. The previous owner, Uwe Harro Hoenck, paid the seven employees severance pay and Awaseb offered that they stay and work for him.”They refused and said they would not work for a zorotua and stayed put on my farm.My lawyers then took action and had an eviction order served on them in April 2005,” Awaseb told The Namibian on Wednesday.Zorotua is a derogative term Herero speakers use for members of the Damara ethnic group.”The whole thing is politically motivated,” Awaseb added.In 2005, the Namibian Farmworkers’ Union (Nafwu) asked Government to expropriate Otjiku so that the seven former farmworkers could be resettled there.It also launched a court case against Awaseb regarding the eviction and the case is still pending.Awaseb has suffered numerous stock thefts since he took over the farm.In March this year, two of the former workers were arrested for allegedly stealing eight of his cattle, which were illegally sold to Agra at Otjiwarongo with false veterinary certificates.A source dealing with resettlement issues also informed The Namibian that Nafwu President Asser Hendricks had cattle grazing in the Otjiku area.Hendricks was retrenched by his employer at Krumhuk farm south of Windhoek several years ago.When The Namibian visited the group of roadside squatters last Friday, their grinding poverty was clearly visible.”We struggle with obtaining water and food, we feel left alone and wonder what Government has in store for us,” said one of them, Niklaas Kandiuo.The Councillor of that constituency, Kaunakao Kaujeua, wrote a letter to Otjozondjupa Governor Theofelus Eiseb on July 11 this year, requesting water supply to the seven families.This is done twice a week, but the water tank was empty when The Namibian visited the site.Asked for comment, Governor Eiseb said since a court case was still pending he could not make any public statement.”Please understand that,” he said on Wednesday.Nafwu Secretary General Alfred Angula said he visited the seven families regularly – which they denied.”Government has two commercial farms identified nearby which it will buy soon and it looks that the people can be moved there,” Angula said.Angula also questioned why Awaseb, who also owns the adjacent Grootgeluk farm and is supposed to have bought two more, possessed so many farms.”Our principle at Nafwu is one farm per farm owner, not more,” Angula said.An official of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, however, had a different solution in mind for the long-term squatters.After three years, the Ministry sent a team there last month to “register them and perform an audit”, public relations officer Crispin Matongela told The Namibian on Wednesday.”The group never applied for resettlement,” Matongela said.Asked why the Ministry did not assist them instead of letting them squat for three years near the road, he said: “The Ministry has its programmes.”To a question whether the Ministry could not have prevented the problem of the farmworkers when issuing the waiver to the previous owner to sell Otjiku to Awaseb, he replied that the Ministry could “not work ad hoc, although the situation of the farmworkers is a concern to the Ministry.””We will settle them temporarily on a farm and assist them in their application, but I cannot give you a time frame when that will be,” Matongela said.The previous owner, Uwe Harro Hoenck, paid the seven employees severance pay and Awaseb offered that they stay and work for him.”They refused and said they would not work for a zorotua and stayed put on my farm.My lawyers then took action and had an eviction order served on them in April 2005,” Awaseb told The Namibian on Wednesday.Zorotua is a derogative term Herero speakers use for members of the Damara ethnic group.”The whole thing is politically motivated,” Awaseb added.In 2005, the Namibian Farmworkers’ Union (Nafwu) asked Government to expropriate Otjiku so that the seven former farmworkers could be resettled there.It also launched a court case against Awaseb regarding the eviction and the case is still pending.Awaseb has suffered numerous stock thefts since he took over the farm.In March this year, two of the former workers were arrested for allegedly stealing eight of his cattle, which were illegally sold to Agra at Otjiwarongo with false veterinary certificates.A source dealing with resettlement issues also informed The Namibian that Nafwu President Asser Hendricks had cattle grazing in the Otjiku area.Hendricks was retrenched by his employer at Krumhuk farm south of Windhoek several years ago.When The Namibian visited the group of roadside squatters last Friday, their grinding poverty was clearly visible.”We struggle with obtaining water and food, we feel left alone and wonder what Government has in store for us,” said one of them, Niklaas Kandiuo.The Councillor of that constituency, Kaunakao Kaujeua, wrote a letter to Otjozondjupa Governor Theofelus Eiseb on July 11 this year, requesting water supply to the seven families.This is done twice a week, but the water tank was empty when The Namibian visited the site.Asked for comment, Governor Eiseb said since a court case was still pending he could not make any public statement.”Please understand that,” he said on Wednesday.Nafwu Secretary General Alfred Angula said he visited the seven families regularly – which they denied.”Government has two commercial farms identified nearby which it will buy soon and it looks that the people can be moved there,” Angula said.Angula also questioned why Awaseb, who also owns the adjacent Grootgeluk farm and is supposed to have bought two more, possessed so many farms.”Our principle at Nafwu is one farm per farm owner, not more,” Angula said.An official of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, however, had a different solution in mind for the long-term squatters.After three years, the Ministry sent a team there last month to “register them and perform an audit”, public relations officer Crispin Matongela told The Namibian on Wednesday.”The group never applied for resettlement,” Matongela said.Asked why the Ministry did not assist them instead of letting them squat for three years near the road, he said: “The Ministry has its programmes.”To a question whether the Ministry could not have prevented the problem of the farmworkers when issuing the waiver to the previous owner to sell Otjiku to Awaseb, he replied that the Ministry could “not work ad hoc, although the situation of the farmworkers is a concern to the Ministry.””We will settle them temporarily on a farm and assist them in their application, but I cannot give you a time frame when that will be,” Matongela said.

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