Ongombo squatters evicted, leaders arrested

MORE than 20 people who have been squatting in front of the privately owned Ongombo East farm for about a month are scheduled to appear in court in Windhoek today.

The 22 //Naosan /Aes committee members were arrested at their campsite next to the farm outside Windhoek on Saturday morning.Police descended on the estimated 150 to 200 protesters at around 08h00 on Saturday, breaking down tents and arresting the leaders of the committee, while sending the rest back to their homes in Windhoek.This followed an eviction order that Acting Judge John Manyarara issued in the High Court late on Friday afternoon.The order was granted to Government, the Minister of Lands and Resettlement, the Minister of Safety and Security, and the Minister of Works and Transport. They sued the Committee of the //Naosan /Aes Communities and six members of the committee as the respondents in the case.The group first arrived at the Ongombo East farm early in July, claiming ancestral rights to the land and vowing to have the Italian owner of the farm removed.The Police were called in, and the group were ordered off the farm, only to settle on a piece of State-owned land on the neighbouring Ongombo West resettlement farm.Despite various meetings with the Ministers of Lands and Resettlement and of Safety and Security, where they were ordered back to their homes, the group stayed put.Eight of the arrested group members were taken to Police cells at Hosea Kutako Airport, while 13 more members were held at nearby Seeis.They are facing a charge of contempt of court for ignoring the eviction order served on them on Friday afternoon.Those not arrested met at spokesperson Sululu Isaacks’s home in Windhoek yesterday. Isaacks herself was among those arrested.The committee said yesterday they planned on holding a demonstration in front of the court today to show solidarity with their leaders.’We have actually been looking forward to the matter going to court. Because one can only do so much while camping out there,’ group treasurer Reinhardt //Naobeb told The Namibian yesterday.In an affidavit filed with the court, Lands and Resettlement Minister Alpheus !Naruseb charged: ‘(W)hat the respondents have done and are continuing to do is to threaten the rule of law in this country. The respondents have taken the law into their own hands and proceeded to defy lawful authorities. Their actions are a direct attack on the maintenance of law and order, peace and stability in the Republic of Namibia.’!Naruseb also said that the sensitivity of the matter had to be taken into account: ‘The issue of land reform and the actual process of land reform is an issue of national importance. Inasmuch as I understand the need for land I do not condone unlawful land invasions,’ he said in his affidavit.An affidavit by the Minister of Safety and Security, Nickey Iyambo, was also filed with the court.Iyambo said that the occupation of a part of Ongombo West was ‘untenable’.He stated: ‘The illegal activity is of utmost concern to the applicants (Government and the Ministers) in so much as it threatens the rule of law, maintenance of law and order, peace and stability in the Republic of Namibia.’Iyambo further stated: ‘There is a clear danger of such unlawful occupations and ‘land invasions’ escalating all over the country if what the respondents have done and continue to do is not nipped in the bud.’If each and every person would be allowed to claim their ‘ancestral roots’ wherever these ancestral roots are, (it) would create chaos in the country. It would create an environment not conducive to peace and stability as it would infringe on existing property rights guaranteed by the Namibian Constitution.’