Oshikoto farmers take legal action over communal land dispute

Oshikoto livestock farmers have asked the Ondonga Traditional Authority and Oshikoto Communal Land Board to provide the names of all those allocated land at Okashana kuukongo waNehale in the Oshikoto region.

The livestock farmers last year accused the Ondonga Traditional Authority of unfairly and illegally allocating the land where they grazed their animals before the country’s independence, to business people, lawyers and politicians with links to the traditional authority.

In his letters to the Ondonga Traditional Authority and Oshikoto Communal Land Board dated 11 December 2024, the farmers’ lawyer, Florian Beukes, asked the traditional authority to respond within 21 working days.

The response period expired on Monday.

Beukes yesterday said he had not received any response to his letters.

“We want to enforce the rights of our clients and take them and those individuals who got land and illegally fenced off the communal land to court once we get the information,” he said.

“Kindly provide us with the particulars of the individuals who have been allocated these rights, along with copies of the applications and corresponding approvals.

“Our instructions are that the communal grazing land has been fenced, as such we inquire whether such fencing was authorised in writing in terms of section 18(b) of the act. If so, please provide the written authorisations,” Beukes wrote.

He said the request for information was intended to ensure transparency and accountability in the allocation of communal land rights, which will assist in resolving his clients’ dispute over the communal grazing land.

According to Beukes, the communal grazing land is critical to his clients to sustain their livelihoods.

“This land was allocated to our clients by the headmen in the respective villages by virtue of them being residents of the villages surrounding Okashana kuukongo waNehale,” he said.

He further said the “illegal” fencing of the place has deprived livestock of the use of communal land for grazing.

“In particular, the unauthorised fencing has obstructed critical access to water resources, grazing paths and cattle posts. The aforementioned fencing is further forcing livestock into hazardous conditions, including main roads where accidents have occurred, causing our clients hardship,” he said.

Ondonga Traditional Authority chief administrator Nicky Uugwanga yesterday said he has received Beukes’ letter and forwarded it to the traditional authority’s secretary, Frans Enkali.

However, Enkali yesterday said he did not see the letter as he is now based at Tsumeb, were he works as the town’s acting chief executive.

In October last year, Ondonga Traditional Authority chairperson John Walenga, during a media conference at Ondangwa, said individuals who fenced land off at Okashana kuukongo waNehale near Etosha National Park were allocated the space by Ondonga chief Fillemon Nangolo for crop production.

Walenga claimed the entire area, commonly known as Okashana kuukongo wa Nehale, has always fallen under the jurisdiction of the reigning Ondonga chief and not under district or village jurisdiction, like any other place in the Ondonga area.

This is the first instance of an Ondonga chief allocating land rights in this area, he said.

Walenga, however, asserted that the Ondonga chief has the authority to settle his subjects on available land and those settled at Okashana are there for the purpose of producing food.