Magreth Nunuhe
30 May 2011
Windhoek — Families who have been living for decades at Satansloch Farm, near Daan Viljoen Game Park, fear for their livelihood after the Windhoek Municipality reportedly approved a plan to resettle 36 more families at the farm.
According to Hannes Jacobs and Jeff Uirab, the Chief of the /Khomanin Traditional Authority, Josephat Gawa-!nab, approached them last year to temporarily accommodate some Baumgartsbrunn settlers who were experiencing drought in their area.
“We told the chief that we could not accommodate people because we had no mandate and that there were relevant authorities that they could approach,” said Jacobs.
He said that before the meeting with Gawa-!nab, Satansloch residents approached the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement to allow them to expand in the area as they were close to 40 people living on a small plot of land with more than 100 cattle and 300 small live stock. Apparently, the Ministry of Lands’ Personal Assistant (PA) Joseph Gawanab referred them to the chief.
But instead of helping them solve the problem, Gawa-!nab apparently hijacked the idea to bring in more settlers. Jacobs related that the chief then started mobilizing residents of Baumgartsbrunn to move to Satansloch, charging them N$100 each. “We don’t know how many paid but he was looking for 1000 people.”
Gawa-!nab apparently wrote a letter to Oupa Haslaminus, the oldest resident of Satansloch who is over 80 years old, to permit Baumgartsbrunn’s residents to move over. Jacobs said that when they approached Onalema Mosimane, Property Officer at Windhoek municipality, about Gawa-!nab’s intentions, they were told that the municipality had no commitment with traditional authorities.
Gawa-!nab was apparently given farm Baumgartsbrunn by the Ministry of Lands and Resetlements to relocate people from Nawas-port near Rehoboth, but settlers from different areas have been infiltrating Satansloch.
First it was an elderly woman from Otjimbingwe who apparently came with 10 goats, then last year a certain Festus !Gaoseb arrived with 10 cattle from Baumgartsbrunn, followed by Christian //Gamxameb who came from Nawasport with eight cattle.
Three weeks ago, Moses Abrahams came from Nawasport with nine head of cattle, 41 goats and sheep while last Thursday Andreas //Khaoseb came to settle at Satansloch with 20 cattle.
“This is landgrabbing,” charged Uirab, who was ordered last Friday by the municipality to move back to the first settlement, after he had moved inland.
When a delegation from the municipality, together with City Police, tasked with evicting or moving the settlers back to the first settlement, realised that the residents were in the company of a reporter, they instructed that this reporter not take any pictures.
“We have been waiting for years and years for municipality to do something about our condition, but we are told to just wait,” said Uirab, adding that new settlers were being given the option of moving to further posts, while they, who have been living there for years, were being ignored.
He reasoned that the first settlers should have been given the first option. Satansloch has nine posts with an area size of about 12000 hectares, but because the area is very mountainous, about 9000 hectares can be used as living area. Uirab reckons that each post can only accommodate one family because of its size. He said that Frederick Arie, Regional Councillor for Windhoek Rural Constituency, had given them permission to expand because stock-theft was rampant in the area, especially for those living near the Daan Viljoen Road.
Uirab said that it was difficult to protect their homesteads and livestock, adding that grass was vanishing rapidly owing to a growing number of livestock.
“We have been asking for over 10 years to expand, we have no security, no proof of ownership,” Jacobs charged, saying that even if they wanted to apply for loans, they would be rejected.
Alwina Bali, who moved with his father to Satansloch in 1961, said that she was very unhappy that those who just moved there were being given land, while they had to deal with grazing and stock-theft problems. “It makes us very unhappy, our animals are vanishing and if it were jackals preying on them, we would have seen the evidence,” she said.
But Moses Abrahams, a new settler to the area, feels there is enough grazing. He said that he has worked on farms for 26 years and doesn’t believe Satansloch’s grazing will dry up that quickly. He said he would not mind if he was given a plot in the area but he was worried about his donkey cart.
Asked how he felt about 36 families being resettled there, Abrahams said that he did not know the area too well and could not respond.
Chief Gawa-!nab said Jacobs and Uirab’s claims were lies and that they were jealous that others were also getting land. “Such accusations have been coming along for a while,” he said.
“It’s not Hannes Jacob’s place, it is municipal land,” he fumed, charging that Jacobs was from Stampriet and not even from Khomas Region. He said that Jacobs apparently moved his livestock from Tuisland in Erongo illegally to Satansloch.
Gawa-!nab said that some of the 36 families that were being moved to Satansloch were children and not everyone was going to set up a house. “There is enough land for grazing and more,” he said.
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