Arie Claims No Knowledge of Land Speculation

Catherine Sasman

26 July 2011

KHOMAS Rural councillor Frederick Arie has denied any knowledge of land being distributed outside legitimate channels at Groot Aub.

Showing pictures taken on his camera of structures and fences being put up, the councillor said those moving in are doing so of their own volition, and that the council office will start with a process to break down such structures.

“Previously people would simply put up structures, perhaps they thought it was legal, but now they know that they are not allowed to,” he said.

He insisted that he had not instructed anyone at any time to distribute land at Groot Aub. This claim is disputed by some community members.

Notwithstanding, he mentioned that all wanting to get land at Groot Aub should approach the Khomas Regional Council office, and not those residents at Groot Aub who claim they have the sanction of the council to do so.

A freeze on land distribution and land development was imposed before the proclamation of Groot Aub as a town. In 2010, former Khomas Governor Sophia Shaningwa, suspended all community committees that dealt with land issues at Groot Aub.

Arie was speaking to The Namibian at the Rehoboth Magistrate’s Court last Friday, where a case was heard in which Swapo branch coordinator John Elago accused community activist Cicel Titus of assault and robbery.

This case was again postponed, but the two remain at loggerheads over new claims of illegal shenanigans over land at Groot Aub. The last community meeting organised by Titus over the weekend decided that a petition on the simmering land disputes would be handed to Arie on Wednesday.

Elago in the meantime maintained that Titus has no authority to hold community meetings, accusing him of being an attention seeker with political ambitions.

“It is a political game; the opposition is behind Titus,” Elago said, adding that since Titus has lost at the Swapo Party primaries for the last local authority elections, he now tries to destroy the image of the ruling party and that of councillor Arie.

He called Titus a “self-styled” community activist and a “power hungry ordinary visitor of Groot Aub”. Elago further said Arie would not attend meetings of “cliques” who insist that Groot Aub is not “Wamboland but Rehoboth land”.

Elago said every Namibian has the right to settle in any part of the country, and Groot Aub is no exception because it is State-owned land and not private property belonging to any particular family, clan, tribe, or racial grouping.

“When people want to call a community meeting, they must apply from the councillor; the councillor is the only one who has the right to talk of development,” insisted Elago.

“The councillor is there for all of Windhoek rural. He is not there for individual groups.” Titus insisted that there is reason to believe that plots are being sold illegally at Groot Aub.

Arie said he would meet the community on August 6 to address some of the disputes.

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