Land chaos erupts in Ruacana

By Hilary Mare and Maria Kandjungu

CHAOS has erupted in the Ovazemba and Ovahimba community in Ruacana after an attempt by the community to stop an ‘Owambo’ businessman from occupying disputed community land resulted in ‘heavy handed’ arrests of 21 community members by Nampol’s Special Reserve Force.

The disputed land which businessman, Nande Endjala has claimed ownership to with the intention to build a camping site, is prime grazing land for the community and contains a natural fountain, Otjiuo-tjozondjima (Fountain of baboons) which is the source of water for domestic and wild animals.

Of the 21 members who were arrested, highly respected elders of the community such as Raily Mbuu-Mbwale who is the secretary of Ovazemba Traditional Authority as well as Jafet Muhomba and Josef Beredy, both war veterans of the liberation struggle, were also part of those nabbed at gunpoint.

“We were woken up to a war-like situation when a large contingent of the Special Reserve Force (SRF) reportedly from Oshakati and other parts of the country, in over 20 vehicles, including minibuses, led by members of the local police in Ruacana, entered our  villages. The heavily armed members of the force started to arrest people at gunpoint. Since the incident took place early in the morning around 05h00, many people were sleeping, hence they could not open their doors quickly when the members of the force demanded them to do so. Consequently, the force members started to kick the doors of some houses open; manhandled some people and carried some women half naked to their cars,” a community member who allegedly witnessed the ordeal told Confidente.

Confidente understands the community members were charged, spent a night at Ruacana holding cells and appeared in Outapi magistrate court the next morning on charges of trespassing, theft and malicious damage to property, where they were each released on N$1 000 bail.

Malicious damage to property

A source based in the community told Confidente that that while Endjala allegedly bought the land in question from the Uukolonghadhi Traditional Authority to develop it into a campsite, community members were unhappy with the sale as the land is prime grazing area for their livestock containing the reliable water source for the same.

Community leaders, village headmen and elderly members of the community allegedly, on several occasions, warned to stop construction on the land as it was communal land that should never be sold or owned by anyone.

“After Endjala refused to heed to community warnings to not develop the land, members allegedly armed with machetes, chased him from the site, destroyed all constructed structures and confiscated his building materials.

They then camped at the site for about four days before going back to their residences,” said the source.

Endjala filed a police report which subsequently led to the mass arrests.

An aggrieved community

A snap survey carried out by Confidente last week reveals that members of the Ovazemba and Ovahimba community are aggrieved by the way the police handled the matter as they highlighted that police inaction and biasness in handling the actions of the “arrogant and disrespectful” Endjala left them with no other choice but to take the matter into their own hands.

Members who spoke to Confidente said that in all these instances, the police was not only informed but was also requested several times to assist to remove Endjala from the aforesaid site to which the police responded: “There are no cars and we cannot involve ourselves in traditional issues.”

“The Ovazemba and Ovahimba community of Ruacana are condemning in the strongest terms possible the biasness and tribal attitude of Ruacana police officers against Ovazemba and Ovahimba people. Are we, the Ovazemba and Ovahimba community of Ruacana, enemies of the state to deserve the maltreatment and cruel arrests by Nampol’s Special Reserve Force?

“We want the Inspector General of the Namibian Police, Sebastian Ndeitunga to tell us why he had to send more than 20 vehicles including minibuses full of heavily armed members of Special Reserve Force to arrest unarmed civilians, including old men and women,” cried a community member who refused to be named and likened the arrests to those of the Koevoet during the colonial era.

Nampol responds

Omusati regional commander Titus Shikongo who confirmed the arrests to Confidente, stated that when the Ruacana police showed up on the third night of the community’s camping on the site to speak to them, the allegedly armed group refused to speak to them and became violent.

“They were armed, aggressive and did not want to listen to the police. I instructed my officers to withdraw and to go back and follow the correct procedure because there was a criminal case opened against them.

We assessed the situation and called in all the manpower we could get to ensure that no blood was shed during the arrest,” he said.

He added that the community had reached out to the police for help before they took the law into their own hands but the police could not help as this was a traditional authority matter that was out of their jurisdiction.

“From what we know and the documents we saw, the land falls under the Uukolonghadhi Traditional Authority and they are the ones who sold it to that man (Endjala). So at the time we could not interfere because although the community was unhappy, he was not doing anything wrong. It was not up to us and we advised the community on several occasions to wait for the traditional authority. We know that there are land disputes in that area and that is not a police matter.

We forwarded their letter of complaint to the traditional authority and the community was advised to wait for a meeting to be called but they got impatient,” the regional commander added.

Shikongo also went on to address the tribal allegations that were labelled against the police saying that there was nothing tribal on the side of the police as the officers involved in the arrests were from different tribes.

“That man is Owambo but we understand he was born and raised in that community. We did not react earlier not because of his tribe but because it was not up to us. The special reserve force came from Oshakati because that is where they are based. People like tribalising things when they do wrong things. We advised them but they chose to take matters in the own hands,” he further said.

The group will appear in court again on November 17.