Deadline set for removal of illegal fences

All fences illegally erected in the Tsumkwe West communal area will be removed by February next year, Otjozondjupa Communal Land Board chairperson Jeaneth Kuhanga said on Tuesday. Kuhanga and a mapping team of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement conducted a two-day inspection of the area this week. On Monday alone, 31 fences illegally erected in the Omatako area were found to have been removed voluntarily by their owners. By Tuesday, this number increased to 38. The additional seven were found to have been removed in the Janju area. Kuhanga said the Otjozondjupa Communal Land Board still has to identify the owners of some of the fences which have not yet been removed in the Omatako and Janju areas so that they can be issued with notices. “The notices will be valid for 30 days after being issued to allow these people to appeal to us, or remove their fences. So, there is still work to be done by the Land Board before the due date of February next year,” she said. Kuhanga described the inspection as successful, saying it was a necessary fact-finding exercise for the Otjozondjupa Communal Land Board to assure themselves of the progress being made, and to help with planning. The Land Board is expected to hold a meeting on August 28 about the fences that have not been removed, and will also consult the Government Attorneys on the matter. On Monday, six people assured Kuhanga that their fences would be removed before the end of August. Twenty-seven people who had fenced land illegally have submitted appeals to the Otjozondjupa Regional Communal Land Board. Their appeals were forwarded to the Minister of Lands and Resettlement, Alpheus !Naruseb, for a decision, along with recommendations from the Land Board. More than 150 farms in the Omatako and Janju areas were inspected on Monday and Tuesday. The Otjozondjupa regional deputy director in the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata, said last year that mapping officers had discovered that about 33 000 hectares of land had been illegally fenced. Nghituwamata said all those fences were illegal and had to be removed voluntarily or by force. The inspection team on Monday and Tuesday found livestock on some of the fenced tracts of land. It is alleged that farmers drove their animals to Tsumkwe West last year due to the drought in their areas of origin – identified as the Ohangwena, Oshikoto, Omusati, Kavango and Omaheke Regions, and parts of Otjozondjupa. Omatako is situated in Tsumkwe West in the Otjozondjupa Region, about 160 kilometres east of Grootfontein. TSUMKWE NAMPA