Two families at Kahoro Village in Kavango West are at loggerheads over the ownership of a piece of land on the banks of the Kavango River.

This happened after one family allegedly sold the 10-hectare piece of land to a couple who wanted to construct a lodge there.

Three men from the Nambase family are out on N$1,000 bail each after they were arrested for removing fencing poles from the property in question.

Frans Nambase says the land belongs to him and is not for sale, warning those claiming it to stay away.

"From today on, I don't want to see anyone here, no matter their color, on my land. Anyone who will continue to pursue this land, I will see that person as someone who does not want peace."

But Mathilde Sikongo, accused of selling the land for $20,000, insists she is only leasing the land to investors.

She is adamant that the land belongs to her mother and says she cannot cultivate it profitably anymore.

"We did everything according to the law; we visited the Hompa's palace throughout the process. How can the Hompa say it was not procedural? And I am the owner of the crop field; if I cannot plough it anymore, I can give it away; no one can stop me. People have been building lodges here; why were they not stopped?"   

Meanwhile, Kavango West Regional Council Chairperson Joseph Sikongo urged residents to desist from selling off communal land, saying it was against the law.

"The Act also makes it clear that communal land cannot be sold as freehold land to any person, this means that communal land cannot be sold like commercial farmland."

Shikongo says the land was not legally transferred, and it is now up to the Uukwangali Traditional Authority to apply for the cancellation of the leasehold, which was awarded to the couple by the Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform.

"He started from Windhoek, but he got a leasehold, how? The chief is also puzzled, about how he got the leasehold certificate without his knowledge; that's what he told us, and he is going to tackle it so that the people stay here in peace."

Both families, who are related, settled at Kahoro before independence, but both say the war for Namibia's liberation interrupted their stay there at different intervals.