The Hai||om San Royal House has petitioned the government to consider requests for resettlement farms to accommodate the tribe.
In addition, the tribe wants to be included in the genocide reparations negotiations and to be recognised as a traditional authority.
Reading the petition, Mildren !Haebes, a council member, said the tribe also needs the government to rectify the social injustices it continues to face in marginalised communities.
The petition by Gaob Ananias Soroseb also reads that the tribe must be resettled in their ancestral area near Otavi, which he claims they lost after the death of the first chief, Fritz Arebeb, in 1904 during the colonial war era.
Demands also include that his grave at Okoruzu ||Uib Mountain be officially recognised as a national heritage site.
“After 14 years, afford our indigenous marginalised Hai//om San royal traditional leadership to request our government as follows: Hai//om San royal traditional leadership be settled down on our traditional land area, which we lost with the falling of our San leaders; Chief or Captain Fritz Arebeb in 1904 in the hands of the German colonial power, be recognised as a traditional authority in the Otjozondjupa region of our royal leadership; and his grave site of Okoruzu /Uib be declared a national heritage site.”
The Hai||om San Royal are requesting feedback regarding their land demands, in accordance with the recommendations made during the inputs from the second land conference.
“For all our burning issues of our royal leadership and communities in Namibia, we stand up with the word 'enough is enough' to being called marginalised in our own country without any communal land and traditional recognition in our communities in Namibia. We appeal to our president, her excellency Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, to intervene.”
Otjozondjupa Regional Governor, John ||Khamuseb, received the petition.
“I will report back to you after the petition has been handed over to the president at the statehouse and to the relevant authorities. I thank you.”
Currently, the majority of the Hai||om San royal tribesmen live in Otjiwarongo.