Following weeks of 15 OvaHimba families living alongside the road on the outskirts of Kamanjab Settlement, the Kunene Regional Council has intervened to assist the group, that was evicted from a resettlement farm in the area. 

The council started to register the families and some have appealed to either be allocated farming units or move back to their homeland while some wish to settle at the settlement. 

The families were evicted from ToKo Lodge and Farm in April this year, after a change of ownership.

"We are now writing down to see in terms of data collection how many people we have. The challenge we have obviously is that of the group that has livestock and we are now looking at amicable ways on how we can solve this. Some are willing to be taken back where they came from. The others are saying they don't have grazing areas there and they do not have a place to go back to, so that's why we as a committee now are going to sit tomorrow and see how we can assist them, case by case, challenge by challenge and household by household," said Kunene Governor Marius Sheya. 

The Kamanjab Village Council also allocated plots to the families for housing purposes at N$150 per unit.  

"There is land available. The land is already marked for low and ultra-low-income groups, they can get land and they are only paying N$150 a month for this land, to own the land. So that one is here with services already installed in the residential areas they are going to stay."

At Opuwo, the Council has also begun to assist 20 Ovazemba farmers evicted from the Abaneb Conservancy  Area in the Sesfontein Constituency.

The individuals, the Governor said, remain in need of food, shelter, and or reintegration to their villages. 
 

-

Category

Author
Faith Sankwasa