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Basarwa Continue Challenge On Botswana
New Era
(Windhoek)
July 23, 2004
Posted to the web July 23, 2004
Wezi Tjaronda, Windhoek
A CASE in which the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) are testifying towards reversal of the Botswana government's decision to cut off basic services from the inhabitants of the reserve is to resume next Monday, July 26, 2004.
Last week, the High Court, which relocated to New Xade, a resettlement for the Bushmen that were forced out of the reserve due to lack of water and other basic services, heard testimonies of the former district commissioner in the colonial administration.
Mathambo Ngakaeja, coordinator of the Working Group for Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) in Botswana, said this week that the administrator, George Silberbauer did a survey on the Bushmen and had recommended the establishment of the reserve to conserve animals, provide a livelihood to the communities living there and to alleviate their problems when some farms were carved out of their areas.
Some 243 Basarwa (Tswana name for Bushmen) registered to testify in the case, which if won, may force the government to recognise the rights of the San to reside in the game reserve.
The residents of the reserve took the government to court in 2002 to reverse government's decision to stop provision of water, food rations to destitute and orphaned children, pensions, health services and transport to and from school in January the same year.
According to a press release from WIMSA, the residents claim that the termination of basic services to the reserve is unlawful and unconstitutional and they want the residents who have been forced to move out to be returned to their homes. The Basarwa have lived in the reserve for many years.
The High Court will next week sit in Ghantsi district and listen to 12 witnesses of fact as well as expert witnesses on the case. One of the four expert witnesses is an ecologist.
The Botswana government is reported to have said the reason for the removal of the San was for them to benefit from development, which Ngakaeaja felt had to be determined by the residents themselves.
The residents of the CKGR were resettled to New Xade and Kaudwane, which are 65 and five km away from the boundary of the reserve.
The WIMSA coordinator in Botswana also said the move had taken away the indigenous food of the residents as well as disturbed the link the residents have with their ancestral spirits.
The case, which started on July 4, is being heard before a panel of three High Court judges. Botswana and South African lawyers are representing the residents.
Meanwhile, WIMSA Regional Coordinator Axel Thoma has said although the Namibia and Botswana situations are different, the Namibian San also face situations where they are dispossessed of natural resources and land, through which they could develop themselves.
This is prevalent in Tsumkwe district where some of the stronger tribes have taken over boreholes to expand their herds of cattle while the San want to expand their conservancy.
Thoma said other tribes are not giving the San a chance to ensure that they make out some development.
Thoma said water was taken away, land was overgrazed and the San could not benefit from their wild food.
"As soon as the land is overgrazed, government has to come in to provide food," he said.
The Najaqna conservancy in the former Bushmanland has a population of 5 000 !Kung who are carrying out a number of development projects, whose progress is being hampered by shortage of water.
Calling water the beginning of development, Thoma said that the cattle had used up much of the water.
At the moment, the !Kung are trying to reintroduce game and carry out tourism activities as well as subsistence livestock farming. They also harvest and market devil's claw, and engage in agricultural and other income generating activities.
Thoma expressed satisfaction with their living conditions but was quick to say the conditions went down once water was taken away from them.
The conservancy is now busy formulating a Land Use and Development Plan, which will stipulate the carrying capacity of livestock as well as protect the area's natural resources.
The WIMSA coordinator added that with the plan, no overgrazing would be allowed.
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It is hoped that by early September, the project will get the bridging finances to start the introduction of game into the conservancy as well as refurbish some boreholes.
The entire plan will be introduced from January 2005.
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