Boteti villages to sue over looming relocation

Tefo Pheage | Tuesday October 18, 2016 18:23

 

Residents of Khumaga, Moreomaoto, Rakops and Motopi villages are questioning and protesting government’s lack of consultation on the matter saying the government’s plot to hoodwink them into submitting their land to animals will not work.

After a series of correspondences with the government including the Office of the President, the residents engaged Moeletsi Attorneys to act on their behalf on the matter.

The firm recently sent a statutory notice to the Attorney General’s Chambers seeking answers on the matter, but there has not been any response. Attorney Batlhalefi Moeletsi confirmed in a brief interview that the government has not responded to the summons.

“We are now entering into another phase but first we need to sit down with our clients and decide the way forward. They are the ones who will give us the go ahead to take the matter to court,” Moeletsi said.

The government is denying that they are pushing the residents away but trying to address the human-wildlife conflict.

The case is similar to the 2002 relocation of Basarwa from the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR) by the government. They successfully sued the government and the High Court ruled that their relocation was unconstitutional, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land.

The resident fear dispossession of their heritage, livelihoods and land, which they say will be swallowed up in a planned expansion of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.

Makgadikgadi Pans Landscape, which is located in the northeast of the CKGR and southeast of the Okavango Delta, is regarded as one of the highest human-wildlife conflict areas in the country.

The disputed fence realignment move will enclose the Boteti River and Khumaga village within the Park.

Following state media reports that the four villages had consented to the realignment of the Makgadikgadi fence 50km southwards into communal land in 2013, the affected four tribal leaders penned a complaint addressed to government refuting the pronouncement.

“The statement that we the four tribes have consented to the Makgadikgadi fence realignment further west from the Boteti River bank is not true and must not be considered as a position of the affected and concerned villages,” reads a letter signed by the quartet.

“It is a known fact that Boteti area lacks grazing land due to its aridity and acute shortage of communal land. Owing to this, the community requested for the fence to be realigned 10 kilometres away from the communal land in vain. We later on bent to ask for four kilometres of state land still to no avail.” This was in pursuit of better pastoral and arable agricultural land in order to avoid over-dependence on government programmes, the four tribal leaders explained.

To separate watering sources for livestock and wild animals, 14 boreholes were drilled in the park to guard against possible spread of diseases.

To the surprise of the residents, the wild life now depends on the Boteti River for water and not utilisng the boreholes originally meant to serve them.

Responding to their letter, Tshekedi Khama,  inhis own letter, which Mmegi is in possession of, said that he has noted their grievances and currently discussing the matter with the affected ministries.