‘Minor’ objections over Tsintsabis land allocation
OMUTHIYA – The Land Reform Advisory Commission will this month adjudicate on the issuance of 151 allotment letters to residents of Tsintsabis and farm Oerewoud in the Oshikoto region.
The residents have been occupying the piece of land for the past 28 years and had no right to the portions of land they currently occupy.
The land reform ministry last year took a drastic decision to issue allotment letters to residents in an effort to end infights due to the prevalent sales of both residential and farming land to outsiders.
“We are making progress and we placed an advert for objection last year. We, however, received five, although they are minor ones that relate to boundaries. We have thus far-forwarded to the land reform advisory committee, which is likely to sit end of the month and deliberate on the issue, and also make recommendations to the minister for final endorsement,” explained director of resettlement and regional programme in the land reform ministry Alfred Sikopo in an interview with New Era last week.
In addition, he said, recommendations for allotments have been made for those without any objections, while the ministry will have to conduct an investigation for objected portions to establish the facts.
About 51 residents of Tsintsabis who settled at the farm upon its acquisition by government in 1992 will receive allotment letters, while 100 would be issued in Oerewoud.
In October last year, Sikopo said this is the first phase.
The second phase will include those who were illegally allocated or settled on the land.
“The allotment will be handled in two phases, with the second to be expedited after a thorough consultative process with the regional council, traditional authority and community. All problems of Tsintsabis will be resolved by the ministry. We do have a list of the earliest people resettled as well as a map. Therefore, that is why we are here today so you can help us in identifying and verifying legitimate people resettled. If there are incidents of people claiming to own same plots, let us hear it so that we solve it before we put names in the newspaper for objections,” he said at the time.