NAMIBIA – Thirty-two farmers facing eviction from land they allegedly occupied illegally in the N≠a Jaqna Conservancy in the Tsumkwe West area said they will not go down without a fight.

"Most of these farmers have refused to move on the grounds that they were registered as landowners after the area was gazetted by government years ago," said a source from the ground yesterday.

According to the source, the Otjozondjupa Communal Land Board has given all those who are claiming to have been registered until this month to re-register, otherwise they would be declared as illegally land occupiers.

"The conservancy is aware they might lose some of these cases because some of the farmers have said they have the legal right to be there, but for those who have failed to respond, they are going to appear in court on a date still to be decided," said the source.

The source further said most of the affected farmers claim they have already removed the fences they erected illegally.

According to Loretta Kirkpatrick of the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia, the lawyers said they will be sending a list with the names of all the 32 farmers for the N≠a Jaqna Conservancy Management Committee to investigate if there is any truth to the claims that some of their fences had been removed.

"Once all this has been established, then the case is likely to go to court," said Kirkpatrick.

Last week, two lawyers Peter Watson and Willem Odendaal from the Legal Assistance Centre visited the area to discuss the way forward with the N≠a Jaqna Conservancy Management Committee after it emerged that most of the farmers had consulted their own lawyers to fight the eviction orders. Watson said they are still awaiting a response from the defendants' lawyers before moving forward.

Neither Watson nor Odendaal could establish how many of the farmers had removed their fences since being served with the notices.

Watson said his clients have instructed him to respond to the affidavits of the defendants' lawyers Sisa Namandje and northern-based lawyer Arumugam Thambapilai.

Thambapilai, who represents some of the farmers, said he had only filed some of his clients' affidavits but there are still some pending. "At this point, I cannot say much as I'm acting on the instructions of my clients," he said.