A REHOBOTH shooting club had the Namibian Defence Force beating a retreat in the Windhoek High Court yesterday, after suing the military and the minister of defence over an attempt by the NDF to occupy a shooting range that the club has been using for more than 14 years.
The Rehoboth Shooters Club filed an urgent application in the High Court against the minister of defence, the Namibian Defence Force and the Rehoboth Town Council at the start of last week in a bid to reverse a land grab that the military carried out at the club’s shooting range near Rehoboth in December.
The case was scheduled to be heard by acting judge Claudia Claasen yesterday, but the hearing did not proceed after the club’s lawyer, Norman Tjombe, informed the judge that the matter had been settled on the terms initially demanded by the club.
In line with the settlement, which was confirmed by government lawyer Ronald Ketjijere, representing the NDF and the minister, acting judge Claasen issued an order for the eviction of the NDF from the club’s shooting range, and directed the minister and the NDF to restore possession of the club’s shooting range to the club, and not to interfere with the club’s possession and occupation of the land on which the shooting range is situated.
The court also ordered the NDF and the defence minister to pay the club’s legal costs in the matter at hand.
In an affidavit filed at the court, the club’s chairman, John Eiman, said he learned on 18 December that members of the NDF had entered the club’s shooting range – situated about seven kilometres from Rehoboth, next to the C24 road – and had removed the club’s signpost, and in its place put up a sign warning people that the premises were “a military zone area”, and that the taking of photos or making of sketches or plans of the area was prohibited under the Defence Act.
Eiman further stated that the padlock with which the club kept a gate giving access to the shooting range locked had been broken and replaced with a chain and other padlock.
On legal advice from Tjombe, he visited the Rehoboth Police Station on 24 December to lodge a complaint over unlawful trespassing and breaking and entering of the club’s premises against the military, Eiman related.
He also recounted that the Rehoboth Shooters Club approached the Rehoboth Town Council in 2004 with a request for it to be allocated land where the club could set up a shooting range for its members. The town council approved the club’s application and allocated a piece of land, situated next to the C24 road that leads to Klein Aub, to the club in September 2004, Eiman stated. The club has been using the land allocated to it undisturbed since then – until the NDF took over the shooting range in December, Eiman said.
He also informed the court that, while the NDF had in the past approached the club to make use of the shooting range for military training purposes, no court order or any notice evicting the club from the premises had been served on it.
The “Namibian Defence Force has simply taken the law into its own hands in evicting the [club], which is unlawful”, Eiman charged.
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