Riemvasmakers defend settlement

A FORMER senior councillor of the Riemvasmakers traditional community, Bernadette Jagger, says the land they are settled on is historically theirs.

Jagger was reacting to claims by the //Huruben Daman traditional community that the Riemvasmakers have encroached on their ancestral land at De Riet and should move out.

De Riet is a small settlement about 100 kilometres from Khorxas in the Kunene region.

The Riemvasmakers community, a Nama sub-tribe, are people who were moved from South Africa to Namibia under the then apartheid regime in 1974. Some of them later returned to South Africa.

In Namibia, the group was settled at De Riet and surrounding areas.

The area in which the Riemvasmakers are settled is also claimed by the //Huruben traditional community, who say they have lived there for years.

Speaking at the 20th Riemvasmaker traditional community festival at De Riet a week ago, Jagger, who is also the deputy minister of environment and tourism, said they will not move elsewhere.

“The Damara authorities knew the land was allocated to us, it’s not land we grabbed from people. There was nobody – no single family was living there,” Jagger said during the festival.

At the time, the South African regime did not know under what tribe to classify the Riemvasmakers since they were interlinked with other tribes.

“We lost our identity, culture. Our surnames changed because of the system which was there,” Jagger said. “They [//Huruben Daman] say Riemvasmakers should go back to South Africa. We have to build up where we were settled,” Jagger insisted.

However, chief Niklaas Sanib of the //Huruben Daman traditional community insists that the Riemvasmakers are South Africans and should claim land in South Africa.

Sanib told The Namibian in a recent interview that his community lived on the said land from the 13th century while Riemvasmakers only arrived in the 1970s.

He said claims by the Riemvasmakers that there was no one living there before their arrival are not true.

The chief also said that his community will have Bergsig as it administrative centre and will rename Jacob Basson Combined School to Thomas Thaniseb Combined School.

Thaniseb was the headman of Damara Council in the area, now claimed by both Riemvasmakers and //Huruben Daman. Sanib said that Ward 11 belongs to his community and vowed to fight for his community’s rights.

Before moving back to South West Africa, now Namibia, the Riemvasmakers community were offered to be move back to Kuruman by the South African authorities.

Some took the offer while others refused, saying they were not from that area.

The Riemvasmakers were also given farms such as Spaarwater, Spaarwater Pos, Palm Pos, De Riet Pos, Middle Plaas, Krone, Tweespruit Fonteine and Fonteine Pos, while Bergsig was chosen to be the main centre where a school and clinic would be built for them.

The group is mixed with other tribes, including Xhosas in South Africa, and speak Afrikaans as their main language.

The Riemvasmaker traditional community festival is an annual celebrations meant to keep the tradition and heritage of the community alive.