Tsumis Park residents face eviction along with school closure

REHOBOTH, 09 Apr – The residents of Tsumis Park in the Hardap Region face possible eviction along with the possibility of the public primary school there being closed down.
This comes after the owners sought legal advice about the farm residents who are allegedly illegally settled on their land.
Last year, some 600 people whose families have been living on the farm near Rehoboth for decades, were threatened with relocation by the owners.
The owners of the land at the time said they wanted to start using it for farming purposes.
Tsumis Park (Petrusdal) is situated 70 kilometres southeast of Rehoboth. Most of the people living there are unemployed. It is also where the Piet Diergaardt Primary School is situated.
Shikongo Law Chambers on behalf of the owners wrote a letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture seeking clarity on whether there was any agreement for the residents to stay on the farm.
The letter seen by Nampa, dated 20 February 2018, indicates that the school is attracting a vicious cycle of social moral decay, including rampant teenage and out of wedlock pregnancies, alcohol and crime.
“Numerous families and individuals, with and without children attending the school and with and without connection to the school has settled on the land, without our clients’ permission,” the letter stated.

It said for several years, the owners of Petrusdal took up their concerns and proposed solutions with regional councillors and other governmental officials, but have not received any commitments to solving the problems.
“As the situation on our clients’ land has now become unbearable for them and their families, we now hold instructions to sue for the eviction of the settlers, for the closure of the school and for damages,” the letter read.
The law firm said it has further instructions to issue summons 30 days from the date of the letter, unless they receive commitment from Government to implement viable solutions, such as resettling the settlers and moving the school elsewhere.
A letter from the Deeds Office in Rehoboth indicates that farm Petrusdal 422 was registered on 23 March 1979, with a total size of 7 000 hectares. It has since been subdivided into farming units for the heirs. Sixty-three hectares were left undivided where the school, Government houses and some landowners as well as community members are settled.
The Circuit Inspector of #Oan-||Ob, George Dax could not be reached for comment as his mobile was not reachable.
NAMPA