Denver Isaacs
24 November 2008
DESPITE heated argument on the part of farmworkers and residents at farm Baumgartsbrunn near Windhoek that they are being evicted contrary to an agreement with their late employer, the executor of the late farm owner Helmut Bleks's estate says nobody has bothered to verify the facts with him.
Likewise, the family of the late Bleks Thursday charged that those arguing over the land were throwing the goodwill shown to them by the family back in their face.
In a letter addressed to the media last, executor Klaus Nieft of Keller and Neuhas Trust accused the Namibia Farm Workers Union (Nafwu) of inciting emotions of people at the farm and of politicising a non-political issue when the union and the Khomanin Traditional Authority organised a community meeting there.
Owner Bleks died in 2006, and his wife Anna Bleks died in April this year, leaving their estate in the hands of the executors.
Shortly after the death of Mrs Bleks, those living on the farm were handed letters ordering them to remove their livestock from the farm, which had been put up for sale.
Farm residents, saying they had an agreement with the late Bleks that they would be allowed to live on the farm for the rest of their lives, described the letters as eviction orders and said they refused to move.
Representatives of the workers spoken to after the weekend say they still equate the move of livestock with that of the people who own the animals, arguing that it was impractical to expect the residents not to move with their livestock.
The deadline for the removal of the animals was September 30, although no action has yet been taken to enforce this demand.
In response to recent news articles on the situation, Matthias Bleks, son of the late owners, repeated yesterday that those who worked for his father were never in danger of losing their homes.
He however named only three household heads who fell under this agreement.
"It was never decided that any one of the demonstrators that had worked together with Helmut Bleks, namely Alex Swart, Andries Boois and Eduard //Garoëb, should leave the farm, i.e. be evicted.
Instead the dwelling rights Helmut Bleks had granted to these workers or ex-workers... would have always been respected," Bleks said.
However, he accused these same workers of refusing to pay his mother the agreed rent for the grazing land after his father's death.
"Instead they are now inciting strikes and are displaying transparent disrespect for the life work of Helmut and Anna Gertraude Bleks," the younger Bleks charged in a statement.
Although the farm is to be sold, Bleks noted, the workers promised lifelong residency by his father were to live on the approximately 25-hectare piece of land that will remain the property of the Helmut Bleks Foundation.
A private school run by the family for children in the surrounding community was already given over to the Ministry of Education in 2005, and will also not be affected by the sale of the farm.
Speaking to The Namibian earlier last week, executor Nieft dismissed rumours that a part of the farm has already been sold.
"The information given to the press by various people, who have no standing in this matter and should not be involved, is totally incorrect...
I, as co-executor of the estate, have not been approached by the workers involved, nor have I been approached by the Secretary General of the Farm Workers Union.
It appears to me that certain people have their own agenda and their own interests at heart," Nieft repeated in a statement released by his office yesterday.
He added that the continued living rights on the farm for the three named workers and their immediate families were currently being negotiated.
He warned, however, that "interference of people who have no standing in the matter" was hampering these negotiations.
"It should be noted that the continued existence of the Hotel School and the Helmut Bleks Foundation, as well as the possible enlargement of the school and possible erection of an orphanage by the Foundation and its partners, may be endangered if this uncalled-for interference continues," Nieft said.
In a short interview with The Namibian on Thursday, Nafwu Secretary General Alfed Angula repeated the statement that residents on the farm were dependent on their farming activity, and thus could not be expected to let their livestock go.
Angula said he had only recently gotten involved in the Baumgartsbrunn matter and is still verifying information from both quarters.
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