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Cape Town — A Botswana judge has prohibited the Basarwa people of the Kalahari from re-equipping a borehole or drilling a new one in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve - the latest incident in an ongoing dispute between the Basarwa and the government over land rights.
The Basarwa lost access to the borehole in 2002, when the government sealed it as part of an effort to force them from the reserve, saying their presence was not compatible with preserving wildlife. In 2006, the High Court declared their evictions unconstitutional and many have since returned to the area.
Last week, Lakhvinder Walia, a judge of the High Court in the south-eastern town of Lobatse, rejected the community's attempt to regain access to the water.
"Basarwa have chosen to settle in areas far from those facilities," the newspaper Mmegi reported him as saying. "They have become victims of their own decision to settle an inconveniently long distance from the services and facilities provided by the government."
He added: "...the government is under no obligation to provide any essential service to them. If the government has no obligation to provide an essential service, it is under no obligation to facilitate any such service."
Survival International, a British group that supports the rights of indigenous peoples, quoted a community leader, Jumanda Gakelebone, as saying: "This is very bad. If we don't have water, how are we expected to live? The court gave us our land, but without the borehole, without water, our lives are difficult."
The Guardian newspaper quoted Gakelebone as saying that the community planned to appeal the High Court’s ruling.
The lands of the Basarwa - traditionally hunter-gatherers who are sometimes referred to as Bushmen - are mainly located in the southern half of the game reserve, a major tourist attraction in Botswana and one of the driest places in the world.
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Today (August 6, 2010) I sent this petition to President Ian Khama by fax and as a letter. The petition is signed by 128 people from all over the world and is ongoing.
Your Excellency I am extremely concerned about the situation facing the Bushmen of the Kalahari. After being forcibly removed from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, many Bushmen living in the resettlement camps are exposed to diseases including HIV/AIDS, which they never experienced before. Alcoholism and depression is widespread. The High Court ruled that the evictions of the Bushmen were illegal and unconstitutional. I urge you to embrace the spirit of this ruling by allowing all of the Bushmen who wish to return home to do so, and by allowing them to hunt for food and to access their own water using the pre-existing borehole at Mothomelo, within the reserve. Refusal to allow the Bushmen to use their existing borehole at Mothomelo can only be interpreted as a clear sign that you are determined to continue misguided policy of the past government of keeping the Bushmen from returning home.
Yours sincerely,
Theo Gerrits, Oudtshoorn 6620 South-Africa
Remarks from some petition-signers: Prof Ralston Raft Umtentweni, South Africa, Tribute to the San Bushman. Do not stand on my land and weep. I am not here but I do not sleep. I am the Kalahari winds that blow. No animal exists here that I do not know. I am the glint in an eland's eye. The falling star in the evening sky. My rock art grows old. My dance fire is cold. /Kaggen waits alone today for the Hunters to return. Will he show the way? Do not stand on my land with pity and sorrow. Think of what's done. Where you will be tomorrow? Rachmat Chothia Cape Town, South Africa: Water is a basic need and right. Why deny the bushman this right. Botswana should be ashamed of its courts. Do they call this justice: Denying the indigenous people of Southern Africa the human right to water. Elderberry Tree Rivendell, UK: Tourists to the reserve staying at Wilderness Safaris new lodge, however, will enjoy use of a swimming pool and bar, while Gem Diamonds planned mine in the reserve can use all the water it needs on condition none is given to the Bushmen!!!!! This is just CRUEL. I am sure if anyone was to visit this Reserve they would be only to happy to see the Bushmen on their land and even honoured to meet with them! Kevin Coleman Banbury, UK: This is all about diamonds which are found in the Khalahari Desert. Its not in the interests of the diamond industry to have the Bushmen there. Hence the lobbying and representations made to your government by the diamond industry. The Bushmen have human rights and the diamond industry does not care about your country anymore than they care about the Bushmen. But the Bushmen have every right to live there and to do as they have always done for centuries. To deny them water is akin to an act of ethnic cleansing or genocide. You choose because this is not going to go away and you have no right to condemn these people to death simply because some foreign companies want to exploit the mineral resources hidden there. Sheryl Goodwin Deland, Florida, USA : Criminal. This must stop. How dare anyone claim that water, given to all of the inhabitants of this earth, be denied anyone. They are acting as God, denying people the water and therefore life itself. This is genocide. Shame on those who deny the water to others....deny them life itself. Judith Pecho Corrales, New Mexico: What cruel treatment you have against your indigenous people! Unmerciful and sadistic! Contemptuous and murderous. You have no right to prohibit the Bushmen from having free access to water. Remove the cover from the borehole at Mothomelo. It is not your water, but God's water that He provided to sustain the lives of the people and creatures of the land. To agree to diamond mine in place of the Bushmen and a resort which I shall tell everyone to stay away from, shows the kind of heart President Ian Khama of Botswana has for his historic people. Most indigenous peoples are treasured by most countries. Greed and ignorance is running your country. Give the Bushmen the water from their borehole to prove you a human being. Charmaine Calvert Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Greed is the true face of ugliness...a really lethal character trait. Give the San water! If we all work together we can make them do the right thing and treat the San with the respect and care they deserve. They were there long before all of us pitched up to steal what isn't rightfully ours! Shame on you Botswana! Ben Oscarsito, Sweden: Access to clean drinking water is a Human Right - BASTA! Leah Mae, Macrohon Zamboanga, Philippines: I have no words to express my sadness regarding this.