Namibia country report

age, they decided that he had worked enough, and moved to Drimiopsis, then still a militarycamp, where Karolina worked for the farm owner. They settled there permanently becausethey had stopped working for a wage and saw that government was helping people to stayin one place so that they could start working for themselves. Having worked very hard forother people, she and her husband wanted to settle at Drimiopsis where they could workfor themselves instead. Apart from a donkey-cart and two horses, they had nothing whenthey arrived there. Her husband earned a little money from piece work which helped themto buy food. They expected to progress, but this expectation did not materialise; they stillhad nothing in 2008.Philip was born in 1937 on a commercial farm. He had never been to school and could notread or write. He started to work at age 15, and stayed with one employer for 36 years (1952-1989). He did general farm work such as working with livestock, erecting and mending fences,repairing windmills and watering trees in the garden. He left the farm because he was singleand wanted to be with his cousins at Drimiopsis, but also because the farm owner’s offensivemanner made him and the other workers feel vulnerable. He stated that if the workers did notwork according to the owner’s expectations, he chased them away, frequently without payingthem for the work done to date. On hearing that government was taking over Drimiopsis, hedecided to leave his job and go there. He said it was a good decision as government providedmonthly food rations to the people there and they did not have to struggle at all, at least inthe beginning. In 1997 this support stopped and Drimiopsis saw a decline, particularly inthe yields of the communal garden.For the former farm workers who were able to accumulate some livestock while working oncommercial farms, losing their employment meant, apart from anything else, having nograzing for their livestock. They needed some land, albeit a very small piece, and the onlyoption was to try to find it on one of the group resettlement schemes.The group resettlement schemes also assisted a small group of non-San people in similarsituations. Lukas went from former Owamboland to Omaheke as a contract worker andmarried a local woman with whom he established a family. Omaheke gradually becamehis home. He had accumulated livestock while working on farms, which made it difficultto move back to the north. Due to the Veterinary Cordon Fence, he would have had to sellhis animals before moving back and he did not want to struggle to acquire livestock again,therefore he settled at Drimiopsis.6.1.3 Settlers’ relationships with pre-settlement homesDue to the vast majority of the Drimiopsis and Skoonheid beneficiaries being generationalworkers, they had no ties to communal areas. Their homes had always been the commercialfarms where their parents and even grandparents were born and in some cases buried.Many beneficiaries at Drimiopsis and Skoonheid still had relatives working on commercialfarms. The older people, some of whom were pensioners, had children working on farms.Many younger people who settled at Drimiopsis or Skoonheid as children no longer hadany known relatives on farms.Livelihoods after Section Land Reform: B ● 6. Group Namibia Resettlement country report Schemes (2010) ● 131