Farmers Wrangle Over Game Capture Permit
Thursday, 7th of August 2008

By Wezi Tjaronda

WINDHOEK

Some farmers around the Khomas Hochland area are up in arms over the issuance of a permit to a farmer to capture what they call free roaming oryx.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has issued a permit to the owner of Claratal Farm to capture 300 oryx in the Auas Oanob Conservancy and not on the farm.

Magdalena ya Kasita, principal conservation scientist, said the 300 oryx were based on the management plan of the conservancy, of which Ecki Freyer, the owner of Farm Claratal, was a member.

The conditions stipulated on the permit are that he may capture game and sell as long as it is not exported.

“He was given the right to do it (capture game),†Ya Kasita said yesterday, adding that because it was a conservancy, the area could not be fenced off.

The farmers want the game capture, scheduled for August 10, stopped, failure of which they will ask for an urgent court order.

The farmers gave the Ministry of Environment and Tourism until yesterday to revoke the permit for them not to continue with the court action.

Neighbours say Farm Claratal’s fence is not game proof, which makes game move freely to and from other farms.

One of the farmers wrote a letter to Minister of Environment and Tourism Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah expressing his concern over the issuance of the permit.

Nico van der Westhuizen of Farm Arbeidsgenot told New Era he had written to the ministry before about the issuance of the permit and was assured that it would not happen again.

He said the minister’s office assured him some years ago that no such permit would be issued again unless Claratal was properly game fenced.

Van der Weisthuizen said Claratal is a cattle farm with poor fencing and game moved freely to other farms.

He said the farmers found it unacceptable for the ministry to issue to the farmer a permit to capture large number of free roaming game for his personal benefit.

After each capture, the farmer said game numbers on the farms reduce drastically and takes years to re-establish.

“I cannot approve the move to capture game without a proper game fence,†he added.

But another neighbouring farmer, Sakkie van der Merwe said only a few farmers came together to form the conservancy, which other neighbouring farmers were not part of.

Van der Merwe said the farmers had no problem catching game as long as the area is fenced off to protect other farmers’ game.

He said if the situation continues, there would be no game left in the area because there is a decrease in game numbers due to the game captures.

“The fact remains that he is capturing free roaming game that belongs to all of us,†said van der Merwe.

A certain von Freyer of Farm Haris said the members of the conservancy as well as the ministry had approved the game capture.

However, Ya Kasita said they would look into the matter by following up on the letter that was written to the minister last Friday.

When such complaints are made, the ministry checks the permit and does inspections to check for any discrepancies. If found, the permit is revoked.
If game is being captured on a farm, the ministry requires that the farmer notifies his neighbours as well as the ministry seven days prior to the capture and that the helicopter being used in the capture does not fly over the neighbours’ fence.

Director of Parks and Wildlife Management, Ben Beytel, said it was not necessary to have a game proof fence to capture game. Farm Claratal has a normal stock proof fence, which allows oryx to move underneath.
The owner of the farm could not be reached yesterday.