Court to pronounce itself on Rehoboth land

Court to pronounce itself on Rehoboth land High Court Judge Collins Parker will give his verdict on whether Baster Kaptein John McNab has the jurisdiction to allocate erven in Rehoboth under the Paternal Laws that are still in force today.

The longstanding court challenge brought by the Rehoboth town council against McNab, the Rehoboth Baster Gemeente (RBG), United People’s Movement (UPM) national secretary Jan van Wyk, and Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga of the Namibian Police continued last week before Parker.

The town council in 2014 brought an application on an urgent basis to stop what it called illegal allocation of plots by McNab in the town.

It sought an order from the High Court to stop the RBG, McNab and Van Wyk from surveying, petitioning and allocating close to 190 plots in the area falling under the Rehoboth town.

The municipality argued that it is the only authority that can allocate land within the boundaries of the town.

Justice Harald Geier on 16 May 2014 granted an interim relief to the council in which McNab, RBG and Van Wyk were prohibited from allocating plots. The case was then postponed until 17 June 2014 but was protracted after Hewat Beukes brought applications for joinder and a recusal of Geier from the case. Beukes later withdrew these applications.

Louis Botes of the Agenbach Legal Practitioners & Mediators representing the RBG, McNab and Van Wyk last week argued that a special council meeting called on 1 April 2014 that purportedly resolved to seek a court order against the three respondents was illegal and of no consequence.

Botes further argued that the municipality in its founding application did not prove its right as the only entity that may allocate land within the town.

He said if the relief sought by the municipality is granted it will impermissibly and unconstitutionally infringe with private proprietary rights, as well as the recognised and constitutionally accepted Paternal Laws, culture, tradition and customary law of the RBG.

Botes said the municipality also failed to make out a case on admissible and credible evidence.

Catherine Sasman