God gave me this land - San
2004-07-28 00:13
Ghanzi - A San Bushman who defied a state order to move out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve told Botswana high court on Tuesday the land had been given to him by God.
The high court is hearing a case brought by 243 San Bushmen challenging their relocation from the game reserve, one of the world's largest sanctuaries and an area which has been their home for about 20 000 years.
"I don't need any piece of paper to show that land was given to me by God," Amolang Segwetsane testified in court.
"It belongs to my forefathers and all my children who were born there."
Segwetsane, who has been living in the game reserve for 40 years, was testifying for the second day at the hearings held in a community hall in this town 700km northwest of Gaborone.
The San took the government to court in April 2002, seeking an order declaring it illegal to cut off services to the Kalahari reserve, but the case was dismissed on a technicality.
Government says only 17 living in reserve
Last month, the Bushmen won the right to have their claim heard again before the Botswana high court in what is widely seen as a test case for the rights of indigenous people in southern Africa.
The Botswana government claims there are now only 17 Bushmen living in the reserve, but rights groups say 200 have gone back in defiance of Gaborone's campaign to resettle them outside.
State attorney Sidney Pilane told the court Segwetsane was an "impostor" and that he planned to call his mother and father to the stand to prove he was not born in the reserve.
Lawyers representing the Bushmen are to wrap up their case this week, allowing attorneys acting on behalf of President Festus Mogae's government to present their arguments when hearings resume next month.
During testimony on Monday, Segwetsane testified that in 2002 the Botswana government had emptied a water tank that was the main supply for the Bushmen in the reserve.
Services becoming too expensive
"That resulted in residents having to rely on desert melons as their source of water while I had to run around looking for other water sources," said Segwetsane.
The Botswana government maintains the San Bushmen were relocated outside the reserve because supplying services to the traditionally hunter-gatherer tribes had become too expensive.
Once numbering millions, there are roughly 100 000 San left in southern Africa with almost half of those - 48 000 - in Botswana. Others are spread across Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, according to rights groups.