San Bushmen fight for land

2004-11-04 10:16

Gaborone - Botswana's High Court on Wednesday resumed hearings into a land claim case brought by San Bushmen challenging their resettlement from what they claim is ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

After a three-month break, the High Court began hearing the state present its case in Lobatse, south of the capital, but the proceedings quickly got bogged down.

State attorney Sidney Pilane sought to challenge the right of new lawyer Duma Boko to act on behalf of the 243 Bushmen, telling the court that he only had the authority to represent two of the plaintiffs.

Bushmen leader Roy Sesana was present at the hearings, having recently returned from a tour of the United States and Europe to draw attention to the plight of his people.

The San are asking the High Court to declare that the government's 2002 decision to resettle the Bushmen in settlements outside the game reserve was illegal.

London-based Survival International, which has been waging a 30-year campaign in support of the rights of the San, maintains that they were driven out of the Kalahari to make way for diamond mining, a claim the government has denied.

The Botswana government claims that 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.

The court case started on July 4 with high court judges inspecting settlements built by the state for the San outside the reserve. The defence presented its case in July.

The hearings are expected to continue for a month. - AFP

- SAPA