• Infrastructure

Land grabs at Groot Aub on the increase

• 6 Hours Ago - 2025-10-14 09:25:00

Widespread land grabbing at Groot Aub is considered by the Windhoek municipality to be one of the worst incidents since Namibia’s independence.
In response to inquiries, City of Windhoek (CoW) spokesperson Lydia Amutenya said the situation was even worse before the City expanded its boundaries and took over the settlement in 2017. “Groot Aub was a hub of lawlessness, with uncontrolled land grabbing and agricultural activities,” she said. “With the takeover, the city police established a presence to combat land occupations.”
Amutenya said the population of Groot Aub increased from 2 716 in 2009 to 8 977 in 2016.
The questions to CoW were prompted by the plea of the Stumpfe family, who have farmed and lived at Groot Aub for over a hundred years.
The four generations currently living there are being restricted at every border, and their pastures are being taken away piece by piece by illegal fences erected around shacks, which are springing up day and night across the settlement.
According to Jan Stumpfe (74), the municipality is not making any provision for Groot Aub’s resident farmers. “What will become of us if we no longer have pasture?” he asks.
Destruction continues
“People are coming in and grabbing land, selling land. We have complained to the government, but nothing is being done. They just keep going on and thecrime is only increasing. Fences are being cut, animals are being stolen,” he says.
Between May and the end of July this year, up to 70 cattle were allegedly illegally slaughtered along the main road to Groot Aub, but according to Stumpfe, “no one has been caught yet.”
However, the Namibian police (Nampol) could not confirm this figure and are only investigating one complaint filed in September, with no arrests so far.
Meanwhile, Stumpfe says people continue to sell plots. “I don’t know what they do with the money, who gets the money? The money is put in private people’s pockets, and they live off it while our people have to suffer.
“There are so many people, so many children from Groot Aub who need plots, who need land, but others come from other towns and take land for themselves.
“Land is sold to them without any proof that they have a valid title deed from anyone,” says this lifelong resident of Groot Aub.
Official view
According to Nampol’s chief spokesperson, Adj. Comm. Kauna Shikwambi, complaints regarding the illegal sale of plots are indeed known in the area and also to the police.
“However, it is a matter for the council, and therefore the substantive office [CoW] should file official cases and complaints if any plots are sold, so that charges can be opened for investigation,” she argues.
According to Amutenya, there is currently a court case in progress that prohibits any legal land sales at Groot Aub. Officially, “no plots are being sold,” she said.
However, according to the Stumpfe family, plots are being sold for between N$30,000 and N$70,000, although CoW does not receive a cent from these sales.
“Only CoW is authorised to sell land within the city limits, except for private land. Anyone else selling or purporting to allocate land at Groot Aub is acting illegally and must be reported to the municipality,” says Amutenya.
“Currently, CoW is not involved in any land sales at Groot Aub due to the ongoing legal proceedings,” she adds.
Residents who acquired land legally, even before the expansion of Windhoek’s boundaries, will be protected by a process to determine the legality of such allocations and subsequently legalise them, according to Amutenya.
“It is important to note, however, that only land within the legally planned township extensions of Groot Aub will potentially be able to gain legal ownership, as this is the land that is transferable. Those outside the formal township extensions will be dealt with through a different process, which will include leases,” she says. – [email protected]