Bushmen case enters second round

An application by 243 San Bushmen to overturn the Botswana government's decision to resettle them outside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), which they claim as their ancestral land, began its second round on Monday. The case is being heard in the Lobatse High Court, 60 km south of the capital, Gaborone. The San, the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, took the Botswana government to court in April 2002, seeking an order to declare illegal the government's decision to terminate the provision of basic and essential services to those who had refused to leave the CKGR. In January 2002 the government terminated the provision of water, food and health services to the small San communities living in the CKGR, arguing that it had become prohibitively expensive, as the communities were scattered across the reserve. Instead, the government created the New Xade and Kaudwane settlements outside the CKGR, and set aside the game reserve for wildlife and tourism development. State attorney Sidney Pilane asked the court to dismiss the San Bushmen's application, as there was a lack of evidence to prove the assertion that the CKGR was really San Bushmen territory. He said the CKGR was declared a reserve by the colonial government in 1961, after the chiefs of tribes such as the Bakwena, Bangwato and Bangwaketse had given land to the government of the day. Pilane also argued that relocating the Bushmen from the game reserve would allow them to access better social services. "By relocating the residents of the game reserve, the government was putting them on the same footing as other Batswana," said Pilane. He admitted that the termination of services to Bushmen in the CKGR may have influenced many to relocate, but said no-one had been forced to do so, because the residents realised that the hunter-gatherer way of life was no longer viable and had relocated voluntarily. Pilane maintained that no rights had been violated by the relocation, and said the 17 people - according to the government's figures - who remained in the CKGR would not be forced out. "But allowing Basarwa free access in the reserve, when others are barred, is discrimination," he argued. "Everyone should be treated on the same footing and should not have advantages over others." Mathambo Ngakeaja of the lobby group First People of the Kalahari has disputed the government's claim that only 17 San remain in the CKGR - arguing the number was closer to 400 as people returned from the settlements at New Xade and Kaudwane, where alcoholism and unemployment were rife. Pilane said Botswana was currently moving towards an egalitarian, ethnically neutral constitution through a Constitution Amendment Bill. The bill has been criticised for scrapping a key clause in the constitution that protects the San Bushmen's claims to the CKGR as their ancestral land.