Botswana

Botswana

San Bushmen in the Kalahari Game Reserve

1. There are approximately 50,000-60,000 Basarwa, or San, people in Botswana.

2. On 27 January 2011 the highest court in the land reaffirmed the right of the San to return to their previous settlement areas and use the wells there. In June 2011 the Botswana government decided to finally permit access to drinking water for the San indigenous peoples in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) after years of legal battles. Now the San people, once driven from the Kalahari, did have renewed prospect of survival there. This decision by the authorities was long overdue.

3. Since the mid-1990s when there were some 5,000 San living in the Kalahari, authorities forcibly removed them from the Game Park region, or effectively drove them out by sealing off their watering holes. The government had argued that the San, a traditional hunter-gatherer society, endangered the wildlife population. But the San kept returning to their homelands. To prevent this, the authorities sealed off their main well in 2002. Botswana courts have confirmed in several judgments since 2006 that the forced resettlement of the indigenous people is unconstitutional. The dispute around the forced resettlement of San from the CKGR is seen as one of the most significant conflicts between governments and indigenous peoples in Africa.

4. Jumanda Gakelebone, the spokesperson for the San community that has returned to the Kalahari, confirmed in June 2011 that the authorities had issued a permit allowing them to dig for water in Game Park. Gakelebone was arrested in January 2011 when he visited the San in the Kalahari with an attorney to advise them on further legal options open to them. At the time, this human rights activist was accused of entering the Game Park without obtaining permission from a government authority.

5. Since then, a South African company has expressed its willingness to drill wells for the San in the Kalahari free of charge. This assistance is important for the San, as the high court had ruled that the Botswana authorities are obligated only to permit the construction of new wells, not to finance it.

Arrests and Intimidation of San

6. In May 2012 the NGO Survival International reported that state security forces were arresting and intimidating San in the CKGR. According to Survival International a group of policemen set up a permanent camp close to the San community of Metsiamenong. They arrested at least 5 members of the community after detecting hunted meat among the Metsiamenong. Even though the San are allowed to hunt inside the CKGR, they are regularly refused a hunting permit by the government. The government of Botswana should end its policy of permitting hunting licenses to the Bushmen and stop arrests and intimidation of San. The government’s efforts to keep the San away from the CKGR should end.