Delivered to:

Ministry of Land Reform

RE: The Endeavours of Reconnaissance Energy Africa in the Kavango East and West Region

 Dear Honourable Calle Schlettwein

We as Friday’s For Future Windhoek and a coalition of other environmental and climate civil society organisations and coalitions address this letter to the Minister of Land Reform and other relevant stakeholders, respecting all protocol observed. We as citizens of the Republic of Namibia are concerned about the activities of the joint operation between Reconnaissance Energy Africa and its Namibian partners. During our visits to the first operational site, we were met with several concerns by local residents which we have outlined in our brief letter below:

Residents have claimed that the procedures to utilize land for prospecting operations, as outlined by the Communal Land Reform Act 5 of 2002 section 45, article 30 (as amended through the Government Notice 159 of 2016 (GG 6059) which came into force on date of publication: 12 July 2016) were not followed.

30. (1) Subject to the Minerals (Prospecting and Mining) Act, 1992 (Act No. 33 of1992), every person who wants to carry out any prospecting or mining operations as contemplated in that Act on communal land must notify, prior to the making of any application in terms of that Act, the Chief or Traditional Authority of the traditional community and the board, of his or her intention to apply as aforementioned.

(2) The Chief or Traditional Authority and the board referred to in sub-regulation (1) must provide its recommendation regarding the application to the person referred to in that sub-regulation, and that person must attach that recommendation to the application.

(3) If the Chief, Traditional Authority or board referred to in sub regulation (1)recommends that an application referred to in sub regulation (1) not be granted, the Minister of Mines and Energy or the Mining Commissioner, as the case may be, may disregard, if he or she is of the opinion that the application ought to be granted, the recommendation of the Chief, Traditional Authority or the board that the application not be granted.

Moreover, civilians in the Khawe, report no formalistic procedure was followed when portions of their land was cleared and included in ReconAfrica’s test drill sites. This is in direct violation of section 35 which states;

"Eviction” of persons occupying communal land;

35. Any person other than a Chief, a Traditional Authority or a board who evicts any person occupying communal land from communal land which he or she legally occupies, is guilty of an offence”.                                      

We have written this letter, acknowledging the fact that the onus falls on your ministry and its representatives to address these issues. In the case that your institution is under the belief that these aforementioned violations have not taken place under the 2020/2021 Reconnaissance Energy Africa oil exploration endeavour, our coalition would like a report which outlines;

i.) How these procedures were undertaken by the relevant bodies. The relevant bodies being a) the traditional authorities b) inhabitants of Khawe and other exploration sites.

ii.) Why the residents would be under the impression that these procedures were not followed.  

Should you have queries or follow-ups, our contact details are highlighted below.

Email: fridaysforfuturewhk@gmail.com

*Ina-Maria Shikongo at 0813010585

*Ndaundika Shefeni at 0818086810

* Veruschka Dumeni at 0814680571