UN Special Rapporteur Denounces Botswana’s Treatment of Bushmen

UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya has called on the Botswana government to take 'urgent' action on water for the Bushmen in his recent report. He shed light on the government’s harassment of the Bushmen and Bakgalagadi tribes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, who even after winning a 2006 High Court ruling which stated that their eviction from the reserve was illegal, continue to face abuse, especially by being denied access to water.

“Indigenous people who have remained or returned to the reserve face harsh and dangerous conditions due to a lack of access to water, a situation that could be easily remedied by reactivating the boreholes in the reserve. The Government should reactive the boreholes or otherwise secure access to water for inhabitants of the reserve as a matter of urgent priority.”

He also states that, “the Government’s position that habitation of the reserve by the Basarwa and Bakgalagadi communities is incompatible with the reserve’s conservation objectives and status appears to be inconsistent with its decision to permit Gem Diamonds/Gope Exploration Company (Pty) Ltd. to conduct mining activities within the reserve, an operation that is planned to last several decades and could involve an influx of 500-1200 people to the site, according to the mining company.”

Anaya recommends that the government of Botswana should “fully and faithfully implement” the 2006 High Court decision and enable “the return of all those removed from the reserve who wish to do so, allowing them to engage in subsistence hunting and gathering in accordance with traditional practices, and providing them the same government services available to Botswanans elsewhere, including, most immediately, access to water.”