Informant38

During the trial, Bushmen witnesses have given graphic accounts to the court of how they were forced off their land.
Losolobe Mogetse explained how he had argued with an official who came to evict him and was told he could not visit his dying father, Mogetse, who was already in a relocation camp, unless he agreed to relocate there permanently. He said he had no choice but to leave his land if he wished to see his father again.
Motsoko Ramafoko described the government's tactics to divide families."First they took our wives, loaded them in the trucks and off they went to New Xade. Then they came for us men... and forcefully removed us against our will." Tshokodiso Botshilwane described how he watched helplessly as officials dismantled his huts, but refused to leave the reserve, sleeping instead under a tree for many days. He declared, "I prefer death to relocation."
Mongwegi Thobogelo told the court that she would never apply for a permit to enter the reserve as it was the place of her birth.
"It was declared a reserve while we already lived there," she said. She recounted how Bushmen returning to their land have been harassed by government officials, and arrested for entering the reserve without a permit.

To escape deteriorating conditions in the relocation camps where prostitution, alcoholism and HIV/AIDS have all now taken hold, many Bushmen are returning to their lands in the reserve despite intimidation by game scouts and lack of water. One family returning home in November was denied water by game scouts when they broke down near the reserve entrance, and were forced to wait three days without water until they were rescued. People in the reserve are surviving by drinking water from wild tsama melons and pans (shallow depressions) where water occasionally collects, after their water borehole was destroyed by the government during the eviction.

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