A generational farmworker employed at Aand Rus, about 60 kilometres west of Windhoek, is being evicted after 41 years of service to the farm owner.

The worker was handed an eviction notice stating that he should leave the farm when he turned 60 on the 20th of December last year but hasn't moved as he has no place else to settle.

Dani Botha, who is the current owner of the farm and owns about 40,000 hectares of land, says he gave Gerson Danab a N$10,000 separation package, claiming that this is out of his goodwill.

However, he deducted N$4,200 for the transport of Danab's livestock, N$1,000 for food supplies for his wife in his absence, and another N$2,300 for his livestock grazing on his land.

This leaves Danab with N$2,500.

Social justice activist Shaun Gariseb confronted Dani Botha and pleaded with him to allow Danab to stay at the farm since his son, who is also currently employed by Botha and the family, still lives there.

"We have to come and confront this situation. It is very sad; it is very unfortunate that a farmer sees nothing wrong in putting out somebody with N$2,500 after 41 years of service. It's like a dog where you are just saying your time is over, go out, I'm going to replace you with another dog. This is unacceptable."

However, farm owner Dani Botha insists that he has followed all the legal requirements. 

"I started telling Gerson in January 2023, Get your things together because as of 20th December 2024, he is a pensioner. He had two years, and I reminded him on a weekly basis. What has he done? Nothing. In June, I wrote him a letter stating that he was 60 and a pensioner. I didn't fire him; he is going on pension."

Farmworker Gerson Danab says he is very disappointed that he has to leave the place he has called home for over four decades.

He moved to Aand Rus at a very young age to live with his grandparents and started working for the current owner's father at the age of 18.

Danab says he does not know where to go since the family gravesite is also on the farm where his family has lived for generations.

His mother also faced eviction after his father died away in 1997.

"It is very difficult for me. I don't know where to go from here. The boers have been doing this for a long time now; when they don't need you anymore, they throw you out. My heart is shattered because my parents' graves are also here, and I don't think we will be allowed to come visit. It's his land, so I don't know what to say."

Gariseb has addressed a letter to the Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform, Carl Schiettwein, which he was to submit this week.