By: Julia Heita
Disgruntled residents of One Nation, an informal settlement in Windhoek who have been on a rat race with police over illegal occupation of municipal land, have said their last hope now lies in settling at the dumpsite.
This comes after the police gave them an ultimatum to vacate the area they had occupied by yesterday
The police also provided free transport for those struggling to move their belongings and told themto move back from where they had come from.
One of the evicted residents, Grace Martin said:“They provided us with free transport, yes, but where do we go? I cannot drive around the whole of Windhoek with no specific destination.”
Martin said she lost her job because of COVID–19 and could no longer afford to pay rent.
She said for now she just wants a place to live while making amends with her deplorablesituation.
“They can even go drop us at the dumpsite, we do not have a problem, we just need a piece of land. If you look around most of the people left because they have places to go. We are not here because we want to but because we do not have anywhere to go to,” she said
Armas Shimanda said he does not know where the police will take their belongings because the items were thrown in the truck without their consent.
“We are not refusing the free transport, but where is the truck going to take us,” he asked.
Anna Aiyambo, who has been living in the shack for over three months, said her landlord terminated her contract three months ago because she couldn’t afford rent.
This prompted her to move to One Nation informal settlement.
“When they move our property, they should not forget our bodies because we have nowhere to go. If we had a place to go, we wouldn’t be here sitting out in the dust, sleeping outside for four days now in the cold,” said Aiyambo.
Aiyambo added that they have submitted documents as requested by the Windhoek deputy mayor, Clemencia Hanases, but until today they have not been answered.
“Can the police at least wait until we get an answer from the City of Windhoek for us to get a piece of land to move our things. They have done enough damage, to our mental health as well as our property, it’s enough they should let us be,” she stressed.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Harold Akwenye said the councillors are expected to have a workshop next week to address the land issue and the backlogs.
Akwenye termed the One Nation land occupiers as illegal land grabbers.
