A LABOUR compound that dates back to the dark days of apartheid continues to be the home of hundreds of Walvis Bay residents, with the local council lacking the finances to refurbish the eyesore.
Mayor Immanuel Wilfried says new councillors to be elected in this month’s regional council and local authority elections will inherit this issue.
The apartheid structure is in the centre of Kuisebmond and used to be home to thousands of Aawambo and Kavango contract labourers, who were recruited by the colonial regime to work in fishing factories from the 1950s to 1989 during South Africa’s occupation of Namibia.
Large sections of the compound were demolished in the early 2000s to make ways for modern housing units.
Wilfried says the kitchen, dining room and some sleeping quarters were left untouched as they had been earmarked to be transformed into an apartheid museum.
Today the compound is home to 300 men, nine women and three children.
“There are a few proposals on the table to turn other parts into a vocational training centre. However, the community has also asked that the section which is currently inhabited not be demolished, because this is the only compound in the whole country.
“The future generations must see the conditions their forefathers were living in. We cannot demolish history,” the mayor says.
The compound has no ablution facilities.
Occupants relieve themselves against a wall where toilets used to be.
Residents made their own sewerage system by making holes in the wall to let sewage run into man-made islands in the courtyard.
The people living here came from different parts of the country in search of work at the country’s fishing hub.
Employment is, however, scarce and the wages meagre.
Mpacha Sabeho (32), a compound dweller, is originally from Katima Mulilo.
He used to live with his parents at the Namport accommodation, but when his father passed away, his mother returned to Katima Mulilo, and Sahebo opted to stay at Walvis Bay.
“I stayed on to make money. But that did not work out … I came here because there was a bed available” he says.
Sahebo is currently at the mercy of kapana sellers at the compound.
He helps them to fetch water from communal taps and cleans the fireplace. This for a vetkoek and sauce.
Simon Magadhi (51) is from the Otamanzi village in the Omusati region and came to the coast when he was 19, looking for a job in the fishing industry.
He has never had a permanent job.
“At that time the compound was a very nice place to live at. Those who had jobs would share whatever they had with everyone. We did not starve at all. I miss that life,” Magadhi says.
He last had a temporary job in 2014 and has since been selling tombo.
Magadhi makes about N$80 on a good day and stores his 25-litre tombo container in one of the old lockers with the rest of his belongings.
He says crime is minimal at the compound.
Mona van Wyk is originally from Rehoboth and says she is 23 years old.
“We have no choice but to live here,” she says.
Many of the building’s occupants feel threatened by the possibility of renovations.
Jairus Ashipala, a handyman who has been living in the compound since 2015, says: “We have heard those talks, but no one has ever come here to talk to us. Even the former councillor, Ndemula (Hafeni), came here in 2019 saying he didn’t know people live here.”
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