Duneside residents at Rehoboth want basic services

RESIDENTS of the Duneside informal settlement at Rehoboth’s Block E say they want the town council and the Rehoboth Urban East constituency office to bring basic services such as sanitation and electricity to their area.

Jenetta Beukes, speaking on behalf of the group on Thursday, said promises made by constituency councillor Edward Wambo during previous election campaigns and by urban and rural development ministerial representative Nathalia /Gôagoses, allegedly in January this year, should be adhered to.

“They made promises, and told us to be patient as services would be brought to us. |Gôagoses even told us in January that we should put up our houses in street-like format so that when the RTC [Rehoboth Town Council] starts bringing services, they should not waste time in shifting houses in an orderly manner. But now we are hearing that we occupy this area illegally,” Beukes charged.

Another resident, Immanuel Hulipuleni, has been residing there for the past six years, and said they want the Swapo government to look after the people who voted them into power.

“We have been voting for Swapo for the past almost 30 years, and yet we are subjected to these types of living conditions. We want the government to service the plots on which we are sitting, and make the area liveable,” he stated.

Beukes added that they have no other place to go to, and that the area should instead be proclaimed.

“We don’t have floodlights here, and have to go to the bushes when nature calls. For us, the women, it is very unsafe to go out at night,” she said.

Approached for comment, /Gôagoses said she works only with submissions from the technical department.

“I have no idea of a meeting I held in that area, and don’t have any idea of telling people to sit in that area. It does not make sense to allow the people to sit there, and then turn and allow the RTC to say the area is illegal. I must admit that service delivery is slow from the side of the RTC, and I don’t blame people for saying those things,” she noted.

/Gôagoses said during the stakeholders’ conference held at Rehoboth last year, people occupying plots were given symbolic keys as a gesture to be given serviced plots, but until now, this has not happened.

“Our technical department is partly to be blamed for all this as they sometimes are negligent in doing their jobs. It is true that the area is being occupied illegally, and I am urging the people who are sitting on illegal areas to come and register as from next week as we will be reviewing previous lists to allocate and have them settled in extension 7,” |Gôagoses said on Thursday.

– Nampa

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