Eviction looms for Oshakati debtors

SIXTY homeowners in the Oshakati West section at Oshakati are likely to lose their houses this week after they failed to pay their debts to the Town Council.

The 60 people are among 90 Oshakati residents who originally owed the Oshakati Town Council more than N$818 000 for municipal services. In terms of the alienation programme that Government has put in place to allow low-income people to buy the houses they were renting cheaply, all municipal debts have to be settled before they can take ownership of their homes.Many people at Oshakati obtained their own homes in this way, but about 90 of them fell behind with their payments to the municipality.The outstanding debts accrued interest, leaving homeowners unable to repay them.Many of the owners of these houses are unemployed or pensioners who had lived in the houses for many years.The acting Chief Executive Officer of the Oshakati Town Council, Immanuel Nakale, told The Namibian last week that the Town Council had held a meeting last Tuesday and decided to evict the 60 defaulters.He said proper legal procedures would be followed in the process.Nakale said several notices demanding payment had been sent out to them, but they were ignored.”The Town Council was thus left with no other option but to tell them to vacate its houses,” Nakale said.He said all 60 residents had received eviction notices and those who had not settled their debt in full by the end of September would be evicted.One of the affected residents accused the Council of not being sympathetic to townspeople.”Where are we now going to stay, especially those orphans, widows and old people, where are they going to stay,” he asked.”I think the Government, especially the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development has to intervene and assist these helpless people,” said another resident.But Mayor Engelbert Atshipara denied this yesterday.He maintained that the council had been sympathetic since the start of the alienation scheme in the year 2000 and had postponed the deadlines for payment several times.”We have been sympathetic with them and extended the deadlines.Despite that, those residents were always ignoring these orders.We are always keeping our doors open for discussions, but the time will come, and I think it is very close now, for those people who do not want to pay, or cannot pay, to obey the eviction orders and vacate the houses,” Atshipara said.The council’s Property Manager, Ores Shilunga, told The Namibian that the residents were given another chance last week to settle their debts by yesterday.”Those who failed to settle their debts by Monday’s deadline will definitely be evicted from their houses during the course of the coming days,” Shilunga said.In terms of the alienation programme that Government has put in place to allow low-income people to buy the houses they were renting cheaply, all municipal debts have to be settled before they can take ownership of their homes.Many people at Oshakati obtained their own homes in this way, but about 90 of them fell behind with their payments to the municipality.The outstanding debts accrued interest, leaving homeowners unable to repay them.Many of the owners of these houses are unemployed or pensioners who had lived in the houses for many years.The acting Chief Executive Officer of the Oshakati Town Council, Immanuel Nakale, told The Namibian last week that the Town Council had held a meeting last Tuesday and decided to evict the 60 defaulters.He said proper legal procedures would be followed in the process.Nakale said several notices demanding payment had been sent out to them, but they were ignored.”The Town Council was thus left with no other option but to tell them to vacate its houses,” Nakale said.He said all 60 residents had received eviction notices and those who had not settled their debt in full by the end of September would be evicted.One of the affected residents accused the Council of not being sympathetic to townspeople.”Where are we now going to stay, especially those orphans, widows and old people, where are they going to stay,” he asked.”I think the Government, especially the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development has to intervene and assist these helpless people,” said another resident.But Mayor Engelbert Atshipara denied this yesterday.He maintained that the council had been sympathetic since the start of the alienation scheme in the year 2000 and had postponed the deadlines for payment several times.”We have been sympathetic with them and extended the deadlines.Despite that, those residents were always ignoring these orders.We are always keeping our doors open for discussions, but the time will come, and I think it is very close now, for those people who do not want to pay, or cannot pay, to obey the eviction orders and vacate the houses,” Atshipara said.The council’s Property Manager, Ores Shilunga, told The Namibian that the residents were given another chance last week to settle their debts by yesterday.”Those who failed to settle their debts by Monday’s deadline will definitely be evicted from their houses during the course of the coming days,” Shilunga said.