PUYEIPAWA NAKASHOLE and MERCY KARUUOMBEA FAMILY of 11 have been left homeless after the property’s owner evicted them from the shack they have been living in for over 20 years in Windhoek’s Babylon informal settlement.
Esther Hailonga says seeing their shack being demolished was painful.
“We have nowhere to stay or sleep. Our father is currently based at Ondobe in the Ohangwena region and is unable to provide shelter for us,” she says.
Ester Hailonga who is a nursing student at the I-Care Institute, and her brother Peter Hailonga were arrested on Wednesday and were charged with contempt of court after they refused to remove their belongings from the shack despite the owner Frieda Hamukoto, having an eviction order issued against the family.
“All the children in our family go to Namutuni Primary School which is already a long distance. We cannot afford to pay their taxi fare,” she said.
Hamukoto who says she had pleaded with them to vacate the shack since 2012, demolished it.
She told The Namibian that all she initially asked for was that the family stop extending their shack so that she could build another shack in the space but they refused to do so.
“I asked them to vacate the place after they started fighting for the land and refused to limit the size of their shack claiming that the land belonged to their father.
Hamukoto said she will only drop the charges against the Hailonga siblings on condition they move their belongings from the demolished shack and tell The Namibian the truth.
“I will not drop the charges on these people until they tell the truth about who really owns the place and what they have been putting me through,” she said.
Maria Hailonga, a mother of two who is also seven months pregnant came to The Namibian to plead that the story should not be published as she would not want her siblings to remain in prison.
She said that her siblings are everything to her and they are the breadwinners of the family.
“I slept last night hoping that I will wake up from this nightmare. We are appealing for a place to stay because we are a big family and cannot be on the streets or continue begging the neighbours to accommodate us,”she said.
Maria Hailonga added that as it is winter, sleeping outside is not good for the family, particularly the children.
Khomas regional commander Ismael Basson confirmed that a case of contempt of court had been opened and the two suspects appeared in court on Thursday.
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