Museum squatters face eviction

FIFTEEN homeless people squatting at the Owela Museum in Windhoek face eviction by conservation activists who say they are scaring away tourists.

The group, many of them car-washers, have converted a corridor where waste material is dumped.

Benjamen Gurirab has lived there for the past 18 months after moving from a homeless shelter at the Dutch Reformed Church next to the museum.

“We all don’t want to be here, but it’s our circumstances which brought us here,” he lamented in Afrikaans. Gurirab washes cars along Lüderitz Street for a living.

“Maar ons kan nog beter doen [but we can do better],” he added.

His wife and daughter, (who turns two next month), were taken away by the ministry of gender equality officials, he explained.

Frans Mentor, who has also been squatting at the museum, dejectedly said they would be powerless if the police removed them.

“We just have to leave, but then we’ll probably have to find a new place,” he said.

Mentor added that he also once lived at the church shelter after he and his sister were evicted from their home at Goreangab in 2007.

The two took separate paths, and Mentor found himself at the shelter. But he soon left because he felt like a prisoner there, he said.

“The guy who runs it is an old convict, and he runs it like a prison.”

Mentor said he also has problems getting an identitiy card which restricts him from seeking employment and finding stable accommodation.

Just like Gurirab, Mentor said none of them want to be on the streets, and highlighted the dangers they continuously face on the streets.

“So many homeless people living on this street have been stabbed,” he said. “So many have died.”

Mentor lamented the recent death of a friend and fellow squatter, Immanuel ‘Blue’ Clay, who was stabbed to death last week. “We’re burying him on Saturday,” he added.

Six Unam heritage conservation and management students plan to clean up the museum grounds on tomorrow when the homeless people are expected to move.

The students said the squatters also disturb visitors.

Penda Shimali, one of the students, said the squatters had ruined a place that attracts tourists.

“We are worried about the environment. They are using the toilet outside, and harassing tourists,” he continued.

Shimali said they had requested the police to evict the squatters.

Police deputy commissioner Sylvanus Nghishidimbwa yesterday confirmed receiving the students’ appeal for assistance.

He said the police would ensure that the squatters leave the property tomorrow to allow the students to engage in their clean-up programme.

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