RCC, Promise Land residents resist forced removal

Residents of RCC Camp and Promise Land at Okahandja have refused to leave the area to be relocated to a nearby dump site.

Community activist Sethy Gariseb said they fought for the land and will not move.

“If they want us to move from Promise Land, they must start with the former mayor of Okahandja – that big house there. They must start with the municipality, nobody will move from here,” Gariseb told The Namibian on 26 April.

Residents say they fear being forcefully relocated from the land to unserviced plots at Ekunda 4 and 5, close to the town’s dump site.

Gariseb said the municipality should build a school and provide other services which are situated far away, at Ekunde.

Residents reside in shacks and have no access to electricity or water, and are forced to make use of one communal tap situated at the entrance of the location, which for some residents is a one kilometre-long walk.

Promise Land accomodates approximately 5 000 residents, while RCC Camp has about 20 houses – with three to five residents per house.

Resident Emorinda Harobes said she can’t understand why the municipality does not recognise their problem.
“They are not properly communicating with us and we are hearing rumours of us being evicted. Where must we go? We are not trash,” Harobes said.

She said ownership of land was given to other residents in informal settlements at Okahandja, but not them.

She appealed to the municipality to make an effort to discuss the matter with residents.

Another resident, Bendella Noabes, said they voted for officials and entrusted them with their lives, yet they must hear from second-hand sources that they are being evicted from the land.

“Why are they so incompetent? Why can they not come speak to us on the ground and tell us what are the problems they have with Promise Land and RCC?”
Noabes highlighted that there are children, older and disabled people living on the land, while there is no clinic, no water and no electricity.

“Should we move from one darkness to another darkness?”
On 16 March, residents marched to the office of the ministry of Urban and Rural Development to hand over a petition protesting the lack of municipal services and land ownership at Okahandja.

Residents also camped outside the Okahandja municipality in late March and called upon urban and rural development minister Erastus Uutoni to intervene urgently.

The Namibian was unable to reach the owner of the land, George Gariseb.

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