Squatters win High Court appeal to stay

ILLEGAL squatters living in Windhoek’s Havana 6 settlement yesterday emerged victorious from the High Court, after appealing to have the Windhoek municipality’s actions of evicting them and demolishing their shacks stopped.

High Court Judge Petrus Damaseb yesterday granted the shanty residents an interim interdict, declaring the law whereby the City of Windhoek is allowed to remove them off its property, the Squatter’s Proclamation of 1985, declared invalid and of no effect.This will remain the case until at least August 14, when the case will return to court.The municipality did not oppose the group’s application; something Damaseb said was noted to the local authority’s credit.The City is one of four respondents sighted in the case, the others being the Windhoek City Police who enforced the evictions, the Attorney General’s office and central government.Yesterday’s court appearance was pre-showed by a demonstration by part of the group in front of the high court in the morning.The Havana squatters, who reportedly number around 400 currently, have been embroiled in a to-and-fro battle with the City of Windhoek, erecting structures and seeing them torn down, since at least February.The municipality wants the land cleared and serviced before settling people on it according to a waiting list.The illegal occupants however argue that they have been forced onto the land as a last resort, with increasing costs of living and unemployment making formal housing difficult to obtain.